Honors Projects
Showing 301 - 350 of 662 Items
Characterization of Bacterial Glycosylation Pathways with Fluorescent Monosaccharide Probes Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
Date: 2023-01-01
Creator: Lucas John DiCerbo
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
Vienna Secession
Date: 2023-01-01
Creator: Bobby Murray
Access: Open access
- ‘Vienna Secession’ is a poetry manuscript broken into four distinct sections: “The Vienna Secession,” “Waltzes,” “Short Talks,” and “Other.” Most of the manuscript is in dialogue with Secessionist artists, or the ethos of the Vienna Secession. However, others, like the haikus, are exercises of form and responses to other contemporary poets, such as Robert Hass or Richard Wright. The manuscript explores different genres, including ekphrasis, prose, and experimental poems, like the ‘Waltzes,’ which employ 3/4 meter to emulate the Viennese waltz. The heart of the project is its sonic awareness—pulling from W.H. Auden, August Kleinzahler, and other musically-oriented poets. Outside the ‘Short Talks’ section, the poems’ sonic and phonetic qualities are integral to their style and meaning. At times this may be subtle, or even indiscernible, but overall, careful attention is paid to the sound and rhythm of the poems. The manuscript should be considered in both musical and literary terms. Rainer Maria Rilke’s ‘Duino Elegies’ and advice in ‘Letters to a Young Poet’ are instrumental in creating these poems. As a ‘first statement,’ many poems battle with the insecurities of a young poet and exemplify the grapple of an aspiring creative. The poems consider antiquated things through contemporary frameworks; relationships, communication, masculinity, and suffering, to name a few. A general incentive of the work is to provide fresh perspectives on historical art and to import its most apposite sentiments into our current moment.
Sorption of Cationic Heterocyclic Amines to Soils: Effects of Charge Delocalization and other Factors Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
Date: 2023-01-01
Creator: Mariah McKenzie
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
Characterisation of the Gryllus bimaculatus nervous system: insights into the role of the Spätzle1 and Spätzle5 proteins in the compensatory plasticity of the CNS 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: Sarah Lührmann
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
Physiological responses of the American lobster cardiovascular system to neuropeptide SGRNFLRFamide (SGRN)
Date: 2024-01-01
Creator: Andre Eden
Access: Open access
- During every second of a human’s life, the cardiovascular system is modulated by factors both intrinsic and extrinsic to the physiology of the heart. We can uncover new insights regarding the nature of our system through investigations of similar systems in other model species. One example materializes itself in the form of the American Lobster (Homarus americanus) whose single-chambered heart finds resemblance to the function and anatomy to that of humans. The lobster heart is powered by the cardiac ganglion (CG), a group of neurons that drive contractions of surrounding heart muscles, known as the myocardium. Both the CG and myocardium work in a feedback loop, with both intrinsic (afterload and preload) and extrinsic (temperature and neuropeptides) factors affecting cardiac output (CO) or the overall ability of the heart to carry out its primary function of nutrient distribution. In this paper, we examine how the addition of these factors into in vitro whole heart preparations affect CO and other associated variables. From experimentation, we conclude that the neuropeptide SGRNFLRFamide (SGRN) increases the heartbeat frequency and the active force exerted by the heart. We also conclude that increases in temperature decrease CO as higher temperatures decrease heartbeat frequency and the active force exerted by the heart. Lastly, we conclude that the effect of preload and afterload combined produce more robust effects on the CO and active force of the heart, potentially painting a better picture of what may happen in vivo.
Giving on the Margin: The Power of Donor Recognition
Date: 2016-05-01
Creator: Jordan W Richmond
Access: Open access
- This study develops a controlled laboratory experiment to examine the effects of personal recognition on charitable giving. I find evidence that both the possibility of acquiring prestige and the desire to avoid shame motivate individuals to give in recognition situations. Furthermore, I show that the possibility of being recognized is more important than the distinguishing value of that recognition, suggesting that an offer of recognition has greater power to increase charitable contributions when a larger proportion of donors will be recognized.
