College Honors Program
The College Honors Program brings together academically accomplished and highly motivated students to pursue multidisciplinary studies in the natural sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities. This highly selective and challenging program is composed of sophomores, juniors, and seniors from any major, and incorporates special seminars, an honors colloquium and a thesis.
The College Honors Program, established in 1962, is one of the oldest programs providing distinctive educational opportunities at Holy Cross culminating in the senior honors thesis, and the intellectual excitement of a multidisciplinary classroom, where students from all majors address significant matters with faculty who are experts in integrative teaching and scholarship.
Theses from 2010
The Courtly "I" of the English Renaissance: A Study of Selfhood and Rhetorical Alienation in the 16th Century Verse, Alexandra C. Sweeney
Third Parties in Presidential Politics, Christopher R. Szkutak
The Without World: A Collection of Poetry, Justin Winn
Theses from 2009
The Use of a Lock-In Amplifier to Stabilize the Frequency of a Laser Diode, Jose M. Juarez
Theses from 2007
Rhenium (I) Compounds with Tripod Ligands as Models for Radiopharmaceuticals, Christopher T. Aquina
Sactuary: A Collection of Short Stories, Cristina Baldor
The Mafia and the Fascist Regime, Andrea Canuel
"When This You See Remember Me" A Study of American Civil War Soldiers and the Death Culture of the Nineteenth Century, Nacie Elizabeth Carson
The Politics of Immigration Policy Reform, Megan M. Conti
Theatricality and Dramatic Expression in Monteverdi's Fourth and Fifth Books of Madrigals, Sarah D'Angelo
The "Pro-Family" Movement and Social Injustice: A Feminist Liberation Theological and Ethical Analysis of the Christian Right's Ideology of the Family, Taylor Anne Denis
The Influence of an Intein on the Activity of the Methanococcus jannaschii UDP-Glucose Dehydrogenase, Matthew Drago
Parental Reaction to Child Death in Nineteenth-Century New England, Lauren P. Gearty
Congressional Barriers to Effective Reform of the U.S. Intelligence Community, Stephen Hansen
Light on the Floor, Christina Imrich
"A clear light": Courage and Fantasy in The Lord of the Rings, Kyle R. Koerber
In the Shoebox, Lindsey Konkel
Matrix Groups: A Confluence of Algebra and Geometry, Renee A. Laverdiere
The Summer Country, Rosemary Virginia Lee
Spectating Illness and Death in the Novels of the Brontё Sisters, Katherine Makowski
Telling a Good History: Narrative and History in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, Kara L. McShane
Storytelling in Action! Oral Tradition Alive in History and Contemporary Experience, Sara Meyer
The Mathematics of Patterns: Symmetry in the Plane, Amy Morbely
Representations of the Exotic in Opera, Anoosua Anita Mukherjee
Media, Mags, & Muscles: A Look Into The Boundaries of Weightlifting, Brenden Murphy
Multivariate analysis of Drug Mixtures using Raman spectroscopy, Kathryn Y. Noonan
A Brief Explanation of Quantum Theory, and Bohm's Reinterpretation., Daniel O'Connor
Wired or Tired? Caffeine & Sleep in Adolescents., Bosky Patel
Our Boys: An Analysis of the American "Boy Crisis," Gender Privilege, and Academic Ethic within Higher Education, Kara M. Pipoli
Psychotropic Effects of Estrogen, Lesley Russell
You Are What You Eat: Embodying Gender and Morality in Eating, Anna Vannucci
Morphology and Taxonomy of the Kaiparowits Ornithomimid Manus, Ivan Vrcek
Vulnerability and Masculinity in Adopted Versus Non-Adopted Adolescent Boys, Laura A. Walsh
Theses from 2006
A Meditation on The Ecclesiology of Pope Benedict XVI, Emily Brennan
The Ticking Heart of Life: Clocks and Time Consciousness in Renaissance Florence, Christopher E. Brown
Freud and O'Neill: An Artist's Journey from the Unconscious to the Concious, Eric A. Butler
Site of the Uncanny: The Contemplative Dimension of Dramatic Tragedy, Nicholas A. Coccoma
The Lady and the Two Cities: The Concept of Fortune in Ancient and Medieval Views of Roman History, Kathleen Derrig
Poland in the U.S.: Understanding the Birth of Solidarity through American Eyes, Brenna Dion
Imagined Nación: Mexican Settings and Ethnic Identity in Four Chicana/o Novels, Keridan Doyle
Collateral Source Rule: Special Interest Groups and their Effects on Jurisdictional Statutes, Andrew Feeley
Strange New Universe: A Study of Euclidean and Non-Euclidean Geometries, Ellen K. Gasparovic
"Enemy Aliens:" FBI Domestic Surveillance of Japanese in The World War II Era, Andrea N. Isabella
Religious Thinking and Philosophy: The Influence of Kierkegard on Heidegger's Conception of Inauthenticity in Being and Time., Timothy Jussaume
The Politics of Violence: The Impact of ETA Terrorism on Spanish Democratization, Samantha P. Kingsbury
