The senior thesis is emblematic of the kind of intellectual freedom Bard College at Simon’s Rock’s Upper College students are given. It is a year-long, self-designed scholarly project that is the capstone of a student’s work. It’s required of everyone. The thesis is not just an academic requirement for a Simon’s Rock Bachelor of Arts degree, it is work that adds to the world’s storehouse of knowledge.
At the beginning of the thesis project, a formal proposal must be submitted and approved. This collection includes senior thesis proposals beginning in academic year 1998-1999 as well as theses beginning in 2011.
2018
Senior Thesis Proposal, Julia Mendez
Senior Thesis Proposal, Angel Mendez Rivera
Senior Thesis Proposal, Wynona Meyer
Aus Ton und Feuer: an Exploration of and Dialogue with the German Expressionist Movement, Dana Miller
Senior Thesis Proposal, Stone Mims
Educational Opportunities for Children from Impoverished Communities in Myanmar, Nay Chie Moe Thet
Love Letter to Pinterest: On Abjection, Illness, and the Feminine Labor in Care, Kayleigh Myer
Senior Thesis Proposal, Kai Naor
A Study on Ultrasonic Levitation and Particle Stability, Naol Negassa
(Over)Medicalization of Pregnancy and Childbirth in the United States: Consequences, Repercussions, and a “New Age” Revolt, Lael Ngangmeni
Prime-Generating Polynomials: Quadratics over norm-Euclidean Domains, Daniel Packer
Senior Thesis Proposal, Roop Pal
Senior Thesis Proposal, Adam Paykin
A Heart Knows When It’s Come Home: a musical about long-distance relationships, Danielle Pendleton
Outliving the Matrix: Online Community and the [Re]Making of a Gendered Identity, Micaela Pereira
Senior Thesis Proposal, Sophie Petters
Senior Thesis Proposal, Andrew Phennicie
The Science Teacher and the Theater: The Patty Dooley Experience, Georges Pichard
Senior Thesis Proposal, Tereza Pitman
Senior Thesis Proposal, Coco Raymond
Senior Thesis Proposal, Hadassah Riemer
Senior Thesis Proposal, Conor Rowan
Senior Thesis Proposal, Daryn Rust
Senior Thesis Proposal, Cassiel Sabin
Senior Thesis Proposal, Joshua Salama
Senior Thesis Proposal, Sam Scott
Senior Thesis Proposal, Bruna Shabazz
Senior Thesis Proposal, Maxx Shabazz
Senior Thesis Proposal, Rachel Shi
Senior Thesis Proposal, Heidi Singe
I broke up with Edison (I’ve had enough), Matthew Stabile
Turning Pebbles to Clay: A Cinematic Reconstruction of Integrity, Elle Stanion
Senior Thesis Proposal, Corinne Stanley
Senior Thesis Proposal, Ben Steiz
Loving Animal and Eating Their Flesh: Psychological Perspectives on Veganism and Eating Meat, Mira Tesla
The Curious World of Paracosms, Danya Tracht
Senior Thesis Proposal, Allana Tyson
Senior Thesis Proposal, Hannah Walker
Metabolic Reprogramming to Enhance the Efficacy of mTOR Inhibition in Colorectal Cancer, Madison Weber
Process Notes: A Coming of Age, Claire Wegh
Senior Thesis Proposal, Avi Wershba
Xiao Qu: Life behind Walls, Yi Xie
Senior Thesis Proposal, Chengcheng Xin
Senior Thesis Proposal, Shirley Xu
The Onset of Oscillations in the Belousov-Zhabotinsky Reaction and the Brain: Chemical Modeling of Epileptic Seizures, Maisha Zahed
Optimum Design of Dual Purpose Power Generation and Desalination Plants, Xinyan Zhang
2017
Unseen Histories: A Visual Study of Political Presence and Aesthetic Interpretation, Sara Aboobakar
Senior Thesis Proposal, Miles Abracosa
Senior Thesis Proposal, Nathan Alan-Lee
