Thesis Board 2024

Congratulations, Reed College seniors! Completing the thesis is a capstone of the Reed experience and a tremendous academic accomplishment.

Martin Gu - Anthropology

Thesis: An Ethnography of the Shanghai Marriage Corner: Value, Semi-colonialism, and Racial Categories

Ian Smith - Linguistics

Thesis: Split Ergativity and Case Assignment in Yucatecan Mayan Languages

Henry Wyeth Kendrick - English

Thesis: Naturalist Afterlives of the Frontier Myth

Helena Dobiecka - Neuroscience

Thesis: Investigating the Regulation of Biological Pathways in the Cross-Sex Behavioral Roles of Julidochromis transcriptus

Elizabeth Kean Organ - Anthropology

Thesis: The Making of a Good Birth

Yuheng Elle Wen - Mathematics/Computer Science

Thesis: An Efficient Privacy-Preserving Satellites Collision Detection Method:Applying Private Set Intersection Using Garbled Circuit

Zachary Kasper - Comparative Literature

Thesis: All They do is Sit and Talk About me: Representation of the Self in Queer Cinema

Alyssa Gorkin - Psychology

Thesis: So What We Get Drunk: Social Anxiety, Drinking Motives, and Alcohol Consumption in a Gender Diverse Emerging Adult Community Sample

Raven DuClos - Sociology

Thesis: Reel Identities: The Portrayal of Asian American Experience in U.S. Cinema and Television

Arianna Aguirre - Anthropology

Thesis: One Albuquerque? Crime, Security, and Dispossession in Albuquerque’s Sacrifice Zone

Emily Dachiardi-Lopez - Art: Art History

Thesis: Digitizing The Self

Carolyn Chen - Comparative Literature

Thesis: Like Water: A Cross-cultural Journey through Philosophical and Poetical Tides

Rachel Vogel - English

Thesis: Again, in the Green World: The Pursuit of Linguistic Closure in Henry Green’s Late Modernist Works Back and Concluding

Rhiannon Weakley - Psychology

Thesis: Planting the Seeds of Belonging: Restorative Justice and Therapeutic Horticulture with Justice-Involved Youths

Carter Luck - Computer Science

Thesis: Mixed Signals: A Game-Based Analysis of the Signal Protocol in the Presence of Active Adversaries

Gifford Quinn - Computer Science

Thesis: Analyzing the Impact of Userspace Bypass on the Performance of the Spectre Attack

Eva Gallardo - Anthropology

Thesis: Theologizing Queerness: The Formations and Impacts of Roman Catholic Ontological Fields

Lena Sylte Bloom - Mathematics

Thesis: Maximum Overdrive: a Frequency Response Analysis of Distortion Due to Clipping

He Bai - Mathematics: Statistics

Thesis: Extending Targeted Function Balancing to Models without Linear Representations

Lena Kassin - Psychology

Thesis: “A much-needed reminder of how important writing is to me”: The Impact of Utility and Attainment Value Interventions on Creativity and Motivation for Poetry Writing

Ethan McDonald - Mathematics/Computer Science

Thesis: Exploring Memory Tiering Policies for Composable Memory Systems.

Elisa Almanza - Sociology

Thesis: Everyday Violence or Tragedy?: Race and the Media Construction of Mass Shootings in Illinois

Milo J. Wetherall - History/Literature

Thesis: "C'était en plein Paris": Remembering the Massacre of October 17, 1961

Hayden Brothers - Political Science

Thesis: Broken Chains, Broken Plough: On Mourning in Post-Revolutionary Ireland and Haiti

Bridget Perier - Comparative Race and Ethnicity Studies: History

Thesis: Armed with the Knowledge of the Place We’ve Been: Empowerment of Gang Members Through Memoirs

Henry Jacques - Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Thesis: Structural Prediction of MHETase NlhH in PET-degrading Pseudomonas Bacteria

Mads Osler - Neuroscience

Thesis: No-Report Rivalry: The ERP Correlates of Probe-Mediated Perceptual Reversals

Mollie Boor - Mathematics

Thesis: Towards Constructing the Affine Partition Algebra

Julie Rogers - English

Thesis: Decentered and Embraced: The Re-union of Character and Setting in Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Seven Steeples

Annika Hartsock - Sociology

Thesis: “If you wait in the systems, you're just not going to get helped:” Uncertainty and Strategies of Agency Within Medical Institutions for Patients With Contested Illness

Avanthika Rajendran - Neuroscience

Thesis: Geez, that’s bananas: Quantifying perivascular spaces in aged rhesus macaques with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

Kyle Rowan - Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Thesis: Towards the Characterization of a Bacterial Zinc Importer from Bacillus Subtills

Jaime Belden - Dance

Thesis: The Plan Is To Feel Bad: Reflections on I Made It Home Safely

Lauren Annette Nicolaysen - Biology

Thesis: It’s Not Just The Straws: Investigating the Biology and Genetics of Sea Turtles and the Implications of Climate Change

