Virtual Commons offers open access copies of Commonwealth and Departmental Honors Program theses and projects completed by undergraduate students who have submitted them electronically since 2013. The authors of these documents retain copyright to the intellectual property these works represent in their current form.
Theses/Projects from 2015
Literature of the First Encounters: Using Self-Immersion in the Scholarly Study of First Encounter Texts to Develop a Fifth Grade Text Set, Angela Skrabec
On Epistemic Egalitarianism for My P-Zombie Twin: In Defense of the Phenomenal Concept Strategy, Diane Smedberg
Gateway Reads: Finding Texts that Matter to Students, Anne Smith
Re-Writing the Irish Gender Paradigm in Seamus Heaney’s "Oysters" and Eavan Boland's "How it Once Was in Our Country", Kristy Snow
Exploring Residents’ Attitudes toward Solar Photovoltaic System Adoption in China, Yaqin Sun
Investigating the Impact of Digital and Social Media on the Country Music Industry, Casey Thomas
Calculating the Shear and Divergence of Light Rays, Matthew Witherell
The Environmental Impacts of Colonialism, Lawrence Wood
A Critical Analysis of Random Response Techniques, Emanuel Zanzerkia
Theses/Projects from 2014
The Development of Body Image in Dancers: Examining Gesture's Role in Conveying Body Image, Valeria Albano
Civil Unrest and Collective Violence in France: A Historical Comparative Analysis, Kenneth Arsenault
Making the Dough and Knowing How to Spend it: Students' Understanding of Personal Finance, Anthony Bazile
Correlates of Maternal Mortality: A Cross-National Examination, Amanda Blasingame
How Judges Decide: James Wilson's Theory of Constitutional Interpretation, Geena Bournazian
Rooms Without Men, Kailey Brennan
The Folly of Erasmian Scepticism in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, James Cafferty
Chain of Command: The Barriers of Reporting Sexual Assault in the Military, Danielle Christenson
Developing a Book Buddies Curriculum for English Language Learners, Melissa M. Cieto
Relation of Personality Traits to Cognitive Impairments and Disease Severity in Parkinson's Disease, Lindsey Clark
A Modernity Paused: James Joyce, Catholicism, and the Celtic Revival in the Pre-Revolution Ireland of Dubliners, Sean Clifford
A Series of Tubes, Timothy Concannon
Mom, Dad, and Johnny, John Condry
Generation Peace: Peace Education to Unify a Globalized Society, Jocelyn Coombs
Perceptions and Misconceptions: The Relationship Between Education and Understandings of Individuals Experiencing Homelessness, Julie Cronin
Communicating Shakespeare: How High School Educators Should Approach the Great Playwright, Samantha DeFilippe
Inspiring Action through Graphic Design: An Exploration & Creation of Graphic Design to Bring About Change for Girl's Education Globally, Gabriella Diniz
Music Therapy and Communication Disabilities: Singing, Speech, and the Brain, Jennifer Drake
Coleridge, James and the Dangerous Imagination, Taylor Ferguson
From Goal-Striving to "Right Intention": A Grounded Theory Analysis of Interviews with Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Participants, Julia E. Field
Prisons and Pups: An Examination of Service Dog Training and Their Weekend Families, Kendra Garcia
Beating South Africa's Endless Plague: Making Life Easier for HIV/AIDS Orphans, Shannon Garrity
Why the Arts?, Theresa Girardi
Dynamics of Climate Change: Explaining Glacier Retreat Mathematically, Robert Guillette
Transfer of Arabic Grammatical Knowledge to Spanish Subject-Verb Agreement, Jennifer Herzog
The Past is Present: Exploring Methods of Cooperation Between Archaeologists, Native Americans, and Museums in Southern New England, McKayla Hoffman
Jane Austen and the 21st-Century Classroom, Maureen Jecrois
More than Just Food: Analysis of Food and Social Interactions, Kelsey Kazlauskas
Graphic Designers and Brain Surgeons, Both Highly Trained, Yet Not Interchangeable: The Creation of Promotion Materials for Springfest 2014, Alanna Mehrtens
Using the Objectification Theory Framework to Assess the Unique Body Image Concerns of Women Experiencing Homelessness, Melanie K. Mitchell
Influence of Traditional and Nontraditional Entries on Figure Skating Jumps, Bryanna Nevius
Transcending Borders: Mexican Experiences with Migration, Race and Identity, 1910-1965, Marissa Nichols
Does Parental Divorce Have an Affect on a Child's Education?, Brittany Odenweller
Visions of the Amistad: American Public Engagement with the Amistad Story, Samuel Perkins
Grafton Ave.: A Screenplay, Christopher Porazzo
Elliptic Curve Cryptography, Kerrie Pratt
A Statistical Analysis of the Role of Critical-Thinking Games in College Students' Quantitative Reasoning, Melissa Radevicz
Exploring the American Revolution from Multiple Perspectives through Critical Literacy Discussions in a Fifth-Grade Classroom, Janelle Roberts
The Construction of Ethnoreligious Identity Groups in Syria: Loyalties and Tensions in the Syrian Civil War, Eliott Rousseau
Exploring Omissions from Historical Chronicles in Shakespeare's Second Tetralogy, Christopher Roy