This collection includes Senior Thesis projects that were completed by undergraduate students in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Louisville who as a result graduated With Highest Distinction from the College (prior to 2024, this designation was Summa Cum Laude). It also includes retrospective honors theses from years prior, with permission of the authors.
Theses/Dissertations from 2021
The relationship between mothers’ negative emotional symptoms and mother-infant interactions during the COVID-19 pandemic., Kolbie A Vincent
Early communication abilities of 24-month-old children with Williams syndrome as measured by the Communication Complexity Scale., Sean B. Woods
Host community diversity interacts with soil biota and water availability to predict foliar pathogen damage and diversity on tallgrass prairie plants., Aspen J. Workman
The dangers posed by open-flame cooking: the case of Chiapas, Mexico., Holly Renee Zoeller
Theses/Dissertations from 2020
The politics of unionization: the impact of politics on the strength of Kentucky coal miners’ unions., Bayley Hope Amburgey
Experimenting with adulthood: liminal play in young adult literature., Kylee Auten
Telemedicine in pediatric speech therapy: characteristics of child, mother, and speech-language pathologist vocal interaction., Abigail L Betts
The lotus, the orchid, and the dragon: an examination of One Country, Two Systems and its trajectory in Xi Jinping’s China., Eric M. Bush
Effectiveness, equity, and ethics of Costa Rica's Payment for Environmental Services Program., Anna J Carter
From Valladolid to Venezuela : the legacy of Las Casas, Vitoria, and Sepúlveda in the current Venezuelan crisis., C. Evan Clark
Identifying phenotypic effects in Sporisorium reilianum and Ustilago maydis lacking the alternative oxidase gene., Caroline D. Culver
Spatiotemporal analysis of traffic crashes involving pedestrians and cyclists in Jefferson County, Kentucky., Joseph M. Garcia
Screen usage relates to neuroanatomy underlying reward processing., Lucus Kiger Hodge
Voices of the unheard: Using photography to understand youths' perceptions of problems in their neighborhoods., Erica Ann Lush
Phytochemical content and anti-breast cancer activity of Kentucky native plants., Nicole A. McGrath
Interaction design for retention., Susan H. Pallmann
Musicians’ hairstyles: a glimpse into the meanings and messages of funk, punk, and rap hair from the 1970s to 1990s in the USA and France., Carolle Pinkerton
Cardiomyocyte morphology following severe spinal cord contusion in rodents., Addison D. Riney
How to fight like a poet: the socially engaged poetics of anti-colonialism in Appalachia., Grace A Rogers
Filifactor alocis: resilience and manipulation against neutrophil effector functions in a dysbiotic oral environment., Max N. Rogers
Olfactory tissue investment in tropical rainforest ants scales with body size., Heather Evon Short
Race relations during the 1937 flood: confronting polite racism, identity, and collective memory in Louisville., Elizabeth J. Standridge
Universalism and the paradox of redistribution: the case of Norway., Madison Swingholm
The dimensions of secession in California., Jared J Thomas
Reclaiming images of Black women: an investigation of Black womanhood in visual communication, Taylor Simone Thomas
On the advantages of the disabled in space., Samantha R. Timmers
Public history as social justice: how Japanese Americans won redress with the help of history packaged for the public., Sara N. Ulanoski
The effects of PPAL-1 in Arabidopsis gamete development., Amanda White
Assessing conduct disturbance and fly ash exposure in children., Jillian G. Winn
Theses/Dissertations from 2019
The role of PPAL in the moss Physcomitrella patens., Noela M. Botaka
Playing games to improve conceptual understanding and cooperation in social dilemmas., Jason R Bush
Reporting poverty in Louisville : news coverage of Slum Clearance, La Salle Place, and College Court, 1934-1938., Shelby N Carter
A bug eat bug world : does urbanization decrease survivorship of pollinators., Amy L. Cherry
Facile and efficient synthesis of thiosemicarbazone derivatives with functionalized pendant amines., Anna E Davis
The effects of pitch and speaking rate on foreign accented speech perception., Rebecca F. Davis
Genetic crosstalk and its effects on virulence and mating in Ustilago maydis., John S. Desmarais
Effects of talker variability on categorization of spectrally degraded vowels., Emily A. Dickey
Assessing perfectionism as a predictor of exercise dependency over time., Sarah E. Ernst
Transcriptional influence of retinoic acid and its effects on angiogenesis of murine salivary glands., Isaac Feinn
Reactive Glutamines and a Binding Site Region Contribute to FXIII Substrate Specificity for Fibrinogen αC, Mohammed Hindi
Morphometric analysis and application in galaxy evolution and high-redshift surveys., Samir Kusmic
Looking through the grille : an analysis of Ursuline religious agency in an early French colonial context., Molly IF LaPorte
Insect populations across an urban-to-suburban land use gradient., Jacob T. Lawson
H.E.L.P : A creative exercise in feminism and the buddy comedy., Bayne M. Lutz
PPARγ and high molecular weight adiponectin in white adipose tissue in an obesity model., Katelyn M. McDowell