The EOL Enhancer Activates Eya Expression to Mediate Visual System Development in Drosophila melanogaster This record is embargoed.
- Embargo End Date: 2027-05-16
Date: 2024-01-01
Creator: Benjamin Sewell-Grossman
Access: Embargoed
"This people which I made": The Character of King Arthur as a Mechanism of Unification in Medieval Arthuriana and the Idylls of the King
Date: 2016-05-01
Creator: Hallie Schaeffer
Access: Open access
Reframing Mourning: Liberatory Grief in Post-Tragedy Chinese American Women’s Fiction
Date: 2024-01-01
Creator: Sophia Li
Access: Open access
- My project approaches discussions of Asian American melancholia and mourning with a specific focus on contemporary Chinese American women’s fiction. Scholars such as David Eng, Shinhee Han, and Anne Anlin Cheng have long spotlighted the prevalence of depression among Asian American populations, particularly those with immigrant backgrounds, and they variously adopt psychoanalytic approaches to understand Asian American mental health and intersectional identities. Looking beyond psychoanalytic models, my project focuses on the works of Yiyun Li, Jenny Zhang, and K-Ming Chang to explore diverse forms of post-tragedy positionality. I read the authors paratextually, not only to locate them within legacies of diasporic fiction and intersectional auto-writing but also to highlight their critically self-reflexive authorship. I study novels and characters depicting complex processes of mourning, ultimately proposing a reading that views them not only as resisting complete recovery but as forging pathways toward liberatory grief.
Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don't: A Logical Analysis of Moral Dilemmas
Date: 2018-05-01
Creator: Samuel Monkman
Access: Open access
- This project explores the logical structure of moral dilemmas. I introduce the notion of genuine contingent moral dilemmas, as well as basic topics in deontic logic. I then examine two formal arguments claiming that dilemmas are logically impossible. Each argument relies on certain principles of normative reasoning sometimes accepted as axioms of deontic logic. I argue that the principle of agglomeration and a statement of entailment of obligations are both not basic to ethical reasoning, concluding that dilemmas will be admissible under some logically consistent ethical theories. In the final chapter, I examine some consequences of admitting dilemmas into a theory, in particular how doing so complicates assignment of blame.
Characterizing the Motor Activity Patterns of the Mammalian Thoracic Spinal Cord Neural Network This record is embargoed.
- Embargo End Date: 2027-05-16
Date: 2024-01-01
Creator: Sam McClelland
Access: Embargoed
A histological investigation of Arceuthobium pusillum infections in Picea rubens and Picea glauca
Date: 2024-01-01
Creator: Sade K. McClean
Access: Open access
- Arceuthobium pusillum is a hemiparasite that infects select Picea species. The hosts of A. pusillum do not experience the same symptoms of infection. A. pusillum infections are more fatal to P. marinara, and P. glauca. P. rubens, on the other hand, can survive longer with sustained infection. This presents itself as a contemporary issue because P. glauca, one of the parasite’s most vulnerable hosts, was untethered from ecological competition when old growth forests were subjected to large scale anthropogenic disturbances. These disturbances allowed P. glauca to proliferate, with A. pusillum following. A deeper understanding of the host-species specific responses to A. pusillum infection can broaden general knowledge of parasitic growth and development while also potentially inspiring conservation techniques. This study took advantage of the intrinsic differences between host and parasite to visualize infections in P. rubens and P. glauca, highlighting differences in infection outcome. By illuminating lignin and callose within cross sections of infected P. rubens and P. glauca branches, it was revealed that P. rubens forms dense bands of cells around the cortical strands of infection. These bands form more frequently in P. rubens than in P. glauca and are of a significantly larger area in P. rubens than in P. glauca (t(8), p=0.003, p=0.005). The discovery of the exterior bands is novel and exciting, as the bands are possibly made of callose and potentially facilitate P. rubens survival against A. pusillum infection. The foundational discoveries and results of this study should inspire, and warrant, further analysis.
