Honors Theses are submitted to the University of Richmond in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the distinction of Honors within particular disciplines. The nature of each thesis depends upon the norms of the particular academic discipline and/or department. Most are open access; some have been embargoed or are restricted indefinitely per the request of the author. If you are an author and would like to change the availability of your work, please contact
.Theses from 2020
An In-Silico Analysis of the Binding Affinities of HIV and HCV Protease Inhibitor Drugs to the SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease, Justin Airas
Xenophobic Rhetoric and Anti-Asian Prejudice and Discrimination during COVID-19, Eliz Akin
How to be a Good Believer: A Multifaceted Defense of Christian Belief, Cameron Bonsell
Aldol Condensations and Nitrile Aldol Reactions Mediated by Trimethylsilyl Trifluoromethanesulfonate, Samuel R. Bottum
Studies into the importance of Arg675 toward the mutagenic potential of 8-oxo-2’-deoxyguanosine with Klen-Taq polymerase, Claire Brown
Learning to Check Yourself: Improving Civic Engagement Through Duties, Better Voting Practices, and Combatting Group Loyalty, Katherine Brumund
Convergence of glandular trichome morphology and chemistry in two montane monkeyflower (Mimulus, Phrymaceae) species, Sofía Bustamante Eguiguren
Governance in a Multiethnic Republic: Nationalist Rule and Response in Xinjiang and the Frontier, 1933-1935, Bryan C. Carapucci
Evaluating a Culprit: A Review of the Biochemical Mechanisms of Non-Celiac Gluten Intolerance, Callie Cinque
A Hero No More?: Traces of the Byronic Hero in 19th-Century British Novels, Sydney Collins
Gratitude, Resilience and Post-Traumatic Growth among Kidney Transplant Recipients, Lillie Credle
Differential gene expression in Ephydatia muelleri during intracellular symbiosis with Chlorella, Madeleine Delbeau
Lifting Depression: The Impact of Contingency Training on Neurobiological Markers of Emotional Resilience, Ana Deutsch
Nanoparticles as Alternative Ceramic Glaze Colorants, Nathan Dinh
Cortical-Hippocampal Involvement in Problem-solving: Use of the Raccoon (procyon lotor) as a Model Organism, Jack Henry Drake
Wood Smoke Induced Lung Inflammation via the NFκB Pathway: Characterization and Treatment with 2'-Hydroxy-4'-methoxyacetophenone in Human Monocytes, Rhiannon Edwards
Speech, Silence, and Song: Investigating Language and Power in J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace, Emilie Erbland
A License to Kill: The Institutional Failure of the Legal System to Hold Police Accountable, Eliana R. Fleischer
The Impact of Inclusive Pedagogy on Achievement and Sense of Belonging Among College Students, Taylor Frost
The Relationship Between Nature, Media Use and Psychosocial Well Being in a College Population, Eve Gilles
The impact of curcumin on neurodegeneration & neuroinflammation in a Drosophila melanogaster model of human Machado-Joseph Disease, Lizzie Godschall
Crossing Cultures: The Negotiation of Gender and Racial Norms from New England to Cherokee Country, Alexis Hills
The Raccoon Project: Exploring Optimal Neural Functions in a Novel Model Species, Bilal Hindi
A Twisted Skein of Desire: Confession, Gaze, and Time in Andre Aciman’s Call Me by Your Name, Anthony Isenhour
Investigating conditional mutations in MTR4: an RNA helicase associated with the nuclear exosome, Anthony Isenhour
Follow the Leader or Follow the Strategy? The role of perceived legitimacy in evaluating leader effectiveness, Samantha M. Jaeger
Perceptions of Consistency in the Attitudes of Another, Kevin R. Kennedy
Profitability and Corporate Social Responsibility, Alexander Kirk
The Electoral College: Size Really Does Matter, Alexander Kirk
The Effect of President Trump’s Company-Specific Tweets on Company’s Stocks, Justin Kleczka
Race vs. Skin Tone IAT: Comparing Measures of Implicit Racial Bias by Racial Ethnic Group, Neelamberi Klein
Un vrai centriste? Les politiques d’Emmanuel Macron au 21ème siècle, Alexandra Kohnert
“And so they abandoned it and went to Cyprus”: The Lusignan Kingdom of Cyprus and Expressions of Military and Economic Power, 1291-1306, Mike Laposata
The Influence of Flooding on Macroinvertebrate Diversity of the James River Rock Pools, Meghan Leber
Moral Responsibility in Volitional Necessities, Krishna Lohiya
Netflix and Kill: A look at the cultural fascination with infamous killers, Grace Lynch
Synthesis, Characterization, and Reactivity of Palladium Proazaphosphatrane Complexes, Adrian D. Matthews
Storytelling for Fundraising: Assessing the Impact of Personal Stories on Donation Behavior, Kate A. McCarthy
Estimating Value-at-Risk of an Unconventional Portfolio, Elizabeth N. Mejía-Ricart
Tuition Resets: An Economic Analysis, Claire Mendelson
Connectivity of Coloring Graphs, Rachel Morris
“Smile For Me, Sweetie!”: An Analysis of Contemporary Gender Based Violence and Discrimination in The Bahamas, Jennifer Munnings
Four Forms of Morality: How 19th-century Female Novelists Engaged Enlightenment Ideals, Griffin Myers
The Paradox of Anxiety: Anxiety Mindset and Its Implication for Well-Being and Social Activism, Emma Nash
Competing Conceptions of Humanitarianism: Enemy Civilians and Ottoman-American Diplomacy in the Great War, 1914-1918, Nadia Neman
Troping for Justice and Joy: A Feminist Rhetorical Study of Women’s Reproductive Health, Claire E. Noppenberger
