Recent Honors Theses

2026

ARCHAEOLOGY

Harvey, Ari | Examining diachronic change in domestic storage bins at Karanis (Advisors: Laura Motta and Tyler Johnson

Messing, Teagan | Χοηφόροι: A Regional Analysis of Bronze Age Funerary Rights (Advisor: Mike Galaty)

Phang Del Pozo, Patrick | The Many Lives of Obisdian at Muyumoqo, a Late Formative (600 BCE-200 CE) Site in Cusco, Peru | Winner of the Anthropology Excellence in Honors Research and Academic Achievement Award (Advisor: Mike Galaty)

Tolson, Rylee | A Perspective on Provenience Research: Tracing Cranial Modification from the Ford Collection | Winner of the Anthropology Honors Research Poster Award (Advisor: Mike Galaty)

BIOLOGICAL/EVOLUTIONARY ANTHROPOLOGY

Heald, Lily | Pigmentation Genetics in Archaic Hominins: Evaluating DNA Phenotyping in Neanderthal and Denisovan Genomes | Winner of the Anthropology Excellence in Honors Research and Academic Achievement Award (Advisor: Tina Lasisi)

Saravanan, Aiswarya | It's Hair Time! The Circadian Rhythm, Hair Genes, and Shared Control of Follicle Transitions (Advisor: Tina Lasisi)

SOCIOCULTURAL/LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY

Adiba, Homayra | The Making of an Essential Worker (Advisors: Alaina Lemon and Kriszti Fehervary)

Alli-Balogun, Iftikhaar | "Nurses Know Best": The Ambiguity in Determining Patient Outcomes in an Inpatient Psychiatric Unit (Advisor: Zoe Berman)

Atkinson, Elias | Dengue Fever, Class, and Urban Environments in Quezon City, Philippines | Winner of the Anthropology Excellence in Honors Research and Academic Achievement Award (Advisor: Alyssa Paredes)

Berry, Jared | Spectacle of Circulation (Advisor: Damani Partridge)

Briske, Talia | "Straight is Great": Constructing Gender and Sexuality in Women's Artistic Gymnastics (Advisors: Ben Hollenbach and Erik Mueggler)

Dickson, Elena | Rewriting the Narrative: Appalachian Ballads as Counter-Archives against the Hegemony of Control | Winner of the Anthropology Honors Research Poster Award (Advisor: Alaina Lemon)

Fradette, Jocelyn | Mexican Medicine and Belonging in Metro-Detroit

Wang, Runyi | The Cultural Biography of a Chinese Cotton Jacket from the New Orleans World's Fair to the Museum | Winner of the Anthropology Excellence in Honors Research and Academic Achievement Award (Advisors: Lisa Young, Bryan Miller, and Erik Mueggler)

Willcox, Abby | Gentlemen, Start Your Engines: An ethnographic study of the socio-cultural barriers to motorsport fandom and the ways women break them (Advisors: Alaina Lemon and Kriszti Fehervary)

Wysocki, Meghan | Negotiating an Alternate Aliveness on the Mayo Clinic's Rochaester Carillon (Advisor: Jennifer Hsieh)

2025

ARCHAEOLOGY

Cerdan, Therese | Local Implications and Imperial Ventures: U-M Archaeology in the Philippines' Central Visayas Region | Winner of the Anthropology Honors Research Poster Award (Advisors: Lisa Young and Deirdre de la Cruz)

Marsh, Gabrielle | Gender, Death, and Rank: An Analysis of Mortuary Contexts from late formative Cusco, Peru | Winner of the Anthropology Excellence in Honors Research and Academic Achievement Award (Advisor: Joyce Marcus; Graduate Student Mentor: Matthew Brown)

Pruette, India | The Herd Mentality: A Zooarchaeological Analysis of Animal Care in the Bronze Age Southern Levant (Advisor: Michael Galaty; Graduate Student Mentor: Kara Larson)

Salazar, Carly | Call Back to Moana Nui: Museum Research for Pacific Islander Ancestors | Winner of the Anthropology Honors Research Poster Award (Advisor: Tiffany Fryer)

Weinberger, Emma | Encoding Survival Strategies: Tsunamis in Oral Traditions of Northwest Coast Indigenous Communities (Advisor: Brian Stewart)

BIOLOGICAL/EVOLUTIONARY ANTHROPOLOGY

Dunn, Maya | The kinematics of vertical climbing and vertical descent in Pan troglodytes (Advisors: Laura MacLatchy)

Law, Adam | The relationship between Testosterone and male-infant interactions in wild male mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) | Winner of the Anthropology Honors Research Poster Award (Advisors: Stacy Rosenbaum and Nicholas Grebe)

SOCIOCULTURAL/LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY

Keikhaefer, Emily | The Weight of Diagnosis: Clinical Perspectives on Atypical Anorexia (Advisors: Elizabeth F. S. Roberts and Kriszti Fehervary; Graduate Student Mentor: Amy Kuritzky)