Are People Blaming Artificial Intelligence More or Less for Incorrect Advice? Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
- Restriction End Date: 2029-06-01
Date: 2024-01-01
Creator: Anh Nguyen
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
Creating Enantioselective Peptoid Catalysts with 2-Picolylamine and 2-Picolinic Acid Catalytic Sites Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
Date: 2024-01-01
Creator: Devin Kathleen O’Loughlin
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
Statistically Principled Deep Learning for SAR Image Segmentation
Date: 2024-01-01
Creator: Cassandra Goldberg
Access: Open access
- This project explores novel approaches for Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) image segmentation that integrate established statistical properties of SAR into deep learning models. First, Perlin Noise and Generalized Gamma distribution sampling methods were utilized to generate a synthetic dataset that effectively captures the statistical attributes of SAR data. Subsequently, deep learning segmentation architectures were developed that utilize average pooling and 1x1 convolutions to perform statistical moment computations. Finally, supervised and unsupervised disparity-based losses were incorporated into model training. The experimental outcomes yielded promising results: the synthetic dataset effectively trained deep learning models for real SAR data segmentation, the statistically-informed architectures demonstrated comparable or superior performance to benchmark models, and the unsupervised disparity-based loss facilitated the delineation of regions within the SAR data. These findings indicate that employing statistically-informed deep learning methodologies could enhance SAR image analysis, with broader implications for various remote sensing applications and the general field of computer vision. The code developed for this project can be found here: https://github.com/cgoldber/Statistically-Principled-SAR-Segmentation.git.
Selective Procedural Content Generation Using Multi-Discriminator Generative Adversarial Networks This record is embargoed.
- Embargo End Date: 2025-05-16
Date: 2024-01-01
Creator: Darien Gillespie
Access: Embargoed
Poverty Ends with a 12 Year Old Girl: Empowerment and the Contradictions of International Development
Date: 2017-05-01
Creator: Meghan Elizabeth Bellerose
Access: Open access
- This thesis argues that international development programs focused on adolescent girls reproduce problematic and contradictory depictions of girls in the global South. Using Girl Effect marketing materials and interviews with INGO staff, I demonstrate that present-day international aid programs center on the neoliberal notion that an empowered adolescent girl holds the unique potential to end global poverty. Through empowerment programs, girls are encouraged to recognize their agency and take personal responsibility for improving the wellbeing of their communities. However, I argue that even as development leaders claim that an empowered adolescent girl is a source of indefatigable strength who can transform her community, they carry a deep conviction that such a feat is not possible without significant Western aid. Despite the empowerment rhetoric that The Girl Effect and related international initiatives espouse, their programs depict adolescent girls in the developing world as vulnerable and oppressed by poverty, local men, and their cultures. Thus, Western donors are called upon to save “Third World” adolescent girls. I argue that these contradictions in the language of international development contribute to the perception of girls in the global South as weak, inferior, and homogenous and lead to the establishment of programs that strengthen inequitable structures and sideline girls’ sexual rights.
Hybridization dynamics of a newly discovered parrotfish swarm in the Tropical Eastern Pacific
Date: 2017-05-01
Creator: Robert Barron
Access: Open access
- Hybrid zones and their dynamics are important in the understanding of the genetic basis of reproductive isolation and speciation. This study seeks to investigate the hybridization dynamics of a Scarus hybrid swarm within the Tropical Eastern Pacific (TEP) that includes four phenotypically distinct species: S. perrico, S. ghobban, S. rubroviolaceus, and S. compressus. Genetic and population structure analyses of four nuclear loci and a mitochondrial locus revealed that one of the four species, S. compressus, was the result of two different hybrid crosses: S. perrico ✕ S. rubroviolaceus and S. perrico ✕ S. ghobban. A NewHybrids model indicated that most of the S. compressus samples were F1 hybrids, but 21% of the S. compressus sample was classified as “parentals” which could also be explained by the presence of either F2 hybrids or backcrosses with S. compressus phenotypes, given the relatively low power of the nuclear data set (4 loci) to resolve complex hybrid genotypes. Significant mito-nuclear discordance in all three non-hybrid species is consistent with an evolutionary effect of backcrossing between F1 hybrids and “pure” species. This study reveals a relative ease of hybridization between parrotfish taxa separated by an estimated 4.5 million years of isolation and opens the door to further studies on the potential effects of gene flow across old species boundaries and perhaps the formation of new species by hybrid speciation in a diverse clade of tropical reef fish. Elucidating the nature of potentially “deep” F2 crosses and backcrosses within the TEP Scarus hybrid system will allow us to better understand the effects of hybridization on evolution and speciation on both a micro- and macro-ecological scale.