Liking and Listening: Impression Formation and Information Processing in Presidential Debates, Lauren Haviland O'Brien
Design of New Ruthenium Complexes for Photoactivated Chemotherapy, Lindsey Paul
A Flow Chemistry Implementation of the “Gupton Vinylogous Amide Chemistry” for High-yield, Regiospecific Synthesis of Unsymmetrical Polysubstituted Pyrroles, Carlos J. Perez Mandry
Identification of Ded1 Suppressors Using Genomic Sequencing, Jennifer Piciw
The Crowbar Sabotaged the Machine: Effects of Verb Intentionality and Syntactic Structure on Fixation Times During Reading, Michael Pittman
Biasing Medial Axis Rapidly-Exploring Random Trees with Safe Hyperspheres, David Qin
The Effects of Sod2 Antioxidant on Autophagy and Disease Progression in a Drosophila model of Macho-Joseph Disease, Henna Ragoowansi
Isofunctional Clustering and Mechanistic Characterization of the Arsenate Reductase Superfamily Reveals Nine Clusters, Mikaela Rosen
The Effects of Depressive Symptoms on Social Media Use Mediated by FoMO, Alexis Russell
Le prix pour devenir médecin Une analyse comparative des frais de scolarité actuels associés à la formation des médecins en Suisse et aux États-Unis, Jack Dillon Scheutzow
Universities and Carbon Neutrality: Motivation to Act and How to Create a Domino Effect, Jason Schwartz
So What: The Justification of Morality in Christine Korsgaard’s The Sources Of Normativity, Julian Scott
Application of β-chloroenals: one-pot syntheses to create highly variable, functional, and biologically interesting molecules, Julia Powell Siewert
Synthesis of 2-Methylfurans Through Alkylation-Cyclization-Aromatization Reactions, Danielle Sklar
Public Perceptions and Knowledge of Transplantation, Kimberly Smith
Internal Migration of Foreign-Born in US: Impacts of Population Concentration and Risk Aversion, Thin Yee Mon Su
Computer-Assisted Coloring-Graph Generation and Structural Analysis, Wesley Su
“The Narrative Is All That Matters”: Storytelling as Justice in Indigenous Women's Writing, Valerie Szalanczy
“Put Your Phone Down, and Say Hi!” Cultivating Positivity Resonance at UR, Natalie Szumel
The effects of signaling molecules to Agrobacterium tumefaciens tumorigenesis at plant wound sites, Nicole Walker
Effects of Curcumin and Dredd in a Drosophila model of Machado-Joseph Disease, Grace Warde
Victory in Defeat: The Power of Loss and the Construction of the Myths of Cato Uticensis and Robert E. Lee, William Wasta-Werner
Through the Arc of the Rain Forest: Restoring and Reclaiming the ‘Asian’ in ‘Asian Immigrant Narrative’, Carson Watlington
Small Lives, Small Worlds: Postcolonial Resistance in Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things and Shani Mootoo’s Cereus Blooms at Night, Savannah Wilson
Almost Difference Sets in 2-Groups, Xin Yutong
Connectiveity and Structures of Coloring Graphs, Xin Yutong
Fast Medial Axis Sampling for Use in Motion Planning, Hanglin Zhou
Investigations into the mutagenic potential of 8-oxo-2’-deoxyguanosine with human polymerase κ, Samuel Zielinski
Theses from 2019
Moderating factors in the relationship between perceived stigma and treatment-seeking propensity in active duty U.S. military service members, Rose Armstrong
Anilda Ibrahimi, Rosso come una spose : traduzione e analisi (capitoli VIII-XVII), Kyra Benforte
Creating a viral sponge : modification and mutation of virus-like particles, Ritwika Bose
Effects of a novel microtube depolymerizer on pro-inflammatory signaling in RAW264.7 macrophages, Madeline Brown
Marketing disability : navigating the ethics of nonprofit development and marketing, Peyton F. Carter
The effect of health literacy on chronic kidney disease patient health outcomes, Mia Castagnero
The effect of positively charged deoxynucleic guanidine (DNG) spherical nucleic acids (SNAs) on cellular uptake in the HEK-293 cell model, John Cavaliere
TMI : an examination of excess returns surrounding phase III FDA approvals, Luke Chiotelis
"It's part of my responsibility to help" : developing a measure of motivations for extrinsic emotion regulation, Sara Cloonan
Establishing a powerful woman's empathy in George Eliot's The mill on the floss, Romola, and Middlemarch, Rosie D'Angelo
Social skepticism, penetralia, and Hawthorne's veiled ethics, John DeAngelis
Légalement exaspérée : la loi, la culture, et les normes sexuelles en transition, Catherine Donovan
Superheroes and "the American way" : popular culture, national identity, and American notions of heroism and leadership, Lydia Dubois
Evaluating the entrenchment of the Patient protection and affordable care act : a comparative case study, Hannah Yvonne Dunn
Investigating heme and heat stress tolerance in sodalis glossinidius, Ruhan Farsin
The effects of health literacy on treatment adherence and health optimism in chronic kidney disease patients, Heather Gardiner
Using 3-dimensional FFTs to simulate CMB maps on a spherical cap, Eric Goetz
Gender and sport inequities : perceiving injustices and galvanizing change, Ashey E. Gross
Waveband luminosity correlations in flux-limited multiwavelength data and the Schwinger effect in Minkowski & De Sitter space-times, Syed Jibran Haider
Rationality, revisions, and real-time data, Jason Hall
Alkylations of ketones with propargyl and allyl carboxylates using TMSOTf, Elizabeth D. Heafner
Histone acetylation in a drosophila model of Machado-Joseph Disease, Jacob Jacisin