An uncertain line: making art about photographs of American war and violence., Cassidy Meurer
Indole sensitivity in various insect herbivores., Rakhi Patel
Anxiety symptoms as a predictor of head and neck cancer survival and potential for mediation by cancer treatment response., Tyler D. Pollitt
Long-term patterns in remotely-sensed vegetation productivity for a transboundary conservation area in Southern Africa., Liam Resener
Louisville and the tobacco trade within the Atlantic World., Jessica June Riley
Democratization and Democratic peace., Sarah K. Simon
The Delphic plague : a study in Athenian oracular rejection as evident in the Oedipus Tyrannus., Devin A Stephens
The effect of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia on Gram-negative cystic fibrosis pathogens., Joshua D Stewart
Racial microaggressions cohort differences., Shayla R. Thompson
These places we walk : stories of mental illness in American society., Rachel Grace Trimble
The role of antecedent-focused emotion regulatory strategies on emotionally dysregulated behavior above and beyond the influence of ADHD., Skyler C. VanMeter
Women and fiber: the role of craft traditions in the transmission of cultural history., Brooks Vessels
Theses/Dissertations from 2018
An analysis of democracy’s effect on e-government development globally., Frank Bencomo
The effects of musical training on the well-being of older adults., Brianna Nicole Berry
The case for management in the Turkish-Kurdish conflict., Devin P. Brown
Who gets “saved?” : making sense of racially disparate disciplinary practices in urban school systems., Kala Brown
Confucius Institutes and Sino-American soft power diplomacy., Christian L Bush
Perceived public opinion vs. actual public opinion and media's influence., Sarah Carey
Illusory correlation and perceived criminality., Rachel A. Carter
A peer-support mental health response training for LGBTQIA+ adolescents., Megan A Chernosky
Correlation between agricultural land cover and groundwater nitrate contamination in Big Bat Cave, Kentucky., Brandt T. Coleman
The effects of parental interaction on infant learning., Rachael D. Crenshaw
Cultural investigation on typography in branding in the United States and in Brazil., Carolina C Ganon
Social networking sites and gaining political support., Blake A. Gerstner
Literacy education across languages in writing centers., Lance M Gibson
The "Balkan Question" : benefits and challenges of European integration through enlargement., Kasey P. Golding
Prevalence of the French language in Algerian online news : a remnant of the colonial past., Zofia A. Hetman
Wnt/β-catenin Signaling Components on Cancer Stem Cell Activation in Hepatocellular Carcinoma., Kevin Jacob
Enhancement of NAFLD risk by vinyl chloride : role of adipose tissue in a mouse model., Brenna R. Kaelin
Child labor : an adaptive strategy among Syrian refugees., Tasneem Karim
DsbA-L protein levels in white adipose tissue in an obesity model., Madison E. Kerley
Prescription packaging design for the impaired : a meta-analysis., Amber C. Kleitz
The comparison of effective education methods to increase knowledge about Alzheimer's disease., Lillian M. Kopsolias
Sports and foreign policy : President Jimmy Carter and the 1980 Moscow Olympics boycott., Deserae Lane
Neural correlates relating to executive function, intelligence, and anxiety., Sarah K L'Heureux
Urbanicity in Kentucky : a study on academic achievement in urban versus rural students., Kayla S. Manley
On the politics and conceptualization of gender non-conformity : exploring Thailand’s kathoey population., Macey E. Mayes
Efficient quantum approximation : examining the efficiency of select universal gate sets in approximating 1-qubit quantum gates., Brent A. Mode
Reactions to FDA e-cigarette regulation : how vape shops in different socioeconomic areas of Kentucky use Facebook., Brooke A. Moody
"To prevent pernicious political activities" : the 1938 Kentucky Democratic primary and the Hatch Act of 1939., Raymond Michael Myers IV
Exploring the role of mindfulness in the established relationship between self-efficacy and exercise motivation., Savannah M. Neace
The role of ferric reduction oxidases in plant anti-herbivore defense., Virginia C. Nunamaker
Strain differences in susceptibility to cisplatin-induced renal fibrosis, Gabrielle B. Oropilla
Antibiotic resistant bacteria in water environments in Louisville, Kentucky., Amy Priest
Caught in the crossfires : changes for women during the transition period in Iran., Lindsay M. Ruth
Race and community : coloured identity formation within nineteenth and twentieth century Cape Town, South Africa., Cornelius L. Sanford
Targeting cancer stem cells in recurrent lung cancer., Karen T. Udoh
Theses/Dissertations from 2017
"The only true American republic" : Vermont independence and the development of constitutional government in the early United States., Jacob Michael Abrahamson
Nowhere to go : informal settlement eradication in Kigali, Rwanda., Emily E Benken
Flesh in line with the mind : gender in Caitlin Kiernan’s The drowning girl., Sarah Buckley
An in vitro study on the detection of ovarian cancer using a novel pH-specific targeting polypyrrole nanocontrasting agent., Phillip Chuong