Tiny Weatherman: Examining Behavioral Changes in Pogonomyrmex occidentalis in Response to Seasonal Changes, Tony Alexander
Senior Thesis Proposal, Alec Allain
Senior Thesis Proposal, Russell Allen
Senior Thesis Proposal, Zyaid Banihani
Senior Thesis Proposal, Rebecca Bhik-Ghanie
Joining the Heroides: An Introspective Look into What It Means to Be an Artist When Life Happens, Told in Three Parts and Two Plays, Kaelyn Brandt
Artificial Intelligence Classical Music Composer, Chi Cao
Two-Dimensional Messiah: The Cartoon Aesthetics of Totalizing Capital and Fragmented Selfhood, Virginia Cassel
Senior Thesis Proposal, Sierra Cast
Musical and Visual Representations of Gray Codes, Michael Chang
Senior Thesis Proposal, Dennis Chen
Prayer Beads and Red Scarf: Projecting Shangrilazation in Modern Tibet, Yueming Chen
Senior Thesis Proposal, Mo Constantine
[Re] Encountering the Painted Look: Poetics of the Portrait, Rebecca Cosenza
Senior Thesis Proposal, Mikaela Dalessio
Categorizing Experience: Locke, Berkeley, and Wittgenstein on the Problem of Generalization, Elibba Dean
Senior Thesis Proposal, Jaimee de Witt Bedford
Senior Thesis Proposal, Haley Dionne
Miracle on 84th Street, House Dow
An Agricultural and Climate Analysis of Kern County (CA, USA) and Fujian Province (China): Past, Present, and Future, Hannah Ferus
Aquaponics: An Exploration into the Future of Agriculture, Greig Fields
Sex Work, Drugs, and Decriminalization: Toward a Politics of Harm Reduction, Avonlea Fisher
The Subjugation of Black Women: California and New York’s Legal Genocide, Ligaya Franklin
Only Mostly Dead: Battlefield Medicine through American History, Rhiannon Gabriel-Jones
Senior Thesis Proposal, Scheherazade Goertzel
As She Herself Might Have Told It: Relating Politics and Feminism as Method, Lillian Goldberg
ShapeShifter Programmatic geometric modelling made simple., Ishan Guru
Senior Thesis Proposal, Hayden Gutt
Senior Thesis Proposal, Cameron Haas
New Road: An Original Recorded Album and Film Installation, Stephen Hager
Wounded Skyes: A Tale of Razors and Recovery Not a Fairytale, Naomi Harris
Constructing Maximum-Rotating de Bruijn Sequences Using their Necklace Trees, Oscar Hernandez
Explorations of Darkness and Joy in Children’s Literature, Chloe Hull
What A Heart Loves A Thesis Presentation, Regan Humphrey
Destroy the Audience: Unconventional Forms of Playwriting Pioneered by Women of Color, Zoe Hu
Graceful and Cordial Forests: A Computational Investigation of Graph Labelings, Feston Kastrati
Rethinking Reddit: A Novel Hybrid Recommendation System, Spencer Kee
Government and the Voiceless City: A Case Study on the Flint, Michigan Water Crisis and State-Community Relations, Arielle King
Chatting with Bots: A Quick Survey of Conversational Agents And Their Appropriate Applications, Maksim Kotov
Senior Thesis Proposal, Andrew Ku
Domination, Andrew Kunz
Senior Thesis Proposal, Boqiao Lai
Fibers Joining a Broken Lotus Root: An Exploration of Han Chinese Traditional Food and Agricultural Plant Knowledge, Wai Lun Lam
The Backseat Drivers of a Nation: The Impact of Western Interests on Modern Iran, Jonathan Levinson
¿Repita, Por Favor? An Exploration of the Challenges Faced by Spanish-speaking Students and Families in Massachusetts, Hannah Lienhard
Improving Bacterial Ear Infection Diagnostics with an Image Classification Algorithm, Wanying Li
Senior Thesis Proposal, Victoria Loughborough
Senior Thesis Proposal, Ross MacFadyen