Undergraduate students at Washington University in St. Louis (Wash*) are encouraged to participate in research. These opportunities are organized through the Office of Undergraduate Research or through department-specific honors courses. This collection contains senior research papers or honors theses from across disciplines at WashU.
BSBA Honors in Management students: Please submit to the BSBA collection.
BFA students should submit to the BFA collection.
WGSS honors papers should be submitted to the WGSS Honors collection.
Theses from 2025
Black Sonicism: Cultural Maintenance and Evolution through New Orleans Bounce Music, Leandrea L. Clay, African and African American Studies, Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
Experimental Evaluation of Resource Allocation to Organelles in Eukaryotic Cells, Ronan Hanley, Physics, Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
Sown in Soil: Black Mississippi Landowners, Heirs Property, and New South Neoliberalism, Jermicah Lott, African and African American Studies, Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
In Search of Extreme Extragalactic Energy: A catalog of TeV-emitting BL Lac candidates from eROSITA and WISE, Cassidy M. Metzger, Manel Errando, and Andrea Gokus, Physics, Bachelor of Science
Josephson Junctions: Fabrication and Applications for the Axion Dark Matter eXperiment, Jonah M. Sachs, Computer Science, Bachelor of Science
Observational Properties of Near-Maximal Spin Black Holes with the EHT, Tegan A. Thomas, Angelo Ricarte, and Yajie Yuan, Physics, Bachelor of Science
Chinese Students, Jim Crow Schools: Navigating Education in a Black-and-White Society, Amanda Young, History, Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
Theses from 2024
A Framework for Building Strong School Culture: A Case Study on the Transformative Impacts of Ethics Education on High School Students, Peter Cohen, Education, Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
IMAGINATION, PERFORMANCE, EXPRESSION: UNRAVELING GLOBAL PAKISTANI IDENTITY, Omaer Naeem, International and Area Studies, Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
Rejection, Creation, and Abolitionist Futures: Sustaining Ecosystems of Care Under Neoliberal Violence 1980-present, Maya Phelps, African and African American Studies, Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
Anticipated Belonging in College: An Intervention to Increase College Access, Danika Strayhorn, Education, Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
Role of Integrase-PP2A Interaction in Human T-Cell Leukemia Virus Type-1 Replication and Pathogenesis, Shayna Turbin, Biology, Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
Theses from 2023
The Juris Master: A Proposal for Reducing Excessive Public Defender Caseloads, Blake Comeaux, Philosophy, Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
"I'm Scared to Come Out of My Shell": Contraceptive Care for Migrants in St. Louis, Julie Deleger, Anthropology, Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
"I'm Fat as Fuck:" Fat Black Women's Self-Perception and Modes of Resistance, Savannah Henderson, Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
Rethinking the "Unusual Type": Black Queer Women and the Spatial Politics of Belonging in Twentieth Century America, Olivia N. Kerr, African and African American Studies, Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
Identification of a Pseudomonas syringae Mutant with an Altered Response to Auxin, Joseph Kim, Chemical Engineering, Bachelor of Science
The Quantitative Microanalysis Explorer: Introducing web-based visualization for optical, electron, and quantitative x-ray maps for studying lunar samples, Angelina Minocha, Physics, Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
Sampling in Hip-Hop - Creative Genius or a Total Flop: The Aesthetics’ Preservation and Continuity of a Black Musical Tradition, Jennifer Olabode, Music, Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
Birthing reimagined: Perceptions of safety and autonomy in birth experiences among postpartum individuals during COVID-19, Beldina Orinda, Anthropology, Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
Resistance/Refusal of Violence in the Neoliberal City: Black LGBTQ+ Communities in Chicago and New York (1989 – present), Marc Ridgell, African and African American Studies, Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
The Would-Chuck Construction, Grace Teuscher, Linguistics, Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
The Distribution of Tone in Shanghainese Monosyllables: An Optimality Theory Approach, Jamie Xu, Linguistics, Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
Theses from 2022
Speechless: Understanding the Manufacture of Omission in an Effort Toward a More Responsible Ethnography, sophie goldstein, Anthropology, Bachelor of Science
Expanding the Archive: Validating Collective Memory and Film to Understand the Partition of India, Ayush Halder, History, Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
