Senior Theses

Back on campus, I am struck by how quiet things are in mid-March. Most undergraduates have headed home, or, like me, took the occasion of Spring Break to do some traveling. Spring sport athletes are off competing in warmer climates, for the most part, and the Center for the Arts seems to be quietly waiting for the return of visual artists, musicians, and actors for the last push of the semester.

But there are seniors around the libraries, the science labs, and several studios. Many of them are focused on finishing senior projects that are due in the next few weeks. As I do each year, I’ll just mention a few in this blog. There are many others, of course, who will in April celebrate the completion of their theses on the steps of Olin Library.

Maggie Lemming is making a 16mm Film Thesis which is by all accounts a standout. Wes is now the only program where undergraduates still have the opportunity to shoot and edit on 16mm! 

Noelle Schultz is a Film and Dance double major. Her thesis is a film about a ballet dancer on her first day with an experimental dance group, and it features students from the dance department!

And how about this one from Archaeology:

Cadence Cole “Economic Developments as Consumption Patterns: A Historical Archaeological Analysis of 18th Century Faunal Remains from Middletown, CT”

Economics reports these standouts:

Julian Haas “The Long-Run and Intergenerational Effects of Non-State Discriminatory Institutions: Evidence from the Ku Klux Klan”

Kaustubh Vasudevan “Designing Stability in Digital Money”

And Astronomy: 

Venus Marroquin is writing a joint History/Astronomy thesis on the history of light pollution in Middletown. She is using local archives on city lighting and charting the background lighting one can see in the observatory’s glass plates.

And not to forget the College of Education Studies

Charlotte Dachs “I’m not crazy.” Identity-making and self-concept formation in K–12 students with learning disabilities.

Of course, these theses just represent the tip of the iceberg of our seniors’ work. If you want us to list other projects, please let us hear from you at presoffice@wesleyan.edu