Past Theses
Here are some of our best senior theses from the past few years. Hard copies of all senior theses from the last four or five years are available for reading in our department offices in Flanner Hall. Extra copies may be checked out with Suzanne Spear; originals must remain in our office area.
- This Land was Made for You and Me; The Story of Preservation, Accessibility, and Disability in America's Outdoor Recreation Spaces (2024) -- Nora Mulligan
- The Haight & the Hierarchy: Church, City, and Culture in San Francisco, 1967-2008 (2016) -- Sarah Morris
- Where Have All the Manly Journalists Gone? Gender and Masculinity in Prestige Television Representations of Journalists (2016) -- Jack Rooney
- Attica! Representations of the 1971 Prison Riot in Local and National Journalism (2016) -- Gretel Kauffman
- Literary Environmentalism in the Desert Southwest (2015) -- Caroline Schuitema
- Classrooms of Democracy: Libraries and Museums as Sites of Citizenship (2014) -- Aubrey Butts
- Identity, Activism and Queer Representation in the Age of AIDS, 1985-1995 (2013) -- Colin O'Neill
- Creating and Contesting the Cult of Girlhood: Magazines, Zines, and the Girls Who Read Them (2013) -- Olivia Lee
- A Blank Generation: Richard Hell and American Punk Rock (2012) -- Ross Finney
- Cul-de-Sac Culture Within City Limits: Exploring Urban/Suburban Borders in Chicago (2012) -- Maisie O'Malley
- Bitch. Contemporary Feminism in American Consumer Culture (2011) -- Catherine Scallen
- From Slum Clearance and Public Housing High Rises to the Olympic Village: The History of Housing in Bronzeville and the Chicago 2016 Bid (2010) -- Denise Baron
2024
Meg Beuter - "Critical Literacy and Global Citizenship: Teaching African Migrant Experiences in the Elementary and Middle School Classrooms"
Alex Conley - "'I'm voting on abortion': “A history of abortion activism and polarization"
Aubree Davis - "Connecting the Past & Present: The Contemporary Impact of the Colonial Consciousness as a Result of the Americanization Project in Hawai’i’s Territorial Schools'"
Kylie Gallegos - "Used To Be Young: Miley Cyrus and Her Effect on Gen Z's Sexual Ethics"
Gannat Mukhtar - “Beyond Rhetoric: Black Integration and Administrative Realities in Elite Academia"
Nora Mulligan - "This Land Was Made for You and Me; The Story of Disability, Accessibility, and Preservation on America's Outdoor Recreation Spaces"
Luisa Romero - "Cruzando La Frontera: Narrating Immigration in Latinx and Latin American Telenovelas
Kate Ross - "The Labor of Becoming: American Ballerinas in Class"
Dane Sherman - "Absolution for Empire: The Crusades of Military Chaplains During the First Gulf War (1990 - 1991)"
Annie Texido - "Leaning In Or Leaning Away: A Historical and Intersectional Analysis of Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In"
Maria Wainscott - “Storytelling the Storytellers: Female Sideline Reporters of American Football: Examining Gender, Workplace, and Hope”
2023
Lucy Adams - "'Not a Death Sentence Anymore': Guilt, Innocence, and Shame in Representations of HIV/AIDS in American Medical Dramas"
Clarkston Doman - "Climate Mitigation in California: Gold Rush to Dust Bowl to Climate Catastrophe"
Love Lee - "'Settlers of Color': A Critical Analysis of Settler Colonialism on the Islands of Hawai'i and Okinawa"
Mannion McGinley - "Pushing Back on the Patriarchy: How Women Created Spaces for Themselves in Sports Journalism Behind Second and Third Wave Feminism"
Grace Rozembajgier - "Order(ed Liberty) in the Court!: Them Modern Tug-of-War over Civil Rights and the 14th Amendment"
Kayla Swiderski - "Power, 'Problem Students,' and Popular Culture: An Investigation of Portrayals of Youth and Student Discipline in School-Centered Pop Culture Texts"
Nancy Kane - "The Hidden Truth of Sexual Abuse: An Exploration into the POwer Dynamics of American Sports Culture That Coerce Female Athletes Into Silence"
2022
