Middlebury College's annual Senior Honors International Thesis Presentations create a forum for students to showcase their international research to an audience of faculty, staff, and students. Although seniors' work must be on an international topic, the students may be majors in any department or program. The result is a rich array of honors-level international theses. For previous years' presentations and award winners, please consult our Annual Reports. Thesis Awards
2007 Senior Honors International Thesis Presentations
May 7
Asena Woodward, (political science): “Two Roads Diverged: Development Discrepancies between Botswana and Zimbabwe”
Carolyn Barnwell, (environmental studies and sociology and snthropology): “Organic Solidarity: The Hybrid Discourse and Practice of Alternative Agriculture in Northeast Thailand”
Ashley Clark, (political science): “A Bitter Pill: Comparison of Transnational Justice Apparatuses in Rwanda and Sierra Leone”
Aysegul Savas, (sociology and anthropology): “‘No Difference, Really’: Migration Narravites of Kurdish Women from Eastern Turkey to Istanbul”
Amy Heath, (international studies): “The Politics of Bilingual North African Print Media”
Mateal Lovaas, (international studies): “Africa on Stage: Understanding the West’s Collective Conscience about Sub-Saharan Africa through a Comparative Analysis of Children’s Literature and International Development”
May 8
Emily Kilborn, (international studies): “The Politics of Language in Europe”
Tatiana Virviescas, (independent scholar): “The Colombian Diaspora in Paris: A Study of Immigration through the Emergence of a Hybrid Colombo-Parisian Social Dance”
Ljudmila Bilkic, (German): “Dem Überleben seine Kunst--der Kunst ihr Überleben: Eine Untersuchung der serbischen und österreichischen Kulturentwicklung in der Kaiserstadt Wien” ("For Every Time Its Art. For Art Its Freedom: An Analysis of Servian and Austrian Culture in Imperial Vienna“)
Meredith Conrad, (international studies): “From Kulturkampf to Existenzkampf: Connecting the Anti-Catholic Campaigns of Bismarck and Hitler”
Gruia Badescu, (international studies and geography): “Politics, Architecture, and Identity in Rebuilding Germany’s Cities after the Second World War”
May 9
Arnoud Bekencamp, (international politics and economics): “Civic Life in Catalonia and the Basque Country”
Maureen Murphy, (Japanese and English literature): “Landscapes of Loss: Depictions of World War II in Mid to Late-Twentieth Century Japanese”
Yuichiro Mitsutomi, (history and Chinese): “A Trifurcated Nation: Contemporary Chinese Nationalism and Sino-Japanese Relations”
Anastasia Aurol (Chinese and political science): “Pu Songling’s Ideal Society”
Alfred Yi (Chinese): “Representation of Chinese Masculinity in the 1980s: A Detailed Investigation of the Male Characters in Liu Heng’s Fuxi Fuxi, Winter’s Gate and Black Snow”
Tae-Hyung Kim (international studies): “In Defense of Protectionism: China’s Cartoon Industry”
May 10
Iulia Sprinceana (Spanish and economics): “El teatro de Valle- Inclán entre lo esperpéntico y la (ir)representabilidad” (“The Theater of Ramón María del Valle-Inclán between the Esperpento and the Irrepresentability”)
Rachel Rosenfeld (international studies): “Jewberia: The Struggle to Define Russian Jewish Identity in the Postmodern Period”
Colleen Fitzharris (history and Russian): “‘We Saw There Was No Hope’: Soviet Jewish Refugees and American Concern for Human Rights 1971-1980”
Pavel Svaton (German and economics): “Westernization of Government Expenditures: Fiscal Convergence in Eastern Europe”
Aglaya Glebova (history of art and architecture): “Representation of Women in Natalia Goncharova’s Early Work”
Michael Young (international studies): “Composing Russianness: Folk Music and Identity in the 20th Century”
May 11
Felipe Pruneda-Senties (film and media culture): “The Invisible Skull: Death and Modernity in Mexican Postrevolutionary Cinema”
Sara Lowes (economics and political science): “The Use of Propensity Score Matching to Evaluate the Effects of the Red de Protección Social in Wiwilí, Nicaragua”
Zsofia Young (international studies): “Broken Promises: Post-Hurricane Stan Reconstruction in Santiago Atitlán”
Laura Kuhl (sociology and anthropology, and environmental studies): “Losing a Stigmatized Commons: Identity and Community Solidarity for Ecuadorian Concheros”
David Restrepo (international politics and economics): “W(h)ither Coca? Drug Policies, Insurgencies, and Their Effects on the Andean Drug Trade”
2007 Senior Honors Thesis Award in International Politics and Economics
The Senior Honors Thesis Award in International Politics and Economics was established by the Center for International Affairs and is awarded annually for the best senior thesis in international politics and economics.
David Restrepo (international politics and economics): “W(h)ither Coca? Drug Policies, Insurgencies, and Their Effects on the Andean Drug Trade”
2007 International Studies Award
The International Studies Award is presented to the graduating senior who, in the judgement of the International Peak Committee, has written the best senior thesis in the area of international studies, broadly conceived. Eligible students include majors in International Politics and Economics, International Studies, and majors in other disciplines whose theses have an international focus. Laura Kuhl (sociology and anthropology, and environmental studies): “Losing a Stigmatized Commons: Identity and Community Solidarity for Ecuadorian Concheros”