Honors Projects

Showing 191 - 200 of 662 Items

The Structure and Unitary Representations of SU(2,1)

Date: 2015-05-01

Creator: Andrew J Pryhuber

Access: Open access



Guarding Whiteness: Disability, Eugenics, and Rhetorical Agency in Southern Renaissance Fiction

Date: 2023-01-01

Creator: Philip Carl Bonanno

Access: Open access

This project explores fiction from white authors in the Southern Renaissance, specifically William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, and Carson McCullers. By examining their work alongside some of the performers that appeared historically in freak shows of the South, chapter one investigates how physically enfreaked individuals (usually phenotypically white) have access to power and the powers of whiteness. Chapter 2 interrogates how the South pathologizes promiscuity as mental illness with words such as moronic or feeble-mindedness, and the ramifications it has for the stratification on class divides among Southern elites and “White Trash.” The chapter seeks to answer the question of why, for a short period in the 1940s, white women were more likely to be punished with forced sterilization than Black women. Chapter 3 uncovers the rhetorical agency used by Benjy in Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, looking at how he resists the powers of whiteness through crip time and his trauma responses to his family that seeks to reinsert the Antebellum South. Using an intersectional approach of critical whiteness studies, disability studies, crip theory, and queer theory, relies on a variety of scholars including, but not limited to; David Mitchell and Sharon Snyder, Rosemarie Garland-Thompson, Richard Dyer, Matt Wray, Jasbir Puar, Ellen Samuels, and Allison Kafer. The primary works examined include promotional materials of historical freaks, McCullers’ The Ballad of a Sad Café, William Faulkner’s The Hamlet and The Sound and the Fury, and Flannery O’Connor short stories “Good Country People” and “A Temple of the Holy Ghost.”


Miniature of Parole lievitanti: La panificazione spirituale di S. Caterina di Bologna
Parole lievitanti: La panificazione spirituale di S. Caterina di Bologna
This record is embargoed.
    • Embargo End Date: 2027-05-19

    Date: 2022-01-01

    Creator: Katherine Aiello McKee

    Access: Embargoed



      The development of begging calls in Yellow Warblers

      Date: 2015-05-01

      Creator: Jackson F Bloch

      Access: Open access

      Nestling birds use begging calls to solicit resources from adults. Efficient transmission of calls is necessary for motivating parental feeding and outcompeting siblings. However, ambient acoustic masking and costs such as predation may influence the structure of the calls. While many interspecific comparisons of begging behavior have been made, the ontogeny of calls is understudied. In this study, Yellow Warbler (Setophaga petechia) begging calls were recorded and analyzed at different stages of nestling development to document changes in acoustic structure and gain insight into the selective forces that influence call development. Begging calls increased in peak frequency, frequency range, and amplitude during the 5-day recording period. Call duration did not change with age. Call structure did not differ between nestlings living in distinct acoustic environments. As begging calls increase in amplitude with age, perhaps due to increased food needs and competition from nestmates, nestlings may compensate for increased predation risk by increasing the peak frequency of the calls. Higher frequency calls attenuate more quickly than do low frequency calls and fall outside the frequency range of maximum hearing sensitivity for some potential predators. Previous studies on warbler begging have shown that nestlings of ground-nesting warblers, which are subject to higher rates of predation, beg at higher frequencies than do nestlings of tree-nesting warblers. This study supports the hypothesis that changes to begging call structure during development mirror the differences in call structure of species under different predation risks.


      Miniature of Phenotypic divergence between sites in photosynthetic thermal response despite low genetic differentiation in Gulf of Maine <i>Ascophyllum nodosum</i>
      Phenotypic divergence between sites in photosynthetic thermal response despite low genetic differentiation in Gulf of Maine Ascophyllum nodosum
      This record is embargoed.
        • Embargo End Date: 2028-05-18

        Date: 2023-01-01

        Creator: Olivia Bronzo-Munich

        Access: Embargoed



          “Something most girls don’t do” An Ethnographic Study of Women in Extreme Sports

          Date: 2022-01-01

          Creator: Jacqueline Boben

          Access: Open access

          Extreme sports, like skateboarding, whitewater kayaking, and skiing, have historically been male-dominated. As women’s participation in these sports grows, my research asks: how do women navigate sports spaces and cultures that have for so long been defined by men? To answer this question, I draw on ethnographic research on communities of skateboarders, whitewater kayakers and skiers conducted during the summer of 2021 in Bozeman, Montana. I found that the specific landscapes where these extreme sports take place are often conceptualized by participants as more masculine spaces. Within these spaces and communities, women participants often leverage gender performances associated with masculinity to gain entry into these male-dominated communities. Performing in more masculine ways mitigates feelings of hypervisibility, while also helping to build connections to established members of the community. More than simply fitting in, women find that these gendered performances also help them to build competence in the sport. At the same time, women are transforming skateboarding, whitewater kayaking, and skiing through their participation by creating opportunities for more dynamic and fluid gender performances.


          Miniature of Theories of Thanks: Affect Studies, Reciprocity, and Theoretical Perspectives on Gratitude
          Theories of Thanks: Affect Studies, Reciprocity, and Theoretical Perspectives on Gratitude
          This record is embargoed.
            • Embargo End Date: 2027-05-19

            Date: 2022-01-01

            Creator: Clayton James Wackerman

            Access: Embargoed



              Church Space as Queer Place? LGBTQ+ Placemaking, Assimilation, and Subversion within Progressive Faith-Based Spaces in Maine

              Date: 2023-01-01

              Creator: Salina Chin

              Access: Open access

              In popular discourse, understandings of queerness and religiosity as antithetical proliferate. However, the political involvement of Portland, Maine’s First Parish Unitarian-Universalist Church in Maine’s queer political movement points to a more complex relationship between the LGBTQ+ community and progressive religious institutions. Through participant observation, archival research, and semi-structured interviews with nine LGBTQ+ community members and informants, I reveal the crucial role of Portland’s First Parish Unitarian-Universalist Church in Maine’s queer political movement from the late 1980s into the present day. On the one hand, progressive faith-based spaces across Maine provide safe spaces for queer political organizing. On the other hand, “ephemeral placemaking” in progressive faith-based spaces represents an assimilationist political strategy that stresses LGBTQ+ respectability. Thus, I argue that queer placemaking in progressive faith-based spaces reflects both subversive and assimilationist politics. LGBTQ+ activists utilize ephemeral placemaking strategies within progressive faith-based spaces to challenge political opposition from the religious Right while also reinforcing what Mikulak (2019) terms “godly homonormativity”: the normalization of LGBTQ+ identity and the upholding of heteronormativity by emphasizing respectability and monogamy. My analysis of queer political organizing within progressive faith-based spaces “queers” religion and LGBTQ+ politics, disrupting dominant narratives of religion as homophobic and LGBTQ+ politics as radical.


              Miniature of The Photocatalytic Degradation of 17α-ethynylestradiol (EE2) and Related Estrogens
              The Photocatalytic Degradation of 17α-ethynylestradiol (EE2) and Related Estrogens
              Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
              • Restriction End Date: 2028-06-01

                Date: 2023-01-01

                Creator: Kevin Jairre Fleshman

                Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community



                  Stretch Feedback in the Lobster Heart: Experimental and Computational Analysis

                  Date: 2016-05-01

                  Creator: Katelyn J Suchyta

                  Access: Open access