Honors Research is a hallmark of an IWU liberal arts education. Eligible students are invited to embark upon a year-long research or creative arts project with a faculty mentor and a committee of faculty from within and outside of their major department.
Any entry that does not have a pdf attached has been withheld from the repository at the author’s request. Bona fide researchers may be consult these works by contacting Tate Archives and Special Collections.
Submissions from 2024
Enhancing Self-Compassion: An Empirical Comparison of Expressive Writing and Meditation, Samantha de Souza
Unraveling Cuban Exceptionalism: Cold War Dynamics and Lobbying Strategies, Zoe Hovde
An Analysis of Novel Yeasts and Their Brewing Potential, Hannah Murray
From King to Villain: Herod the Great's Transition from Historical Figure to Dramatic Antagonist, Joshua Reed
(Bi)lingüe, (Bi)cultural y el Espacio Intermedio, Emma Sempsrott
Transcriptomics of the L5-Dorsal Root Ganglion After Spinal Cord Stimulation in the Rat Spared Nerve Injury Model, Samantha Wilcox
IWU Student Civic Engagement and Activism: Actions by Student Senate, the Religious Activities Commission, and the Methodist Student Movement, Lillian Winkeler
The Roles of Body Positivity and Social Support in Predicting Happiness in College Students, Chloe Xu
Submissions from 2023
Fleshing Out Flash: Interconnectedness of Poetic Sensibilities in Micro Memoir, Ninetta DeBoni
Policy Type and Presidential Messaging as Factors of Legislative Productivity, Madison Garofalo
Investigating Poetry's Well-Made Surprises, Maria Harmon
March 10th: The Tibetan Peoplehood Movement, Adrianna E. Helstad
Accurate Pulse Assessment by Radial Artery Palpation: A Pilot Study, Abigail Mathis
Constructing the Spectrum for Maximum Packings of Complete Graphs with Stars of Size Six, Zihan Nie
Bird of Our Worth, Emile Ottinger
A Semiotic Analysis of Two Linear A Inscribed Ladles, Leah Rosen
Motives for Independence: The Case of Spain’s Catalonia, Emma Stroh
The United States after the Third Religious Disestablishment: A Case Study of the ADF’s Strategies in Prolonging Culture Wars, Rachel Williams
Submissions from 2022
“The Adrenaline of Failure:” Exploring the Zaniness of Sylvia Plath, Katie Fata
The "Politics of Trauma": National Trauma in Poland and Hungary and the Othering of Queer Identities, Keira Hoeferle
Assessing Happiness: An Evaluation of the Latin American Paradox in the United States, Daniel J. Maisch
An Analysis of Commentary in Men’s and Women’s Olympic Basketball, Madison Monk
Stock Price Forecasting using a Dependence Structure, Paul Mucci
Stock Price Forecasting using a Dependence Structure, Paul Mucci
Effects of traditional and modified rehabilitation on functional improvement following stroke in a mouse model, Viktoriya Salgalova
Parent Experiences and Perceptions of the Adoption Process, Jorri Sandage
The Foreign-Born and the American Dream: An Analysis of Trends in and Determinants of Immigrant Homeownership, Jared Schneider
Accurate Methods in Pulse Rate Assessment by Palpation: Pilot Study, Emilija Stankute
Stress and Coping: College Students' Perceptions of Coping, Broderick E. Summers
Ce Qui Reste: Legacies of Decolonization in Guinea and Gabon, Andrew Tietz
Submissions from 2021
Queering Little Women, Megan Baker
All Things Counter, William C. Brown
‘Begrimed and Black:’ Shakespeare’s Depiction of Race in the Renaissance, Emma Cottrell
Blending the Gender Binary: The Machismo-Marianismo Dyad as a Coping Mechanism, Emma Garcia
From Witch Trials to Red Scare: Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and Perceptions of Women Through History, Gabrielle Ghaderi
The Paradox of Womanhood: Gender Roles and The Representation of Women in Puccini’s Tosca (Honors), Madeline Hanrahan
The Effect of Female Protagonists and Non-Sexist Dialogue on Domestic Box Office Revenue for Films Released Between 1995 to 2018, Chase Ochsner
The Politics of Music: Examining Political Motivations of John Adams' Nixon in China (Honors), Ethan Schuller
a gift, Bonnie Smith
The Effects of Training Intensity on Functional Outcome in a Mouse Model of Stroke, Kelsey Wyman
Submissions from 2020
The Out Migration from Illinois Cities and the Impact it has on the People Left Behind, Evan Anderson
Keatsian Correspondences: A Tragedy in Five Acts, Adam Cady
Exploring the Efficacy of Corporate Social Responsibility, Olivia Causer
Suite Médiévale: A Guide for Interpretation and Performance (Honors), Andrew Johnson