Green Solutions to Arsenic Contamination, Suzanne E. Kulevich
A Connecticut Yankee in King Leopold's Court: Mark Twain's Congo Crusade, 1904-1906, Michael C. McLaughlin
The Constitution of Self-Development: The Jurisprudence of Anthony M. Kennedy, Timothy W. O'Brien
Women Motorcyclists: Rolling the Throttle, But Riding Under the Radar, Kimberly N. Richardson
Playing Politics with the Policy Process: The Pitfalls of Public Policy Reform, Erin B. Robert
The Oppression of Silence: Young Women Coming of Age in Poverty, Kathryn Scheinberg
A New Sense of Self: Exposing the Subject in Renaissance Sonnet Sequences, Whitney E. Schmitt
When a Reporter 'Becomes the News': Judith Miller's Contribution to the Journalists' Privilege Debate, Heidi Stack
Images of God in Postmodern Literature, Emily Sweeney
Calculating Heading from a Video Camera: A Computational Model of Motion Perception, Robert Truxler
Pubs, Swans and Leprechauns: Exploited Icons of Irish Literature, Sarah Wetherbee
The Impact of Charter Schools on Fifth Grade Student Engagement Levels, Maggie Zweiben
Theses from 2005
Effects of the Internship Experience on Recruitment of Women and Minorities at Public ccounting Firms, Bridget Anne Blazek
Daniel and Philip Berrigan: Peacemaking Priests in Times of War, Molly E. Bobek
We Wear the Mask: Unveiling the Strategy of Passing, Julie A. Brennan
Little Women and the "True Woman" Unmasked: Nineteenth-Century Ideals, Feminine Literary Recourse and the Domestic Guise of Louisa May Alcott's Subversive Fiction, Lindsay E. Degnan
Courts and the Struggle for Civil Liberties during Wartime, Matthew DelMastro
Anagnoris and the Tragic Hero: A Study of Shakespeare, Chekhov, and Modern American Playwrights, Conor Devine
Models of the Church in Latin American and Feminist Liberation Theologies, Francesca Errante
Coincident Genetic Events in Yeast, Kate Freeman
The Road to Modernity: Security and Reform Under Catherine II of Russia, Jennifer Hughes
Forest Composition and Land-Use History at Moore State Park, Paxton, Massachusetts, Meredith Irwin
Order from Chaos: Bismark's Policy Toward the Balkans in the 1880s, Sean Kelleher
Mixing Up the Masks: Gender and Genre in Aristophanic Comedy, Katie Lamberro
Orthographic-to-Phonemic and Phonemic-to-Orthographic Consistencies Effects on Spelling and Reading, Sarah N. Liang
Old Buildings, New Uses: Adaptive Reuse of Timber Frame Barns, Kathryn Mahoney
Rock Journalism: Critical Methods for Understanding Popular Music, Victoria McCabe
The "Authenticity" of the Speeches in Thucydides' History, James McGovern
Language for Us All, Adam D. Musser
Latinas Encounter the U.S. Medical System: Barriers to Care, Alternative Approaches, Nicole Nadeau
Green Bohemia: Absinthe & the Iconography of Intoxication, Jeanne Thérèse Normand
The "Other" East Asian Miracle: Democratization in South Korea and Taiwan, Justin Reidy
To Languish Amid Strangers: Exile at Home and Abroad in Irish Song, Deirdre Blaize Rodgers Sweeney
On the Kauffman-Harary Conjecture., Elizabeth M. Sennott
Lower Frequencies, Lindsey M. Veautour
Bickering in Geneva: How International Relations Theory Explains the Role of International Institutions & Effects on the Transatlantic Relationship, Shelley A. Venus
Dying to be Heard: A Diagnosis of Cause and Purpose in Illness Narratives, Victoria Winn
The British Woman Beyond Boundaries: The romantic Allure of Italy, Erica Wraight
Theses from 2003
Critique of an Art Form: Adorno's Philosophy of Jazz, William Andersen
"Imagine Adam Everett" and other stories, Todd Barosky
The Role of Syndecans in the Attatchment of the Neurofibromatosis Tyle II Protein Merlin to the Cell Membrane, Katherine A. Beckwith
Forgive Us Our Debts: A History and Analysis of Third World Debt Relief, Charles J. Boulier, IV
Negotiating with Patriarchy: Contrasting Strategies of Three Nineteenth-Century Feminists, Amy J. Brundage
Realistic Fiction for Children: Beverly Cleary and Judy Blume in Text and Memory, Regina D'Addario
A screening system for protein trans-splicing in Synechocystis sp. PCC6803, Alicia M. Garcia
Rewriting Shakespeare in Contemporary Contexts: the verse drama, Right on Time, Christine Mae Hanson
The Effects of the WTO on the Relationship Between China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, Sean Harrington
The Role of Tourism in the Ethnic Identity of Irish-Americans, Colleen E. Higgins
La Survivance and the Franco-Americans of Worcester, Massachusetts, 1850-1910, Timothy Holahan
Wound and Cure: Creativity and Depression, Emily R. Hunter
"Backward, Forward, Outward, Inward, Bottom to the Top:" Somethings of Fiction, Suzanne M. Kelley
The Bard of Newark: Philip Roth and the Fiction of Place, Justin J. Kiczek