Courtland Dorris - Anthropology

Thesis: Returning to Repatriation: An Examination of the Evolving Forces Behind the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act

Rachel Modlin - Music

Thesis: Spectral Shifts: Understanding the Collaborative Pianist Through Genre, Listening Habits, Partnership, and Practice

Hannah Chubin - Physics

Thesis: Illusory Motion Produced by a Computational Model of the Retinal Direction Selective Circuit

Ava Sorgman - Mathematics

Thesis: A Spectral Graph Theoretic Analysis of the Sign Flipping Sequence

Vivian Chen - Physics

Thesis: A Study on the Lindblad Master Equation of Open Quantum Systems Using Spin-1/2 Chains

Vilma Kodyte - Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Thesis: Managing Manganese: The Corporate Duties of MntR in Regulating Metal Ion Homeostasis

Asher Marvy - Biology

Thesis: Community Composition and Size-Structure Characterization of Phytoplankton in the Northern Gulf of Alaska

Thomas Ulmer - Mathematics-Computer Science

Thesis: Symbolic Analysis on C Binaries

Tommy Yoon - Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Thesis: A Higher-Order Network Analysis of Molecular Dynamics Simulations

Sarah Ellis - Chemistry

Thesis: A Kinetic Investigation into the Mechanism of Pt--Me Bond Protonolysis

Sienna Otero - Anthropology

Thesis: My Grandma Thinks I'm Digging in the Swamp: Nostalgic Practice as Survivance

Shota Wetlesen - Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Thesis: Cocrystallization and Different Solid-States of Pharmaceuticals: A New Approach to Drug Development

David Carlip - Mathematics

Thesis: Some Approaches to Hilbert-Kunz Multiplicity

Amelie Andreas - Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Thesis: MntR: The Mastermind of Manganese Ion Homeostasis

Aroon Das - Economics

Thesis: Airline Profitability & Fleet Strategies in a Carbon-Tax Environment

Anna Godfrey - Biology

Thesis: A Postulation on the Role of Drosophila Protein Split Discs in Focal Adhesion Assembly

Grace Benson - Political Science

Thesis: “I am here today not because I want to be”: How the #MeToo Movement Impacted New York Times Reporting of Sexual Misconduct Allegations Against Supreme Court Nominees

Ellen Currie - Political Science

Thesis: The Case for Harm Reduction: Explaining America's Reluctance for Harm Reduction Policy Implementation

Anna Romo - Anthropology-SETS

Thesis: Porous Perspectives: Dementia and Creativity through Communication

Hope Palmer - Physics

Thesis: That's Hot! Heat Loss at the Reed Research Reactor.

Deepika Shingwekar - Chemistry

Thesis: From Bottles to Biodegradation: Investigating Crystal Polymorphism for Chemo-Microbial Plastic Degradation

Jordan Kappler - English

Thesis: Daphne Du Maurier's "Rebecca": The Poetics, Places, and Gender Politics of the Lesbian Gothic

Alesandra Pardini - Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Thesis: A SPECC1L Protein: Biochemical Investigation of the Drosophila Homolog Split Discs

Soeun Kim - Political Science

Thesis: Who gets ‘Developed’ in Development Finance? Historical Political Economy of the World Bank and Chinese Lending in Zambia

Olive Ross - Mathematics - Physics

Thesis: An Examination of Hinterleitner Doubly Special Relativity

Nina Gopaldas - Comparative Literature

Thesis: “Take a Hundred Lines for the Memory of Those who Lived on Tubabao”: The Poetics of Exile and Displacement in Olga Skopichenko’s Verse

Abby Durrant - Political Science

Thesis: Out of the Woods: Land Use Allocation and Timber Regulation Changes on Oregon and California Land

Niels Christoffersen - Computer Science

Thesis: Using Machine Learning to Predict Reading Comprehension Based on Demographic Factors

Madeleine Grace Moore Coleman - English

Thesis: Complexity in Comfort: The 21st-Century American Weekly-Release Sitcom

Asia Guzman - Neuroscience

Thesis: The Impact of Oxycodone Self-Administration on Negative Affective Behaviors in Rats

Aidan White - Political Science

Thesis: Rattled: Shifts in Global Nuclear Norms due to Russian Nuclear Threats in the 21st Century

Erin Carver Buchanan - Psychology

Thesis: Statistical Foraging: A Comparative Analysis of Compositional Barycentric Matching and Q-Learning for Describing Foraging Behavior in Rats

Rivi Yermish - Art: Studio Art

Thesis: Piecing Daughterhood: Cloth, Gender, and Memory

Jane Tang - English

Thesis: Can You Do Things with Lyric? Explorations of Presence/Absence in Select Elegiac Lyrics

Maya Star-Lack - Psychology

Thesis: Queer Attitudes: The Influence of Sexual Minority Status on the Attitude- Behavior Gap in College Hookups

Safi Zenger - Art: Art History

Thesis: Control Liberate the Narrative: Black Liberation Through Re-Appropriations in Modern Art