Schneider, Terra | Detroit and Its River: Effects and Contingencies of Postindustrial Redevelopment on Detroit's Economy, Ecology, and Self-Image | Winner of the Anthropology Excellence in Honors Research and Academic Achievement Award (Advisors: Kriszti Fehervary and Stuart Kirsch)

Yerks, Addison | The World is Your Oyster: Reimagined Relations in Precarious Conditions (Advisors: Kriszti Fehervary and Alyssa Paredes; Graduate Student Mentor: Amelia Burke)

Zhang, Shay Xianyang | What is the price of an eel? (Advisor: Alyssa Paredes)

2024

ARCHAEOLOGY

Densel, Allison | Mongol Trappings: Analysis of Archaeological Leather From Khuvsgul Province, Mongolia | Winner of the Anthropology Honors Research Poster Award (Advisor: Alicia Ventresca-Miller)

Michalski, Matthew | Investigating Famine Chronology Through Ecological Variation and Ethnohistorical Analysis in the North American Great Lakes Region | Winner of the Anthropology Excellence in Honors Research and Academic Achievement Award (Advisor: Henry T. Wright; Graduate Student Mentor: Kara Larson)

Tutak, Danielle | New Tools for Old Tools: Reexamining Early Bronze Age Worked Bone Artifacts (Advisor: Alicia Ventresca-Miller; Graduate Student Mentor: Kara Larson)

Welch, Mya | The Relocation of Inundated Archaeological Sites in the Apalachee Bay | Winner of the Anthropology Excellence in Honors Research and Academic Achievement Award (Advisor: John O'Shea)

BIOLOGICAL/EVOLUTIONARY ANTHROPOLOGY

Chervin, Nathan | Skeletons in the Closet: Osteobiography and the Ethics of Anatomical Study | Winner of the Anthropology Honors Research Poster Award (Advisors: Maureen Devlin and Irene Hochgraf-Cameron)

Srikanth, Mahima | Gestural Flexibility During Social Play in Wild Chimpanzees | Winner of the Anthropology Excellence in Honors Research and Academic Achievement Award and Anthropology Honors Research Poster Award Honorable Mention (Advisor: Laura MacLatchy)

SOCIOCULTURAL/LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY

Bright, Kassidy | "An Island of Queerness:" Gender and Noise in the Michigan Marching Band (Advisors: Kriszti Fehervary, Elizabeth Durham, Benjamin Hollenbach, and Nina Francis-Levin)

Patten, Christina | From Ghosts to Altars: Ancestors, Kinship, and Cultural Memory within a Chicano Family | Winner of the Anthropology Excellence in Honors Research and Academic Achievement Award(Advisor: Webb Keane)

Wolf, Sophie | Of Melancholy and Reckoning: A Study of Post-Pinochet Second-Generation Memory in Chile (Advisors: Luciana Chamorro and Kriszti Fehervary)

2023

ARCHAEOLOGY

Farrah, Chloe | Skeletons in the classroom: Ethical concerns of the use of human skeletal remains (Advisor: Lisa Young)

Luurtsema, Anna | Persistence in Pastoralist Practices during the Uruk Period at Tepe Farukhabad (Advisors: Alicia Ventresca Miller and Henry Wright; Graduate Student Mentor: Kara Larson)

Rieck, Abigail | Identifying Changes in Late Woodland Ceramic Tradition (Advisor: Raven Garvey; Graduate Student Mentor: Laura Bossio)

BIOLOGICAL/EVOLUTIONARY ANTHROPOLOGY

Brodnan, Skylar | Origins of Human Culture: Individual Variation and Social Influence in Wild ChimpanzeeTool Use (Advisor: Alexandra Rosati; Postdoctoral mentor: Margaret Bryer; lab
manager: Natalia Camargo Peña)

Dagher, Jenna | The Inter- and Intraspecific Variation of Hypsodonty Index and Tooth Wear in Mule and White-tail Deer, North and Central America (Advisor: John Kingston; Graduate Student Mentor: Elliot Greiner)

Fatima Khan | Sorting Origins of Commingled Tooth Remains Through Dento - Anthropological Traits with Non-metric Parameters (Advisor: Maureen Devlin; Osteology Specialist: Irene Hochgraf
Cameron)

Koski, Krystal | A New Window into Landscape Heterogeneity via a Combination of Sedimentary Facies Analysis and Isotopic Evidence | Winner of the Anthropology Honors Research Poster Award (Advisor: John Kingston; Graduate Student Mentor: Georgia Oppenheim)

Krishnan, Vaishnavi | Are your bones what you eat? A test of how mismatch of maternal and postnatal high fat diets affects skeletal acquisition (Advisor: Maureen Devlin)

Lemkau, Maxwell (DEC 23 graduate) | (1) Exclusive groups as a means to garner status & (2) The behavioral ecology of religious conversion in Dogon men (Advisor: Beverly Strassmann)

