Past American Studies Thesis Topics
Below is a list of some recent American Studies honors theses. You may find the titles helpful as you contemplate the nature and scope of your own essay or thesis topic. Bound copies of the projects listed below (and others) are housed in the College Archives in Middlebury’s Special Collections.
| American Civilization | Goodman | Erica | Media and Masculinity: Citizenship as Seen Through the Vietnam and the Persian Gulf Wars | 2006 |
| American Civilization | Stephens | John | The Power to Persuade: Cigarette Advertising in the 1940s and 1950s | 2002 |
| American Studies | Brown | Edward | Gun Control in America–The Lobbies and Their Propaganda: Emotionalizing the Issue | 1983 |
| American Studies | Pickering | Sarah | Psychological and Sexual Politics in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale | 2010 |
| American Studies | Varnum | Deborah | Should God Go To School? A Critical Survey of The Historical Church/State/Education Relationship and Its Application To The Current Controversy on Prayer in Public Schools. | 1983 |
| American Studies | Cardozo | Emmeline B. | That the Future may Learn from the Past: Interpreting the History of Colonial Williamsburg | 2009 |
| American Studies | Martzloff | Jennie | The Success Myth in America As Portrayed in Two Sources of Late Century Nineteenth Century Children’s Literature | 1977 |
| American Studies | Bruce | Jessica | Landscapes mirror and landscapes matter: Place Perspective in the Study of Contemporary American Food Conversations | 2010 |
| American Studies | Waters | Grace Godfrey | Liberation and Objectification of Women Through Advertising: How Nike and Rebok Have Attempted To Court the Female Customer | 2012 |
| American Studies | Ross | Marika | Nike Advertising and its Gender Implications | 2008 |
| American Studies | Carroll | Colleen I. | Race, Space, and the Noose: Lynching From 1890-1930 | 2012 |
| American Studies | Ladeau | Thomas R. | Speaking for the People: The Effect of Depression Era Radio on the Voices of the Public | 2011 |
| American Studies | Kavookjian | Haik | Television’s Uncertain Future: The Impact of Online Television Content on the Media Industry and American Culture | 2010 |
| American Studies | Morgenthau | Harry P. | Winslow Homer’s Gulf Stream: A portrait of Science and Humanity at the End of the Nineteenth Century | 2012 |
| American Studies | Kirshenbaum | Allyson | Words, Images, and Recollections: Memoirs in the Form of Graphic Novels | 2010 |
| American Studies | McAtee | Alexandra | Pseudonyms and Tumblr: Performing Authenticity and Building Intimate Connections | 2013 |
| American Studies | Ziegler | Oonagh P. | Cinema of Representation: A Comparison on Representations of Gender, Race and Disability Between Postwar Era Social Problem Films and Early 21st Century Social Problem Films | 2013 |