Being and Salvation: Environmental Implications of Martin Heidegger's Thought Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
- Restriction End Date: 2027-06-01
Date: 2024-01-01
Creator: Eleanor S. Huntington
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
Investigating the Impacts of Drought on Turfgrass (Festuca arundinacea) Chlorophyll-a Fluorescence Emission
Date: 2024-01-01
Creator: Ayanna S Hatton
Access: Open access
- When photons from sunlight are absorbed by plants, they can take paths of photosynthesis, fluorescence, or energy dissipation. Instruments to quantify fluorescence have expanded in scale to allow measurements from satellites and flux towers using Solar-Induced Chlorophyll Fluorescence (SIF). Studies have found a positive correlation between SIF and gross primary productivity (GPP; representative of photosynthesis), suggesting SIF is a proxy for GPP. This conclusion encourages the use of SIF to inform decisions about carbon budgets and responding to climate change. Studies of fluorescence on the single-leaf scale have revealed that SIF measurements do not account for all variables nor is there an understanding of the impact of environmental factors, such as drought, on these measurements. In this project, tall fescue turfgrass was placed in one of four differing drought severities for 19 days. Leaf-level measurements of photosynthesis and pulse-amplitude modulated fluorescence were made, demonstrating stomatal closure and inhibition of photosynthesis. This physiological change caused greater photon allocation to energy dissipation. Changes in greenness and the utilization of photoprotective mechanisms such as senescence and anthocyanin accumulation were observed. This study has provided an understanding of the temporal, physiological, and visible impacts of drought on turfgrass to inform interpretations of SIF in future experiments. Caution is crucial in utilizing SIF as a proxy for GPP before further research into the impact of drought on SIF is completed.
Some like it cold: the relationship between thermal tolerance and mitochondrial genotype in an invasive population of the European green crab, Carcinus maenas
Date: 2017-05-01
Creator: Aidan Fisher Coyle
Access: Open access
- Hybrid zones provide natural laboratories to study how specific genes, and interactions among genes, may influence fitness. On the east coast of North America, two separate populations of the European green crab (Carcinus maenas) have been introduced in the last two centuries. An early invasion from Southern Europe colonized New England around 1800, and was followed by a second invasion from Northern Europe to Nova Scotia in the early 1980s (Roman 2006). As these populations hybridize, new combinations of genes potentially adapted to different ends of a thermal spectrum are created in a hybrid zone. To test the hypothesis that mitochondrial and nuclear genes have effects on thermal tolerance, I measured response to cold stress in crabs collected from locations between southern Maine and northern Nova Scotia, and then genotyped the mitochondrial CO1 gene and two nuclear SNPs. Three mitochondrial haplotypes, originally from Northern Europe, had a strong effect on the ability of crabs to right themselves at a temperature of 4.5ºC. Crabs carrying these three haplotypes were 20% more likely to right compared to crabs carrying the haplotype from Southern Europe. The two nuclear SNPs, which were derived from transcriptome sequencing and were strong outliers between Northern and Southern European C. maenas populations, had no effect on righting response at low temperature. These results add C. maenas to the short list of ectotherms in which mitochondrial variation affects thermal tolerance, and suggests that natural selection is shaping the structure of the hybrid zone between the northern and southern populations This discovery of linkage between mitochondrial genotype and thermal tolerance also provides potential insight into the patterns of expansion for invasive populations of C. maenas around the world.