Schmidt, Josephine | Hormone-Behavior Interactions: A Test of the Dual Hormone Hypothesis in Mountain Gorillas | Winner of the Anthropology Excellence in Honors Research and Academic Achievement Award (Advisors: Stacy Rosenbaum and Nicholas Grebe)

SOCIOCULTURAL/LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY

Davis, Benjamin | Being Contrarian in a Post-Gamergate World: What TERFs Tell Us about Performance, Moderation, and Platforms (Advisor: Sarah Murray, FTVM)

Guang, Kuo | Generation of Embarrassment: Diaspora, Stagnation, and Resentment of Chinese Immigrants from the 1980s in the Ann Arbor-Detroit Area (Advisor: Erik Mueggler)

Hoyng, Caitlin | Night Sweats as Pillow Talk: Community Care for Sex Workers, Queer People, and Noncitizens in 1980s-1990s Berlin, AIDS, and a Little Bit of Context. A Multimodal and Oral History (Advisors: Kriszti Fehervary and Megan Ewing, German Dept.)

Kizito, Abdul | Making Friends: Obligation and Relatedness Among African Students in Pune | Winner of the Anthropology Excellence in Honors Research and Academic Achievement Award (Advisors: Mike McGovern and Kriszti Fehervary)

Miller, Erik | Space for Flags, Fellowship, and Fervor: Cultural Entanglements of the International Space Station (Advisors: Kriszti Fehervary and David Frye)

Ranger-Raimundi, Chloe | For Femininity’s Sake: Bimbofication as a New Form of Feminism | Winner of the Anthropology Honors Research Poster Award (Advisors: Matt Hull and Kriszti Fehervary)

2022

ARCHAEOLOGY

none

BIOLOGICAL/EVOLUTIONARY ANTHROPOLOGY

Potoczak, Patrick | Visualization of Imprinted 1ncRNAs in the placenta via RNAscope fluorescent in situ hybridization (Advisor: Beverly Strassmann, Mentor: Claudius Vincenz)

SOCIOCULTURAL/LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY

Bacdayan, David | Igorotak | Winner of the Anthropology Honors Research Presentation Award (Advisors: Deirdre de la Cruz and Erik Mueggler)

Caldwell, Madison | Catching COVID: Stories of COVID-19 from the South Dakota Urban Indian Health Clinic | Winner of the Anthropology Excellence in Honors Research and Academic Achievement Award | Winner of the Marshall Sahlins Social Science Award from the LSA Honors Program (Advisor: Holly Peters-Golden, Graduate Student Mentor: Victoria Koski-Karell)

2021

ARCHAEOLOGY

Martin Anderson | Earth Offerings of the Classic Lowland Maya: An Intersite Analysis at Piedras Negras and Tikal (Advisor: Joyce Marcus)

Gabriella Armstrong | Shell Tempering and Temper Variability at Lyon’s Bluff: A Quantitative Petrographic Analysis | Winner of the Anthropology Honors Research Presentation Award (Advisor: Mike Galaty)

Danya Pollack | Womanhood, Identity, and Industry: What the Chinese Government Collection tells us about gender ritual and ethnic traditions around foot-binding before and after a 19th century proto-industrial revolution (Advisor: Raven Garvey)

Madeline Topor | Phosphate Analysis and Evidence for Industry at Iklaina: Implications for Mycenaean Economies and State Formation | Winner of the Anthropology Excellence in Honors Research and Academic Achievement Award (Advisor: Mike Galaty)

BIOLOGICAL/EVOLUTIONARY ANTHROPOLOGY

none

SOCIOCULTURAL/LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY

Macy Afsari | The Nuance of Vaccine Decision-Making: Examining the In-Between | Winner of the Anthropology Honors Research Presentation Award (Advisor: Holly Peters-Golden)

Shihua Lu | Being a Symbol: the Manifestation of Kung Fu in the U.S. | Honorable Mention for the Anthropology Excellence in Honors Research and Academic Achievement Award (Advisors: Erik Mueggler and Ruth Behar)

Alana Reinert | Division as a Means for Unity in the American Political Climate (Advisor: Mike McGovern)

2020

ANTHROPOLOGICAL ARCHAEOLOGY

Allegra Ward | Woodland Period Log Tombs in the Ohio River Valley | Honorable Mention for the Excellence in Honors Research and Academic Achievement Award (Advisor: Rob Beck, and Graduate Student Mentor: Timothy Everhart)

BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Ainsley Belisle | Epigenetic Responses to High Altitude and Growth: DNA Methylation of H19 in High and Low Altitude Andeans and its Relationship to Adult Size and Stature (Advisors: Maureen Devlin and Abigail Bigham, Graduate Student Mentor: Ainash Childebayeva)

Julia Derringer | Parental Presence and its Association with Cortisol Levels and Perceived Stress Levels in Children and Young Adults (Advisor: Beverly Strassmann)

