During the 2012-2013 academic year, several Hobart and William Smith students successfully completed Honors projects. The students and their advisers were recognized by the HWS Board of Trustees last weekend and will be again honored at a reception hosted by Provost and Dean of Faculty Titi Ufomata on May 10. Their accomplishments will also be noted in this year’s commencement program.

The Hobart and William Smith Honors Program allows students to complete work at the most sustained and sophisticated level available in the Colleges’ curriculum. Qualified students take two or three self-designed courses that concentrate on the same project and are guided throughout their exploration by a faculty adviser.

In addition to the culminating Honors project, usually a research or critical paper or its counterpart in the creative arts, each Honors candidate takes a written examination in their Honors field and an oral examination that covers both the Honors project and the written examination.

Seniors receiving Honors this year are:

William H. Abbott, Political Science

Good Kid, Mad City: Public Education Under Neoliberalism

Professor of Political Science Jodi Dean, Adviser

Sara C. Ahrendtsen, Architectural Studies

The Visual Representation of a Built Environment

Assistant Professor of Architectural Studies Kirin Makker, Adviser

Jonathan E. Barthel, Philosophy

The Institution of Punishment:  Unjustifiable in a Liberal State

Professor of Philsophy Steven Lee, Adviser

Brandon E. Campbell, Russian Area Studies

Vygotsky in Context

Assistant Professor of Psychology Brien Ashdown, Adviser

Nicholas C. D’Alberto, Psychology

The Effect of Reward on Inhibitory Control: An Electrophysical Study

Professor of Psychology Jeffrey Greenspon, Adviser

Catherine R. Downey, Chemistry

Synthesis and Oxidative Cyclization of 3,4-Diaryl 3-pyrrolin-2-ones

Associate Professor of Chemistry Erin Pelkey, Adviser

Hilary S. Dreyer, Anthropology

CHICHA: Drink of the Gods and Means of Social Cohesion in Bolivian Society

Assistant Professor of Anthropology Brenda Maiale, Adviser

Kimberly R. Goral, Media and Society

Covering Climate Change: Methods and Deficits of Environmental Broadcast Journalism

Assistant Professor of Media and Society Leah Shafer, Adviser

Lindsey R. Haun, Health Professions

Fiction + History = Healthcare Reformation: Tracking Social Perceptions of Mental Illness and Its Influence on the Quality of Psychiatric Nursing Care from 1750-1918

Professor of Writing and Rhetoric Cheryl Forbes, Adviser

Jordunn F. Joubert, Psychology

Lexical Ambiguities: Using Context and Dominance of Meaning to Reduce the Subordinate Bias Effect

Associate Professor of Psychology Michelle Rizzella, Adviser

Alexander B. Kittleberger, Computer Science

Online Virtual Math Museum: Building a Virtual Math Museum with Modern Web Technologies and an XML Infrastructure

Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science David Eck, Adviser

Molly F. Krifka, Ethnomusicology

The Turista Performing: Gender, Alterity, and Musicianship in the Peruvian Highlands

Assistant Professor of Anthropology Brenda Maiale, Adviser

Callan P.Mathis, Media and Society

Who Do You Think I Am?

Professor of Media and Society Linda Robertson, Adviser

Jillian McCarthy, Philosophy [featured in the photo above]

Dropping Mind and Body: A Comparative Analysis of Nonduality

Dean of Hobart College and Professor of Philosophy Eugen Baer HON’07, P’95, P’97, Adviser

Alessandra E. Mele, Studio Art

Juxtaposing Significance: Aesthetic Experience Through Found Materials

Associate Professor of Art and Architecture Nicholas Ruth, Adviser

Stephen G. Mugel, Biology

The Social Influence of Male Courtship: Competition, Female Quality, and Indications of Female Selectivity

Professor of Biology David Droney, Adviser

Emily C. Perkins, Philosophy

The Power and Purpose of Metaphor: Making the Abstract Concrete and Visual

Dean of Hobart College and Professor of Philosophy Eugen Baer HON’07, P’95, P’97, Adviser

Joseph A. Quigley, Media and Society

Information Flows: Unhibited Connectivity and the Global Media

Professor of Political Science Jodi Dean, Adviser

Lauren V. Rossman, International Relations

The Role of the State in Economic Development: An Analysis of Brazil’s Desarrollista State

Professor of Economics Scott McKinney, Adviser

Samuel H. Schneider, Chemistry

Macromolecular Crowding: Effects and Mechanism on the Kinetics of S. cerevisiae Alcohol Dehydrogenase

Assistant Professor of Chemistry Kristin Slade, Adviser

Sarah A. Tanzer, Political Science

Swing or Miss: An Analysis of the Evolution of Campaigning, 1980-2008

Associate Professor of Political Science DeWayne Lucas, Adviser

Deepak Vallabhaneni, Biochemistry

Evaluating the Biological Activity of Depsipeptide  HDAC Inhibitors on p53-deficient U937 Cells

Professor of Biology Sigrid Carle, Adviser

Megan R. VanDorp, Latin American Studies

Wild Ox to Foster Mother: Retracing Bos taurus’ Path Into the Cultures of Spain, Argentina, and the United States

Associate Professor of Religious Studies Richard Salter ’86, P’15, Adviser

Augusta A. Williams, Geoscience

Weather and Weather Radar Observations During E ared Grebe Migration in the Vicinity of the Great Salt Lake

Associate Professor of Geoscience Neil Laird, Adviser