Investigating the Impact of Helicobacter pylori Glycan Biosynthesis on Host Immune Response Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
Date: 2024-01-01
Creator: William Joseph Surks
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
Men Like Us: Notes on Gay Migrancy Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
Date: 2025-01-01
Creator: Campbell Ives Zeigler
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
The Wound and the Word: Examining the Literary Afterlife of Gwangju’s Trauma in Korean and
Korean Diaspora Literature
Date: 2025-01-01
Creator: Seo Yeon (Sophie) Yook
Access: Open access
- My project examines the enduring legacy of the May 1980 Gwangju Uprising and its reverberations across Korean and Korean American literature, memory, and identity. Framed by the unforeseen reemergence of martial law in South Korea on December 3, 2024–an event that eerily echoed the nation’s violent, authoritarian past–this project interrogates how historical trauma continues to resurface and be reflected in political reality and cultural narrative. Anchored in close readings of Han Kang’s Human Acts and E. J. Koh’s The Liberators, my project traces a literary and ethical journey mapped through the metaphor of the wound: “Bloodshed,” where pain erupts; “Inflammation,” where it lingers and deepens; and “Growth and Rebuilding," where healing becomes imaginable, if never quite complete. The first chapter positions Han’s polyphonic novel as a work of countermemory, a literary act of resistance against state-sanctioned silence that then demands active readerly participation. The second chapter turns to Koh’s diasporic narrative to consider how trauma migrates across generations and geographies through the medium of translation, revealing the subtler textures of inherited pain. Finally, the last chapter synthesizes theories of postmemory and reparative reading to intimate how the pair of texts move beyond trauma’s paralysis, imagining pathways toward healing, remembrance, and collective renewal. Ultimately, I contend that literature offers a vital site for rearticulating and re-envisioning suppressed histories, particularly in the wake of political repression and cultural amnesia. In returning to Gwangju as a living, aching wound, this project engages in the ethical labor of remembrance and the hopeful, reparative task of repair. It affirms narrative as both vessel and balm, as a means of bearing pain and of gesturing toward the possibility of healing across time, space, language, and community.
“My Bright Whatever”: A Scholar’s Life in Letters This record is embargoed.
Date: 2025-01-01
Creator: Carolina Weatherall
Access: Permanent restriction
Superego: Notes on 21st Century Celebrity This record is embargoed.
Date: 2025-01-01
Creator: Emma Kilbride
Access: Permanent restriction
A Multi-Dimensional, Computational Analysis of Ultrasound-Induced Negative Phonotactic
Behavior in the Mediterranean Field Cricket Gryllus bimaculatus Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
Date: 2025-01-01
Creator: Ryan Minje Kang
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
Associative color learning and foraging preferences of syrphid flies (Eristalis spp.) in an island plant-pollinator network Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
Date: 2025-01-01
Creator: Whitt Dodge
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
Shaping Canons and Building Legacies: Collectors and the History of African American Art
Date: 2019-01-01
Creator: Kinaya Hassane
Access: Open access
Dual Isotope Model Insights on the Nitrogen Cycling Network of Coastal Sediments This record is embargoed.