Investing Green to Become More Green: An Analysis of Whether S&P 100 Companies are Decreasing their Carbon Footprint Proportional to their Liquidity, Ashley Hendler and Ethan Hunter, Business Administration, Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
Dataset Evaluation for Data Trading Using Expected Loss and Homomorphic Encryption, Minsung Joo, Mathematics, Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
Do Chief Executive Officers with Higher Compensation Assume More Innovative Risk Within Their Firms? Unearthing the Relationship Between Chief Executive Officer Compensation and Firm Innovation Levels: An Analysis of S&P 500 Companies, Hailey Kleban and Abhay Bhandari, Business Administration, Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
“That’s what hospice is supposed to do”: How U.S. hospice care staff bridge philosophy and institutions, Morgan Alexa Leff, Anthropology, Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
Factors Determining Attraction of Neurodivergent Applicants to Organizations, Barri Levitt, Business Administration, Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA)
"Nothing but the Son of a Black Woman": Anti-Blackness, Gender Dynamics, and Muslim Communities of Memphis, Zari Muhammad, African and African American Studies, Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
Alimentary Politics and Algorithms: The Spread of Information about “Healthy” Eating and Diet on TikTok, Sara Pierce, Anthropology, Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
Understanding Chinese Public Opinion on Foreign Aid, Hanxiong Yan, Political Science, Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
Omega-3 and Omega-6 Rebalancing in Ready-to-Use-Therapeutic-Food (RUTF) for the Treatment of Moderate Acute Malnutrition in Children Aged 8-24 Months in Pujehun, Sierra Leone: An analysis of the differences in acceptability between a Docosahexaenoic acid-fortified standard RUTF, a Docosahexaenoic acid-fortified oat-based RUTF, and a standard RUTF, Max Zalta, Anthropology, Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
Theses from 2021
Development of a Diamond Defect Quantum Sensing Platform for Probing Novel Quantum Magnetic Phases, Jeffrey Ahlers, Physics, Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
Land Consolidation and Registration in Kenya: Landlessness and Threats to Nation Building, Ellen Bresnick, African and African American Studies, Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
Allure of the Supernatural: South Korean Realities and the French Interest in The Private Lives of Plants and The Vegetarian [L’Attrait du surnaturel : les réalités sud-coréennes et l’intérêt des Français pour La Vie rêvée des plantes et La Végétarienne], Adelaide Choi, Romance Languages and Literatures, Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
Mineralogy of Aeolian Deposits in Gale Crater, Mars: The Bagnold Dunes to Glen Torridon, Eleanor Moreland, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
Picky Eating in Children: Associations with IQ and Executive Functioning, Ara Nazmiyal, Psychology, Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
"Yeah I'm Still That Bitch, but Now I'm Feelin' Like the Man": How Black Women Rappers Queer Masculinity in Hip Hop, Efua Osei, African and African American Studies, Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
Radical Support: Understanding Doula Work as Resistance to Routinized Violence, Arianna Parkhideh, Anthropology, Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
A Vanguard at the Intersections: Black Girls and the Black Panther Party's Oakland Community School, Logan Phillips, African and African American Studies, Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
Explanatory Necropolitics: Physicians’ Perspectives on Compliance, Culture, and Competence in the Management of Chronic Disease, Rithvik Ramesh, Anthropology, Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
The St. Louis Legacy: Understanding Racial Disparities in Health and the Disproportionate Impact of Covid-19 on Black Americans, Helen Stephens, Anthropology, Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
Individuality and Autochthony in Kenya's Coastal Landscape, Julia Stewart, African and African American Studies, Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
Modular Neural Network and Clustering using Diffusion Basis Spectrum Imaging (DBSI) metrics improves Prostate Cancer Grading, Anthony Wu, Computer Science, Bachelor of Science
A Phonological Analysis of the Word-Borrowing Process in Volapük, Yutong Zhang, Linguistics, Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
Theses from 2020
Conceiving Freedom: An Analysis of Black Motherhood in Twentieth Century American Black Women's Novels, Amanda Everett, African and African American Studies, Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
Bolstering Hyde’s Basic French Conversations I & II as a Resource for Missouri French Dialect Learning, Henry Greenstein, Linguistics, Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
A Generative Approach to Oscan Syntax: Towards an Analysis of the Conditional Construction, Jennifer McLish, Linguistics, Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)