Erica Noble | First Metatarsal Robusticity in Ardipithecus ramidus and its Implications for a Likely Pattern of Locomotion (Advisor: Milford Wolpoff)

Maisey Schuler | The Role of uncoupling protein in cold-induced bone loss: implications for human climatic adaptation | Winner of the Honors Research Presentation Award (Advisor: Maureen Devlin)

Daniel Wong | Dietary Isotopic Nutrient Routing on High Fat, High Protein Diet: Implications for Reconstructing Hominin Diets (Advisors: Maureen Devlin and John Kingston)

SOCIOCULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Angelina Adam | Mind, Body, Spirit: Religion and Spirituality in Medical Education and Healthcare (Advisors: Holly Peters-Golden and Kristin Collier, MD)

Zoe Boudart | Forms of Care: Understanding Patients and Providers in a Safety Net Clinic in Southeast Michigan | Winner of the Marshall Sahlins Social Science Award from the LSA Honors Program Advisor: Scott Stonington, Graduate Student Mentor: Vicky Koski-Karell)

Jordan Brady | Opportunity, Entrepreneurship, and Bootstraps: The Complex Narratives of the American Dream in Detroit's Low Income and Minority Communities | Honorable Mention for the Excellence in Honors Research and Academic Achievement Award (Advisor: Jatin Dua)

Elizabeth DiTullio | Undocumented Again: Secrecy and Nondocumentation for Undocumented Students at the University of Michigan | Winner of the Excellence in Honors Research and Academic Achievement Award (Advisor: Damani Partridge, Graduate Student Mentors: Timothy Everhart and Zehra Hashmi)

Tate Lehmann | Room for Improvement: An Examination of Women's Dormitory Life at the University of Michigan, 1960's to Today (Advisor: Melissa Burch)

Nicole Newman | The Construction of Race in United States Federal Case Law: What does Title VII's Protected Class of 'Race' Entail and Thus Protect? (Advisor: Pamela Brandwein)

Robert Snell | Somewhere Over the Sandy Rainbow: A Bridged ThohT Experience (Advisor: David Frye)

Rachele Willard | Posthumous Persons: The Continued Presence of the Dead on Social Networking Sites (Advisor: Scott Stonington, Graduate Student Mentors: Vicky Koski-Karell and James Meador)

2019

ANTHROPOLOGICAL ARCHAEOLOGY

Kristin Cimmerer | Short-term Technological Change at Melikane Rockshelter, Lesotho | Winner of the Excellence in Honors Research and Academic Achievement Award and the Virginia L. Voss award from the Honors Program, and Honorable Mention for the Honors Student Research Poster Award (Advisor: Brian Stewart, and Graduate Student Mentor: Kyra Pazan)

Hunter Muirhead | Ceramics, Ethnicity, and Style: Understanding Social Boundaries and Ceramic Exchange in the Middle Volga from the 13th to 15th Century during the Golden Horde Period (Advisor: Mike Galaty)

BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Alexander Cashman | Functional morphological reconstruction of the humeroradial joint from the early Miocene hominoid, Proconsul major | Winner of the Excellence in Honors Research and Academic Achievement Award (Advisor: Laura MacLatchy)

SOCIOCULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Iman Ali | Resettling the Unsettled in Arab Detroit: Refugee Resettlement as a Neoliberal Third Space (Advisor: Andrew Shryock)

Rachael Bittick | Experimenting with Normative Social Behavior: A Study of Space, Communication, and Performance in Club Culture (Advisor: David Akin, and Graduate Student Mentor: Moniek van Rheenen)

Rachel Gerth | Kicking the Bucket: An Ethnographic Analysis on Perceptions of Death in Retirement Community X (Advisor: Scott Stonington)

Aliya Khan | 'Ethical Production' in Practice: An Analysis of Women's Empowerment and Village Development Initiatives at Branches, an NGO in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India (Advisor: Jane Lynch)

Pallavi Prabhu | Food as Medicine: Exploring the Health-Inspired Journey to Veganism (Advisor: Holly Peters-Golden)

Caroline Richburg | Laboring to Conceive: The Sociomaterial Making of a Queer Mother | Winner of the Excellence in Honors Research and Academic Achievement Award (Advisors: Thom Chivens, Molly Moravek, Erik Mueggler, Liz Roberts, Gayle Rubin, and Scott Stonington, and Graduate Student Mentor: Moniek van Rheenen)

Catherine Robeson | Historic Violence and Living Memory: The Post-9/11 Generation (Advisor: Jennifer Robertson)

Nicole Smith | Fragmented Realities: The Materiality and Memory of Child Migrants Along the U.S.-Mexico Border | Winner of the Honors Student Research Poster Award (Advisor: Jason De León)