- Embargo End Date: 2026-05-20
Date: 2021-01-01
Creator: Zoë Alexandra Dietrich
Access: Embargoed
Body of Work: Physicality and the Electric Guitar Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
Date: 2021-01-01
Creator: Samantha Pollack
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
Skin Deep: Analyzing Black Representation in the Teaching of Visual Arts
Date: 2021-01-01
Access: Open access
- My honors thesis argues that at Bowdoin College, failure to provide Culturally Relevant Teaching in art studio courses dismisses the representation of Blackness in the Visual Arts Department. Culturally Relevant Teaching (CRT) recognizes the importance of all students' cultural experiences in different aspects of learning. It allows for equitable access to education for students of diverse backgrounds. CRT is crucial to reconstructing Art Education to represent diverse student bodies. My position as a Black-Indigenous artist enables me to reflect on the intersection of these frameworks and to build upon them in order to highlight the need for pedagogical practice in studio art courses, that doesn’t center technical training derived from the Western canon of art production in Bowdoin’s Visual Arts Department. My research lives on a digital format, where you will engage with the history of Art at Bowdoin from 1794 to the present, oral histories from Black identifying alumni who have navigated the department, theoretical frameworks, and an auto ethnography that breaks down my self-taught pedagogical practice in response to the representational gaps in the curriculum. As you navigate this site, I ask you to follow the written instructions and engage with the interactive material. I will virtually guide you through this project chronologically, and through the lens in which I have experienced personally and through observation.
Shit Happens to Pretty Girls This record is embargoed.
Date: 2025-01-01
Creator: Ella Jones
Access: Permanent restriction
Investigating the Role of Toll-7 Protein in the Developing Peripheral Nervous System of Gryllus bimaculatus Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
Date: 2025-01-01
Creator: Kyla Gary
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
The Role of Temperament and Parental Reflective Functioning in Toddlers' Emotion Regulation and Behavior Problems Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
Date: 2025-01-01
Creator: Julia Ann DeLuca
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
Weather and Female Age Affect Reproductive Tradeoffs in Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis) Incubation Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
Date: 2025-01-01
Creator: Oscar Koziol Nigam
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
Polemics in the Pale: The Jewish National Question as a Proxy Debate in Revolutionary Russian Politics
Date: 2025-01-01
Creator: Michael Sherman Gordon
Access: Open access
- Polemics in the Pale: The Jewish National Question as a Proxy Debate in Revolutionary Russian Politics examines the Bolshevik Party's debates over the Jewish National Question. This thesis tracks the evolution of the arguments surrounding Jewish national status through the Bolsheviks' break with the Jewish Labor Bund at the 1903 RSDLP Congress, the Soviet Union's schemes to create Jewish agricultural colonies in Ukraine, and the Soviet decision to establish the Jewish Autonomous Region in Birobidzhan in Siberia. Ultimately, Polemics in the Pale argues that the Bolshevik main interest in discussing the Jewish national question was not to find a genuine theoretical conception of the nation compatible with Social Democracy but instead was to utilize it as a cipher for more pressing political issues: party organization and state-building.
Gendered Subjectivity in Refugee Resettlement Processes: From Somalia to Lewiston, ME
Date: 2018-01-01
Creator: Elena Gleed
Access: Open access
- Refugee Resettlement to the United States is a globalized and transnational process of making home. After Somali state collapse in 1991, more than a million displaced people fled to refugee camps across the Kenyan border. Today, over 12,000 Somali people now live in Lewiston, ME, an old mill town located along the Androscoggin River. As refugees are resettled by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees they enter a system created over fifty years ago in response to World War II. Using post-colonial and feminist scholarship, this project analyses the “female refugee” subject as she appears in the official discourse of resettlement processes. I trace the historical emergence of this subjectivity from an individual and work-based neoliberal American ethos to non-governmental organizations run by Somali women in Lewiston. Drawing from document analysis and ethnographic interviews, this paper explores the how Somali women are made to be “new American workers” in a process that combines western liberal feminism with ideas of integration and cultural orientation to the United States.
