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 Studies | Tieberg | Alex | ““The Red in Your Blood is from the Ore: Connections Between Industry, Culture, and Community on Minnesota’s Iron Range”” |
2019 |
| American Studies | Brown | Katherine | “The Fourth Wave of Terror TV: Political Renewal and Anti-Terror in Designated Survivor” | 2006 |
| American Studies | Mahdavi | Addie | ““Defectiveness and the Ideal Citizen: Power, Categorization, and Social Control in Vermont’s Eugenics Movement”” |
2018 |
| American Studies | Doig-Acuna | Maya | “We are all of us its children: Afro-Latinidad and Responses to Colonialism in The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao and Mama’s Girl” | 2017 |
| American Studies | Pittman | Kendall | “Contested Ground: The Battle Over Black Land Ownership and American Identity” |
2021 |
| American Studies | Alter | Celia | “Disability and #MeToo” | 2020 |
| American Studies | Houde | Ivy | “Bet on Women: Perceptions of Women’s Basketball in American Sporting Culture and the Structural Inequalities that Hinder the WNBA” |
2019 |
| American Studies | Wright | Kyle | “Dimensions of Whiteness: Middlebury College’s Story of Racism, Ableism, and Wealth” | 2019 |
| American Studies | Williams | Tamir | “Bette, AKA Mammy, Big Momma, Madea, and Others Alike: Constructions of an American Stereotype” |
2016 |
| American Studies | Boyd | Tyler | “1000 Shards of the Forever Ending Twilight” (Graphic Novel) | 2015 |
| 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 |