Hannah Thoms | Collecting New Guinea: Transformations in the Lives of Four Ethnographic Collections, 1875-1988 | Winner of the Excellence in Honors Research and Academic Achievement Award and the Terrence J. McDonald Prize for Archival Research from the Honors Program (Advisor: Stuart Kirsch, and Graduate Student Mentor: Vincent Battista)

Brianne Yeskey | The Multilingual Language Landscape of Dakar, Senegal as it Pertains to Commercial Signage, 1998 to 2017 (Advisor: Judith Irvine)

2018

2018

ANTHROPOLOGICAL ARCHAEOLOGY

Daniel Hansen | Reaching the Past: An Analysis of Death and Identity in the Postclassic Valley of Oaxaca (Advisor: Joyce Marcus, Graduate Student Mentor: Lacey Carpenter)

Nolan Powers | Textiles from Las Huacas, Chincha Valley, Peru (Advisor: Joyce Marcus, Graduate Student Mentor: Jordan Dalton)

Anne Sherfield | Dig Until You Find Blood: A Textual and Archaeological Investigation into Egyptian Menstrual Seclusion Practice at Deir el-Medina (Advisor: Terry Wilfong)

BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Rachel Hurwitz | Effects of GnRH Agonist Treatment on Transgender Adolescent Bone Health and Maturation studied via a Mouse Model | Honorable Mention for the Excellence in Honors Research and Academic Achievement Award

Danielle Leander | Factors Affecting the Visibility of Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) at the Detroit Zoo

Franny Melampy | Taxonomic, Geographic, and Temporal Biases in Primate Assessments on the IUCN Red List | Winner of the Honors Student Research Poster Award

Christine Rysenga | Patterns of Allometric Scaling and Locomotor Function in the Haplorhine Primate Ilium

Summer Stern | The Impact of Dietary Calcium Intake on the Composition of the Gut Microbiota

Kinsey Vear | Himalayan Monpa and High-Altitude Adaptation: Investigations of MTHFR and UV Radiation | Winner of the Excellence in Honors Research and Academic Achievement Award

SOCIOCULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Claire Bartosic | The Blocked M

Faith Cole | Diagnostic Trajectories: The Entanglement of Resources, Diagnoses, and Bodies in Mexico City | Winner of the Raoul Wallenburg Humanitarian Award from the Honors Program

Kelly Garland | God is Change: Ritual Transformation and Constructed Kinship in a Christian Maternity Home

Megan Knittel | More Than Skin Deep: Playing Gender in the Social Worlds of Overwatch | Honorable Mention for the Excellence in Honors Research and Academic Achievement Award

Krsna Kothari | Making the Invisible Visible: An Ethnographic Study on DOROT’s Model of Care for Older Adults Facing Social Isolation

Yuchen Luo | Belonging Limited: Mechanisms of Inclusion and Exclusion in Church and School Towards International Students from East Asia | Honorable Mention for the Honors Student Research Poster Award and winner of the Gerald Ford Public Policy Award from the Honors Program

Andrew Mitchel | La Comida Latinoamericana: Food, Friction and Selfhood among Latinos in New York City

Sarah Ridzy | Unplanned: An Ethnographic Memoir of Pregnancy, Self, and Culture | Winner of the Patricia Kennedy Award from the Honors Program

Kasha Williams | Cowgirl Up: An Ethnography of Gender at a Horse-Boarding Facility in the Rural Midwest | Winner of the Virginia Voss Award from the Honors Program

Bianca Winward | Mormon Youth Perspectives and Understandings of the Same-Sex Relationship Policies of the LDS Church: Understanding Diversity in Religious Beliefs

2017

Biological Anthropology

Sarah Burke
Investigation of Pigmentation Associated Polymorphisms in a Novel Indigenous American Population
(Advisor: Abigail Bigham)
Honorable Mention for the Department of Anthropology Excellence in Honors Research and Academic Achievement Award

Megan Harrison
Protection from Intrauterine Growth Restriction at High Altitude: Genetic Variation at IL-1β in Aymara Andeans
(Advisor: Abigail Bigham)

Lauren Heinonen
The Effects of Climate on Human Nasal Morphology and Genetics
(Advisor: Abigail Bigham)

Eman Hijab
Maternal Stress Effects Across Non-Primate and Primate Models
(Advisor: Jacinta Beehner)

Nichole Lohrke
African Deinothere Isotopic Paleoecology: Developing a Diet and Habitat Proxy for an Extinct Proboscidean
(Advisor: John Kingston)

Lillian Shipp
Does Drinking Alcohol Help or Hurt Bone? Investigating the Effects of Alcohol Consumption in Ovariectomized Mice as a Model for Postmenopausal Women
(Advisor: Maureen Devlin)
Honorable mention for the Department of Anthropology Honors Research Poster Award

Sociocultural Anthropology

Zachary Arrington
On the Architechtonics of Social Change: Control and resistance in the Chilean student movement
(Advisor: Alaina Lemon)
Winner of the Department of Anthropology Excellence in Honors Research and Academic Achievement Award