Salud Callejera: Mobilizing Cuidado at the Margins of Neoliberalism; Reimagining Care for People Experiencing Homelessness in Buenos Aires
Date: 2019-05-01
Creator: Brandon Morande
Access: Open access
- On any given night, thousands of individuals sleep on the streets of the Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires. Without secure housing, people in situación de calle (experiencing homelessness) suffer elevated rates of physical trauma, transmissible and chronic diseases, and symptoms of depression. Nevertheless, two-thirds of this population do not receive annual health consultations, with the majority solely accessing the emergency department when their conditions severely worsen. This study finds that municipal services and, to a lesser extent, the public health system render individuals responsible for housing insecurity by adopting a neoliberal subjectivity of homo economicus, medicalizing poverty as a symptom of psychosocial illness potentially curable through economic and social rehabilitation. Those who do not conform with such pathologization or other employment-based demands confront heightened criminalization and exclusion from care services. As an alternative response, this project investigates the actions of civil society networks, which employ a contrary notion of homo politicus, reimagining care as a collective right and site of political mobilization. This thesis draws upon interviews with people experiencing or at risk of homelessness, members of civil society organizations, public health providers, and municipal social workers, as well as observations from street-outreach.
Torture under the Regime of Bashar al-Assad: Two Decades of Failed Human Rights Campaigns and Foreign Interference in Syria
Date: 2020-01-01
Creator: Olivia Giles
Access: Open access
- This honors thesis analyzes human rights campaigns to end the practice of state-sponsored torture in Syria during the presidency of Bashar al-Assad. It compares the 2000 Damascus Spring and the 2011 Arab Spring using the concept of the “contentious spiral model.” The model is based on the elements of the original “spiral model” introduced in The Power of Human Rights (1999) and the factors of contentious politics discussed in Dynamics of Contention (2001). It suggests that human rights movements that emerge from uprisings need effective mobilization by domestic and international actors. Sustained pressure from both sources should gradually force the state to make concessions until there is an absence of human rights violations. The study uses research on social movements and international politics in Syria, in addition to data on the practice of torture, to suggest that human rights campaigns to end state-sponsored torture in Syria have been unsuccessful because of the interference of Assad’s foreign alliances. These countries have helped the regime backlash against the opposition during uprisings, which has led to the fracturing of the movement. During the Damascus Spring, this interference took the form of shifting the world’s focus to other regional issues, and during the Arab Spring, Syria’s allies directly supported the Assad regime militarily, financially, and legally.
Nonprophets: a novel This record is embargoed.
- Embargo End Date: 2025-05-14
Date: 2020-01-01
Creator: Nathan Osiason Blum
Access: Embargoed
Adapting Greek Heroines: Penelope and Medea Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
Date: 2020-01-01
Creator: Ishani Agarwal
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
Re-formando cuerpos: Las identidades femeninas en escritoras cubanas durante el Período Especial
Date: 2014-01-01
Creator: Amanda M Montenegro
Access: Open access
- Esta tesis explora cómo una variedad de autoras cubanas representan el cuerpo, las identidades femeninas y la relación entre las mujeres y la nación. Las autoras estudiadas incluyen Marilyn Bobes, Karla Suárez y Daína Chaviano. Sus narrativas ilustran y desarrollan una variedad de personajes –desde las mujeres blancas prerrevolucionarias hasta las “hijas de la revolución” afrocubanas—que representan diferentes maneras en que las mujeres construyen y reconstruyen sus identidades en la Cuba revolucionaria y hasta el comienzo del “Período especial”. Ilustran además cómo las mujeres vivieron fenómenos propios de ese período como la migración, la dolarización y el jineterismo. Así, revelan los fracasos en cuanto a la igualdad de género de la revolución, que no transformó la estructura patriarcal de la sociedad. Sin embargo, las autoras presentan una nación cubana polifacética compuesta de más que el Estado, donde las escritoras y las mujeres luchan por definirse a sí mismas. This paper explores how various female Cuban authors represent the body, female identities and the relationship between women and the nation. The authors studied include Marilyn Bobes, Karla Suárez and Daína Chaviano. Their narratives illustrate and develop a variety of characters—ranging from white prerevolutionary women to afro-Cuban “daughters of the Revolution”—which represent different ways in which women construct and reconstruct their identities during revolutionary Cuba and at the beginning of the “Special Period.” The characters also illustrate how women in particular experienced and dealt with the effects of the Special Period such as migration, dollarization and jineterismo. Thus, they reveal the failures of the Cuban Revolution regarding gender equality of the Revolution, which did not transform the patriarchal structure of society. However, the authors present a multifaceted Cuban nation comprised of more than just the State, where writers and women struggle to define themselves.