Cate Cappelmann - "The Idea of Greatness: American Battles Over the Western Canon"
Julianne Maria Downing - "When the War on Terror Became the War for Women: Feminism as Counterterrorism"
Bridget Kelley - "Podcasts and The Production of History: The Rememory of Silenced American Narratives in the Aural Medium"
Maura Kostelni - "The Pancit Pot: Shared Pasts and Presents of Filipino Food"
Katherine Machado - "'Faith is Caught More Than It's Taught': Examining the Role of Faith-Based Education in Adolescent Religious Identity Formation"
Fiona McMahon - "Riots: The Study of Political Participation, Police Force, and Elections in Chicago, August 1968 and D.C., January 2021"
Hailey Oppenlander - "'He puts himself in a box in a tongue-in-cheek way'" Lil Nas X & Disidentification in Music Video & Social Media Performance"
Grace Scheidler - "What's for Lunch?: A Cultural-Political History of the National School Lunch Program"
Lily Strailey - "Peace, Love, and Colonization: American Hippies' Dual Imagination"
2021
Theresa Azemar - "How to Be a Neoliberal Superstar: Free Market Ideology in the American Popular Music Industry"
John Eli Draves - "Where Have All the Brothers Gone: Exploring the Identity and Mission of Religious Brothers in American Catholicism"
Caroline Freeman - "The Socialist Origins of American Public Education and Modern Policy Implications"
Dessi Gomez - "The Myths of Taylor Swift: Race, Gender and Politics & Constructing 'Miss Americana'"
Analisa Pines - "'Lies Your Textbook Told You': American History Textbooks' Portrayal of Reconstruction and the Civil Rights Movement, 1880s-2000s"
Cristina Ribera - "Mental Health in The Media: An Analysis of Change Over Time"
Mariah Rush - "Are We Still Comforting the Afflicted? An Examination of New Deserts, Epidemics, and Covid 19"
2020
Katherine Leyden- “The Evolution of U.S. Housing: Shifts in Culture, Inequality, & Design”
Irla Atanda- “Vernacular Theorizing: diasporic Voices and Their Solutions to the Venezuelan Crisis”
Alexandra Lloyd- “Refugees and NGOs: An Analysis of Power in the U.S. Resettlement Process”
Carroll “Will” Coots- "Becoming Salt Lake City: Tracing Salt Lake City’s Urban Development Through its Sporting Past, Sustainable Present, and Socially Responsible Future”
Bridget Simons- “A Movement, Not a Moment”: The US Women’s National Soccer Team and its Fight for Equal Pay, 2016-2020
Emma Scheibel- “The Crown of the Continent or a Stolen Land? The Conflicting Narratives of Glacier National Park”
Patrick McKelvey- ”La Cosa Nostra: The Evolution of Cultural Influence and Media Portrayals of the Italian-American Mafia”
Katie Hieatt- “In Search of 'The Nice Blonde Lady I Was Supposed to Be': Representations of White Femininity in Orange is the New Black"
Julia Allpow- “Structural Violence in Public Schools: Criminalization of Black Boys and Limited opportunities”
2019
Alexa Coubal- “The Crossroads: Hip-Hop and Basketball in New York City”
Luke Smith- “Our Pursuit of Excellence: ’Refashioning Respectability Politics in the NBA”
Lucas Masin-Moyer- “Heritage of a Small Village: ‘The African Diaspora and Black Cultural Diplomacy in the Long 21st Century”
Julie Mardini- “Desert Adventure: Making Jordan Safe for American Tourists”
Rose Ashley- “The National Parks: America’s Best, Able-Bodied Idea”
Maria Lally- “Desert Sands and Public Lands: Developing an Environmental Education Seminar in the Desert Southwest”
Marie Fazio- “Painting a Protest: Gentrification and Latino Muralism in Pilsen, Chicago”
Emma Erwin- “Historic Preservation in St. Joseph and Benton Harbor, Michigan”
Bailey Kendall- “Constructing Citizenship: Mount Cristo Rey, Catholicism, and Border Enforcement”
Madeline Doctor- “From Shared Meanings to Shattered Solidarity: The Congressional Prayer Room, 1952-2000”
Jessica Olson- “Defining Catholic America: How Notre Dame Used the Laetare Medal to Bridge Church and National”
Kaitlyn Wong- “Culturally Diverse Literature: Where Are the People of Color?”