Parent Opinions and Perceptions of Others on Queering High School Education, Nicki Lewis
Improving Timing of Capillary Blood Glucose Monitoring and Insulin Administration through Patient Education, Emily Lezcano
Bisexuality and Epistemic Injustice, Kayley Rettberg
False Beliefs in Dogs, Sydney Rowley
Content Validity: A Measure of Knowledge, Attitude, Behaviors, and Experiences of Muslims from the Nurse Perspective, Sydney Shanks
Text Anomaly Detection with ARAE-AnoGAN, Tec Yan Yap
Decompositions of Complete Uniform Multipartite Hypergraphs, Patrick Ward
which will tip the scales, Johnny Whitfield
Submissions from 2019
LGBTQIA+ Campus Climate at a Small Liberal Arts University: An Exploratory Study with the Aim of Improving the Environment for Queer Students, Mary Amanda Breeden
A Thinker-Based Perspective on Free Speech and Fake News, Geoffroi G. Castro
Absolutely Free?: Frank Zappa’s Musical Assault on American Conformity, 1966-1968, Brandon Chopp
Effects of Weighted Blankets on College Students’ Anxiety, Amy Clapp
Altered Paw Pain Thresholds Due to Different Spinal Cord Stmulation Parameters in a Rat Model of Chronic Neuropathetic Pain, Jillian Cole
Nursing Students' Knowledge of Alcohol - Interactive Medications, Andrew Coop
In the Ripe and Ruin, Kathryn Halford
Utilizing PDCM to Analyze How Comparable Liberal Arts Institutions Evaluate Poems, Abigail Kauerauf
International Migration and FDI: Can Migrant Networks Foster Investments toward Origin Countries?, Trang Heidi Luu
Rice Terrace Degradation in Ifugao: Causation and Cultural Preservation, Chaepter Negro
The Effects of Intermittent Training on Recovery of Fine Motor Control and Neuroplasticity After Stroke in a Mouse Model, Victoria Nemchek
Terahertz Absorption Spectra of Silicate Cosmic Analog Dusts Using a Novel Spectrometer, Binh Phan
A Three-Pronged Defense of Hate Speech: An Objection to David Brink, Adeline Schultz
This or that?: Object individuation in domesticated dogs (Canis lupus familiaris), Ellen Stumph
Democracy in Crisis: An Examination of the Negative Effects of Political Parties on Democracy, Alani L. Sweezy
Democracy in Crisis:An Examination of the Negative Effects of Political Parties on Democracy, Alani L. Sweezy
Horses, Gunshots, and Saloons: The Portrayal of the American West in Libby Larsen’s Songs from Letters (Honors), Katharine Teykl
Task Specificity and Functional Outcome: What is best for Post-Stroke Rehabilitation?, Rachel Tomazin
On the Nature of Synesthesia: A Learned Association or Something Different?, Niyant Vora
Polarized China: The Effect of Media Censorship on People's Ideology, Gaoming Zhu
Submissions from 2018
The Value of Green Certification on Single-Family Houses in the Chicagoland Area, Raymond Bolton
Why the Right?: Evaluating Vote Choice in Rural America, Zoe Bouras
Evolutionary Social History and Social Facilitation in Non-Human Animals, Maisy Bowden
Exploring the Contributing Factors to Labor Market Assimilation Outcomes across Refugee Groups in the United States, Hsin-Jou Lily Chang
A Prefeeding Oral Motor Therapy and its Effect on Feeding Efficiency in a Thai NICU, Victoria Drake
Right-Wing Populism under Majoritarian Conditions: A Comparison of Support for Brexit and Trump, Olivia Heffernan
Blood and Magic: A Novel of Artiagom, Ross Hettinger
I Heard a Little Birdie Softly Screaming, Paxton Johnson
Remembering the In-Between, Eva Kossmann
Blue Life, Jamie Kreppein
The Role of Task-Specificity in Functional Outcome Following Ischemic Stroke in Mice, Shannon Maloney
i pull the trigger and lilies fly out: a collection of poetry, Grace McGovern
Upward Intergenerational Mobility of College Students: Does the Type of Institution Matters?, Caroline Monsen
Effect of Dogs’ (Canis lupus familiaris) Environment on Social Cognition, Kathleen O’Shea
Domestic Dogs Prefer Prosocial to Antisocial Humans, Zachary Silver
Health Literacy and Knowledge of Female Reproduction in Undergraduate Students, Ashley Sons
Lady Gray: The Beginning of a Novel, Savanna Steck
Sexual Violence against Males in Armed Conflict: How State Masculinity Helps to Explain its Occurrence, Jia Muyi Yang
Algebraic Structures on Riordan Groups, Yuanziyi Zhang
Submissions from 2017
The Golden Age Exposed: The Reality Behind This Romantic Era, Danny Adams
Aesopian Language of Soviet Era Children’s Literature: Translation, Adaptation, and Animation of a Western Classic, Boryana Borisova
Teaching Spanish-Speaking: Authors for Social Justice, Elaine Coppe