Investigating the Role of Heterochromatin Protein 1 (HP1) in the Formation of Chromosome Compartments Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
- Restriction End Date: 2025-06-01
Date: 2020-01-01
Creator: Diego Andres Villamarin
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
Convexity Properties of the Diestel-Leader Group Γ_3(2)
Date: 2014-05-01
Creator: Peter J Davids
Access: Open access
- The Diestel-Leader groups are a family of groups first introduced in 2001 by Diestel and Leader in [7]. In this paper, we demonstrate that the Diestel-Leader group Γ3(2) is not almost convex with respect to a particular generating set S. Almost convexity is a geometric property that has been shown by Cannon [3] to guarantee a solvable word problem (that is, in any almost convex group there is a finite-step algorithm to determine if two strings of generators, or “words”, represent the same group element). Our proof relies on the word length formula given by Stein and Taback in [10], and we construct a family of group elements X that contradicts the almost convexity condition. We then go on to show that Γ3(2) is minimally almost convex with respect to S.
Egg Size, Breeding Phenology, and Parental Investment in Leach’s Storm Petrels Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
Date: 2020-01-01
Creator: James L. O'Shea
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
Accounting for Gender Differences in Cultural Industries: Evidence from Film and the Fine Arts Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
Date: 2020-01-01
Creator: Madeleine Rose Dupré
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
Improving Energy Efficiency through Compiler Optimizations
Date: 2021-01-01
Creator: Jack Beckitt-Marshall
Access: Open access
- Abstract--- Energy efficiency is becoming increasingly important for computation, especially in the context of the current climate crisis. The aim of this experiment was to see if the compiler could reduce energy usage without rewriting programs themselves. The experimental setup consisted of compiling programs using the Clang compiler using a set of compiler flags, and then measuring energy usage and execution time on an AMD Ryzen processor. Three experiments were performed: a random exploration of compiler flags, utilization of SIMD, as well as benchmarking real world applications. It was found that the compiler was able to reduce execution time, especially when optimizing for the specific architecture, to a degree that depends on the program being compiled. Faster execution time tended to correlate with reduced energy usage as well, further suggesting that optimizing programs for speed and architecture is the most effective way of decreasing their overall energy usage.
Instability in a Time-Modulated Lattice This record is embargoed.
- Embargo End Date: 2025-05-19
Date: 2022-01-01
Creator: Evelyn Wallace
Access: Embargoed
Assessing the Accuracy of Quantum Monte Carlo Pseudopotentials for CO2 Capture in Metal Organic Frameworks
Date: 2021-01-01
Creator: Chloe Renfro
Access: Open access
- As global emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases rises, global warming persists as an imminent threat to the environment and every day lives. To reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere, there is a need to design materials to separate and capture the different gasses. Current gas capturing technologies lack efficiency and have extensive energy costs. A class of materials for CO2 capture is Molecular Organic Frameworks (MOFs). In order for a MOF to be efficient for this type of separation, the MOF needs to be able to selectively bind to the gas, while also not suffering a high energy cost to remove the gas and reuse the material. Computationally calculated binding energies are used to determine the usefulness of a MOF at capture and separation of a certain gas. Each computational method has its advantages and limitations. In this work, diffusion quantum Monte Carlo is being explored. This paper focuses on the accuracy of recently developed pseudopotentials for DMC use. These pseudopotentials have been tested on smaller molecules but have not been systematically tested for systems such as MOFs. Results from a DMC calculation of Zn-MOF-74 show a binding energy of -18.02 kJ/mol with an error bound of 16.74 kJ/mol. In order to assess the accuracy of the DMC results for binding energies of this magnitude the uncertainty need to be reduced, a subject of ongoing work.