Asma Baban
God & Books: A Study of Iraqi Refugees in Greater Detroit and their Relationship with Religion and Education
(Advisor: Andrew Shryock)
Winner of the Department of Anthropology Honors Research Poster Award

Oscar Calinescu
Welcome to my Town: performance and creativity among Animal Crossing bloggers on Tumblr
(Advisor: Alaina Lemon)

Hannah Marcovitch
Discretionary Foods and Relational Eating: A Bioethnography of Nutrition Science and Daily Sustenance in Mexico City
(Advisor: Liz Roberts)

2016

Anthropological Archaeology

Andrew Fiasco
Stone Tool Use in Metallurgical Societies: A Diachronic Approach to Lithic Technology at Pecica-Șanțul Mare
(Advisor: John O'Shea, and Amy Nicodemus)

Briana Gladhill
From Crescents to Points: Changes in Lithic Technology at Melikane Rock Shelter, Lesotho
(Advisor: Brian Stewart)

Olivia Mason
“Sike Lazars” and “Sondry Folke:” A Comparative Study of Mortuary Treatment at Two Medieval English Cemeteries
(Advisor: Carla Sinopoli, and Graduate Student Mentor: Jess Beck)

Brianna Mayer
Status and Identity on a Smallholder Caribbean Plantation: An Archaeological Perspective
(Advisor: Robin Beck, and Graduate Student Mentor: Travis Williams)
Winner of the Department of Anthropology Honors Research Poster Award and Honorable Mention for the Department of Anthropology Excellence in Honors Research and Academic Achievement Award

Sociocultural Anthropology

Katarina Alajbegovic
Welcome to the Big Land: Experiences of Land, Power, and Identity through Land Claims in Labrador
(Advisor: Barbra Meek)
Honorable mention for the Department of Anthropology Honors Research Poster Award

Anna Forringer-Beal
(In)Visible Genders: How Central American Women Navigate Agency and Control during Undocumented Migration
(Advisor: Jason De León)
Winner of the Department of Anthropology Excellence in Honors Research and Academic Achievement Award and Honorable Mention for the Department of Anthropology Honors Research Poster Award

Polina Hristova
The Tattooed Honduran: Agency, Personhood, and Resistance in the Transnational Movement of Honduran Migrants
(Advisor: Jason De León)
Winner of the Department of Anthropology Excellence in Honors Research and Academic Achievement Award

Anika Huq
The Medicalization of Childbirth Practices in Khon Kaen, Thailand
(Advisor: Elisha Renne)

Alexandra Newton
Of Hustlers & Housekeepers: Private Security Work in Bucharest, Romania
(Advisor: Krisztina Fehevary)
Winner of the Anthropology Chair's Special Award for Contributions to Anthropology and the Virginia L. Voss Memorial Award for excellence in writing by senior Honors women in the category of academic writing from the LSA Honors Program

Amber Young
Caregiving and Commitment: Stories of Finding Value Through Raising a Child with a Disability
(Advisor: Holly Peters-Golden)

2015

Anthropological Archaeology

Taylour Boboltz
Walpole Island Wampum: an interdisciplinary approach to understanding wampum in the Great Lakes
(Advisor: Robin Beck)

Daniel Fivenson
Bronze Age Settlement Distribution in Hunedoara County, Romania: The Role of Metal in Increasing Social Complexity
(Advisor: John O’Shea, and Graduate Student Mentor: Colin Quinn)
Honorable Mention for the Department of Anthropology Excellence in Honors Research and Academic Achievement Award

Biological Anthropology

Sarah Cunningham
Rural to Urban Migration and Female Adolescent Stress in Mali
(Advisor: Beverly Strassmann)

Darci Curwen-Garber
Type 2 Diabetic Health in the Homeless Population of Washtenaw County
(Advisor: Maureen Devlin)
Winner of the Department of Anthropology Honors Research Poster Award

Ingrid Lundeen
Scaling relationships among pelvic and sacral articular surfaces in hominoid primates
(Advisor: Laura MacLatchy)
Winner of the Virginia L. Voss Memorial Award for excellence in writing by senior Honors women in the category of academic writing from the LSA Honors Program

Caroline Parins-Fukuchi
Investigating the Evolution of Gestational Immunity in Mammals: A Phylogenetic Approach
(Advisor: John Mitani)

Kritika Rajan
Social and ecological factors affecting the timing of den graduation in the spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta)
(Advisor: John Mitani)

Jennifer Washabaugh
Scaling relationships and functional morphology of hominoid metapodials
(Advisor: Laura MacLatchy)
Winner of the Department of Anthropology Excellence in Honors Research and Academic Achievement Award and Honorable Mention for the Department of Anthropology Honors Research Poster Award

Daniel Whorf
Andean and Tibetan High-Altitude Adaptation EGLN1 Functioning and Genetic Diversity
(Advisor: Abigail Bigham)