Rimona Livie - Art: Art History

Thesis: Drag Faces: Hypernatural and Supernatural Makeup

Kellen Sincoff - History

Thesis: Empires of the Mind

Maximillian Wink - Religion

Thesis: The Road to Synodality

Er Brady - Art: Studio Art

Thesis: Here's What I DID: A Physical Representation of a Difficult to Interpret Disorder

Zonya Tanada - Economics

Thesis: The Starving Artist? Analyzing Dance Major Graduation Rates During Recessions

Sage Rhiannon Doane - English

Thesis: Now That I Know That We’re Breaking Apart Again: Lyric Responses to Death and the Dead in Britain c. 1370-1570

Serafima Nerush - Computer Science

Thesis: Parameter-Pack Iteration in Swift

Kenai Geoffrey Burton-Heckman - Mathematics: Statistics

Thesis: tfb: a Package for Targeted Function Balancing

Margo Schweitzer - Neuroscience

Thesis: Open Sesame: An exploration of trap closure temporality and learning in Dionaea muscipula

Tina K. Qin - Mathematics: Statistics

Thesis: Autoregressive Time Series Modeling: A Comparative Analysis of Parameter Estimation and State Prediction Methods

Ari Libove-Goldfarb - History

Thesis: Is It Good for the Jews? Conceptions of Modernity in American Jewish Folk Dance 1910-1990

Eleni Madeline Grant - Neuroscience

Thesis: Pleasure and Pain in the Midbrain: Dopamine and Drugs Outside the Lab

Alec DeContreras - Biology

Thesis: Anticolonial Diplomacy in Biology

Isaiah Beenhouwer - History

Thesis: Handling Adolf Eichmann: A Story of Inheritance and Facade

Catie Herberg - History

Thesis: Radical Frontiers: Finding Utopia in the Early United States

Emma Holland - Master of Arts in Liberal Studies

Thesis: Investigating the Efficacy of Applied Theatre: A Theoretical Exploration into Quantifiable Impact using Community Sentiment Analysis

Jozie Burns - Economics

Thesis: An Analysis of Race- and Income-Based Disparities in the National Distribution of Environmental Hazard

Emma Aster Riskin - English: Creative Writing

Thesis: LEER

Eli Franz - Linguistics

Thesis: Coalescence T-oalescence: Analyzing Fixed Segment Reduplication as Coalescence, and Things of That Nature

Sara Helmstetter - Neuroscience

Thesis: Becoming a Neuron: Examining Visual Input Influences on the Pace of Neurogenesis in the Zebrafish Optic Tectum

Lucas Dolan - Environmental Studies: History

Thesis: The Succession of Land Management Strategies in Australia

Alexander Tagashira-McGillicuddy - Political Science

Thesis: The Drying of the Colorado River: How the Neoliberalization of Ecosystem Service could impact U.S. Water Resources

Nirasean Guarino - Philosophy

Thesis: What Forgiveness can teach us about punishment

Emma Bramson - Economics

Thesis: "It's All About the Green”: The Tony Award's Effect on Broadway Show Demand

Kate Koefoed-Nielsen - English

Thesis: A Different Kind of Canoe: The Transmission of Lushootseed Stories In The Contemporary World

Isaac Walton - Anthropology

Thesis: Aging in The Sun: An exploration of the Jewish Retirement Community in South Beach, Florida.

Madeline Huber - English: Creative Writing

Thesis: Snailseed Pondweed

Unda March - Physics

Thesis: Celestial Choreography: Turbulence’s Influence on Dust Clouds in the Heart of NGC 628

Jason Finn - History

Thesis: An Empire of Racial Liberty: Jefferson's View on Liberty and Race in the Early U.S. Republic

Azure Sensabaugh - Psychology

Thesis: Widespread Aptitude for Detecting Pitch-Shifts in Familiar Audio Clips

Marlo Albers - Mathematics

Thesis: The h-Vector Conjecture for Matroids with Cycle Systems

Sophia Renee Brisbon - Economics

Thesis: Regional Effects on the Determinants of Per Capita GDP in China

Ashley Ledbetter - Philosophy

Thesis: How Mental Illness Impacts Moral Responsibility

Ahmed Shanab - Art: Studio Art

Thesis: Essays on Street Art, Neo and Self Expression: The Egyptian Revolution of 2011

Declan Hain Cruz - Economics

Thesis: TIF: Terrific or Terrible? The History and Efficacy of Tax Increment Financing in Portland, Oregon

Rafael Torres - Economics

Thesis: How Can Digital Advisors Cater to Loss-Averse Investors?

Sung Bum (Simon) Ahn - Economics

Thesis: Non-Accelerating Inflation Rate of Unemployment Dynamics in Developed Economies: Post 2007-2008 Financial Crisis Insights from the Group of 7

Matthew Cromaz - Economics

Thesis: The Transition from Loot Boxes to Battle Passes in Video Games

Reina Foster Ho-Saan Chun - Psychology

Thesis: Seating Placement as a Predictor of Self-Regulation and Academic Achievement