Darcy Dehais- “Indiana’s Housing Crisis: Weaker Renter Protections and a Culture of Eviction”
Madison Riehle- “From Blaming the Addict to Treating the User: A Comparative Analysis of Drug Reportage in The Philadelphia Inquirer During the Crack Epidemic and the Opioid Crisis”
R. Tyrel London- “A Poetics of Liberation: Art as Counterhegemony”
Adriana Fazio- “Shattering the Glass Screen: Katie Couric’s Career and Shifting Perceptions of Femininity in Broadcast Journalism”
Noelle Gasper- “Commemoration or Controversy? Defining America in the US Capitol’s National Statuary Hall”
2018
Tessa Bangs- "A 'Portrait' in Grief: Collective Identity and memory in Post-9/11 New York"
Kelsey Dool- "Coming of Age on the Page: Exploring the Place of Young Adult Authors in the American Literary Canon"
Grace Garry- "Beneath the Habit: Sisters in Science who Challenged the Narratives of Faith and Education in America"
Emily Greetree- "Disney’s America: The Misrepresentation of American History in the Walt Disney World Parks"
Melissa Gutierrez-Lopez- "Representation of American Citizens: Portrayals of Mexican Americans and Japanese Americans, 1929 - 1945"
Claire Kramer- "Man Down: ESPN’s Coverage of the NFL’s Concussion Crisis"
Jacob McKenna- "Culture Kraft: Christopher Emmet, the American Council on Germany, and Cold War Cultural Activism"
Carlysa Oyama- "The HIV/AIDS Epidemic A Medical and Cultural Crisis"
2017
Robert Browne - “President Bush on the Mound and Uncle Sam at the Plate: How Professional Baseball Marketed Therapeutic Nationalism in Wartime”
Anna Busse - “Queering the Classroom: How LGBTQ Students Fit Into American High Schools”
Jennifer Cha - “Not Your Model Minority: Asian American Memoir in the 21st Century”
Caitlin Hodges - “American Carnage: Rhetoric and Responses to ‘Death’ in ’America’s Dying Cities’”
James Kane - "Framing the ‘Other’: The Politics of Figurative Representation in American Photography"
Elizabeth Kowalik - “Millennium Australia: History, Identity, and Representation at the Sydney 2000 Olympics”
Katherine Laskey - “Integrating Race in the Classroom: A Curriculum for Change in Diverse Catholic High Schools”
Grace Nickels - “Movements for Change: Dance as a Political Platform for Indigenous Peoples in the United States and Australia”
Jacqueline Winsch - “A Stage for Social Change: Empowering Youth Through Integrated Theater Education”
2016
Lena Madison - "The Academic Guide to the African-American Natural Hair Movement"
Sarah Morris - "The Haight & The Hierarchy: Church, City, and Culture in San Francisco, 1967-2008"
Jack Rooney - "Where Have All the Manly Journalists Gone? :Gender and Masculinity in Representation of Journalists on American Television"
Hannah Ashley - "Magnificent Megafauna: American Wildlife in National Park Iconography"
Gretel Kauffman - "Attica!: Representations of the 1971 Prison Riot in National and Local Journalism"
Victor Benavides - "Rap & Responsibility: Black Music & The Burden of Representation"
Maria Do - "The Cultural Costs of High Achievement: An Oral History of First Generation Asian-American High School & College Students"
2015
Meg Handelman - "Headlines and Hashtags: The Story of Michael Brown and Ferguson"
Ted Korolyshun - "The Catholic School Niche: English Language Lerners and Vouchers in Milwaukee and South Bend"
Caroline Schuitema - "Literary Environmentalism in the Desert Southwest"
Bailey Stavetski - "Atomic America and Australia: The Emergence of American and Australian Discourses on the Atomic Bomb"
Kelsey Johnson - "Fashioning a Rape Culture: Glamourizing and Resisting Sexual Violence in the High Fashion Industry"