Sociocultural Anthropology

Indira Bhattacharjee
The Path towards Unity: An examination of integration and first-generation Bangladeshi women in Bologna, Italy
(Advisor: Damani Partridge)

Nathaniel Costin
What we talk about when we don’t talk about death: an ethnography of palliative care in the hospital
(Advisor: Holly Peters-Golden)

Andrea Dantus
Objects of Acculturation: Exploring identity on the path to citizenship in the lives of three Latina women
(Advisor: Jason De León, and Graduate Student Mentor: Amelia Frank-Vitale)

Amy Mackens
Abductions of Empowerment: The Employment of Feminism in Viral Video Advertising
(Advisor: Yasmin Moll, and Jason De León)

Talya Nakash
Onchocerciasis in Nangodi, Ghana: Health Interventions and Community Narratives
(Advisor: Elisha Renne)
Honorable Mention for the Department of Anthropology Honors Research Poster Award

Ann Soliman
Factors Related to Late-Stage Diagnosis of Breast Cancer in Marrakech, Morocco
(Advisor: Elisha Renne)
Winner of the Marshall Sahlins Social Science Award from the LSA Honors Program

Gregory Sollish
“Let Me Text You”: Texting, Language, and Communication in the College Setting
(Advisor: Michael Lempert, and Jason De León)
Honorable Mention for the Department of Anthropology Excellence in Honors Research and Academic Achievement Award

2014

Anthropological Archaeology

Helen Argiroff-Flood
Female Figurines of Seleucia on the Tigris: Cultural Representations in Domestic and Ceremonial Spaces
(Advisor: Joyce Marcus, and Graduate Student Mentor: Ashley Lemke)
Honorable Mention for the Department of Anthropology Honors Research Poster Award

Cameryn Clark
Collecting Greenland Inuit Culture: A Naturalist in an Anthropologist’s World
(Advisor: Carla Sinopoli)
Winner of the Terrence J. McDonald Prize for Archival Research from the LSA Honors Program

Katherine Kinkopf
A Bioarchaeological Approach to Looting: Differential Fragmentation and Social Implications at the Periphery of Kush
(Advisor: Geoff Emberling, and Graduate Student Mentor: Jess Beck)

Clara Reini
Evaluating Feasting on the Hopewell Periphery
(Advisor: Robin Beck, and Graduate Student Mentor: Alice Wright)

Claire Talbert
Sharing Archaeology with the Public
(Advisor: Jason De León, and Graduate Student Mentor: Alice Wright)

Biological Anthropology

Ali Cohen
Is Dental Development an Important Feature of Mammal Life History?
(Advisor: B. Holly Smith, and Laura MacLatchy)

Katarina Evans
Role of Natural Selection in Cold Adaptations of Homo Sapiens
(Advisor: Abigail Bigham)

Jenna Isherwood
Genetic Responses to Life at High Altitude: Arterial Oxygen Saturation in Peruvian Quechua
(Advisor: Abigail Bigham)

Hollie Kicinski
The Effects of Caloric Restriction on Physical Activity, Energy Expenditure, and Weight Loss in Obese Adults
(Advisor: Maureen Devlin)

Rachel Stokes
Understanding the Bruce Effect: Pregnancy Termination as an Adaptive Strategy?
(Advisor: Jacinta Beehner, and Graduate Student Mentor: Aaron Sandel)

Linguistic Anthropology

Alyssa Slayton
Constructing Criticism: a “close reading” of talk about literary texts
(Advisor: Michael Lempert)
Winner of the Virginia L. Voss Memorial Award for excellence in writing by senior Honors women in the category of academic writing from the LSA Honors Program

Sociocultural Anthropology

Kathryn Becker
Inside the Bubble: The Role of Nurses and Child Life Specialists in Constructing Pediatric Cancer
(Advisor: Holly Peters-Golden)

Justin Creeden
The Arts of Medicine
(Advisor: )

Sarah Fellbaum
Vamos Evolucionando: The Effects of Political and Economic Change on Young Men’s Dress in Havana, Cuba
(Advisor: Ruth Behar)

Emily Fite
“Worthy” Women: Interrogating Gender Responsive Alternatives to Incarceration
(Advisor: Megan Sweeney)

Julia Hickey
Documenting the “Undocumented”: An Ethnography of the DACA Process from Southern Michigan
(Advisor: Jason De León)
Winner of the Department of Anthropology Excellence in Honors Research and Academic Achievement Award and the Virginia L. Voss Memorial Award for excellence in writing by senior Honors women in the category of academic writing from the LSA Honors Program

Geoffrey Marino
Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Patchwork of Ambiguity
(Advisor: Liz Roberts)

Clare Toeniskoetter
Hospitality Exchange: Overcoming safety, trust, and gender concerns in the Couchsurfing Community
(Advisor: Andrew Shryock, and Graduate Student Mentor: Kelly Kirby)

