2014 American Studies Senior Thesis Schedule

March 19 – April 9, 2014

March 19

Art in the Ozarks: Exploring the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art as a Cultural Capital – Caroline Seabolt

In Whom We Trust: The Presidency and Religion through the Lens of Kennedy and Romney’s Campaigns – Adaire Carey

Ebony and Ivory, Living in Perfect Harmony? Interpreting Cultural Representations of Interracial Marriage in the Mass Media – Kelsey Vickery

March 24

Stage Fright: Popular Music Festivals as Venues for the Consumption and Performance of Social Risk – Morgan Brown

Dunbar High School’s Literary Legacy: The Poetic Fieldwork of Jean Toomer, Sterling Brown and Thomas Sayers Ellis – Weldon Lummus

Learning for Others?: A Comparison of Service-Learning at Boston College and Georgetown University – Colleen Gravens

March 26

Gentrifying Polonia: The Effect of Gentrification and Immigration on Identity in Greenpoint, Brooklyn – Lenny Olsen

Ideologies and Ivory Towers: Boston College, Harvard and Tufts’ Emergency Response to the Boston Marathon Bombing – Logan Weaver

Picking Teams: A Survey of Audience Selectivity and Fragmentation in the Modern Day Television Sports Market – Kyle Franco

March 31

Superman’s America: The Establishment of a National Mythology – Leigh Sevin

Fighting a Plague: Doctor’s Stories of Challenge and Innovation Combatting the AIDS Epidemic in New York City in the 1980s – Tim DeVita

Practice Makes Perfect: Reforming the Legal Education System with Experiential Based Learning – Caroline Diemer

April 2

Truman’s Type of Catholics: Reevaluating Catholic Clergy Commissioners on Presidential Immigration Commissions – José Madrid

Opening Doors and Opening Minds: The Success of Cristo Rey Schools in the National Education Reform Movement – Caitlin Gallagher

Money Talks: The Real “Greening” of The Olympic Games – Thomas Mulholland

April 7

Bringing an End to the Blood on the Leaves: The Legacy of “Strange Fruit” in the Careers of Lena Horne and Nina Simone – Olivia Smith

Blood, Sweat, and Chains: An Analysis of Labor and Law in Colonial Maryland – Peter Swan

Losing the Digital Soul: How American Privacy Law is Missing the Mark – Drew Carpenter

April 9

Becoming Bioethics: The Evolution of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics – Maggie Cleary

The Good, The Bad, the Pointless: How Violence in Cinema has Evolved from a Moral Attachment to Plot Movement – Destin Rivera

It’s All in Your Head: Concussions and their Impact on the Future of American College Football – Patrick Kelly