Murphy Van Sparrentak
It Doesn’t Matter if You’re a Citizen: Emic Perspectives on Border Patrol and Security from a Southern Arizona Border Town
(Advisor: Jason De León)

Courtney Weber
Fabulous Friday Leftovers: Soup Kitchens and the Politics of Charity
(Advisor: Maureen Devlin, Stuart Kirsch, and Graduate Student Mentor: Adriana Chira)
Winner of the Department of Anthropology Excellence in Honors Research and Academic Achievement Award, the Department of Anthropology Honors Research Poster Award, and the Raoul Wallenberg Humanitarian Award from the LSA Honors Program

2013

Anthropological Archaeology

Hillary Abraham
Household Burials and Community Organization at Çatalhöyük, Turkey
(Advisor: Henry Wright)
Winner of the Department of Anthropology Honors Research Poster Award

Stephanie Berger
Treating Bones: The Intersection of Archaeology and Conservation
(Advisor: Carla Sinopoli)

Leah Burgin
Managing Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary: Analyzing Access to and Preservation of Lake Huron’s Underwater Heritage
(Advisor: Bradley Taylor, and John O'Shea)
Winner of the Gerald Ford Public Service Award from the LSA Honors Program

Rachel Cohen
Household Wealth in Elamite Susa: Archaeogical Evidence from the Second Millennium BCE
(Advisor: Henry Wright)

Lauren Kreinbrink
Environment and Empire: Exploring Environmentally Sustainable Agricultural Practices within the Roman Empire
(Advisor: Laura Motta)

Biological Anthropology

Lisa Barrett
Tolerance and social cognition in campus and off-campus fox squirrels (Sciurus niger): A case of self-domestication?
(Advisor: John Mitani)

Nicole Carbone
Maternal Depletion, Sibship Size, and the Intergenerational Transmission of Low Birth Weight
(Advisor: Beverly Strassmann)

Megan Cole
Intergroup encounters in Honduran mantled howler monkeys (Alouatta palliata)
(Advisor: Jacinta Beehner)

Samantha Patterson
The comparative method in evolutionary biology: the effects of intraspecific variation and data quality
(Advisor: John Mitani)

Sociocultural Anthropology

Anisha Chadha
The Social Life of Speed
(Advisor: Holly Peters-Golden)
Winner of the Department of Anthropology Excellence in Honors Research and Academic Achievement Award

Julia Field
Perceptions of Blight: Organizations Respond to Detroit’s Deteriorating Landscape
(Advisor: Andrew Shryock)
Honorable Mention for the Department of Anthropology Honors Research Poster Award and winner of the Virginia L. Voss Memorial Award for excellence in writing by senior Honors women in the category of academic writing from the LSA Honors Program

Kristin Harden
Finding a Voice: The Abortion Debate on a College Campus
(Advisor: Liz Roberts)

Sarah Hodin
Mothers Know Best: Women’s Birthing Experiences in East Africa and Implications for Maternal and Child Health
(Advisor: Elisha Renne, and Graduate Student Mentor: Kelly Kirby)

Bradley Iott
Of Culture and the Clinic: A Study of Culture and Healthcare in Nizamuddin Basti
(Advisor: Thomas Fricke)

Mackenzie McDonald Wilkins
Ripples of Modernity: Language Shift and Resistance in the Valley of Etla
(Advisor: David Frye, and Barbra Meek)
Honorable Mention for the Department of Anthropology Excellence in Honors Research and Academic Achievement Award

Anna Schwiebert
Could a nurse robot cry?: Nurses’ perspectives on medical robots
(Advisor: Jennifer Robertson)

Upasana Senapati
Alcohol and Class-consciousness in Rural India
(Advisor: Liz Roberts, and Graduate Student Mentor: Charles Zuckerman)

2012

Anthropological Archaeology

Katherine Blatchford
Human Sacrifice in Ancient Peru
(Advisor: Joyce Marcus)

Caroline Braden
Collecting Hopi Plaque Baskets: A Study of the Influences of External Consumer Dynamics and Collector Preferences
(Advisor: Ray Silverman)

Jillian Maguire
Ritual Space: A Comparison of Four Monuments from Middle/Late Neolithic Ireland and Southern England
(Advisor: Robert Whallon)

Marina Mayne
Faces of a False Face Mask: Understanding Authenticity in Museum Research and Display
(Advisor: Ray Silverman)

Victoria Moses
Status and Meat Consumption in Pompeii: Diet and its Social Implications through the Analysis of Ancient Primary Sources and Zooarchaeological Remains
(Advisor: Laura Motta, and Graduate Student Mentor: Emily Holt)
Winner of the Virginia L. Voss Memorial Award for excellence in writing by senior Honors women in the category of academic writing from the LSA Honors Program

Biological Anthropology

Rihana Bokhari
Determining the Age-at-death of Dental Remains using Micro Computed Tomography
(Advisor: Milford Wolpoff)

William Brown
Human Visitation, Temperature, and their Effects upon Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) Spatial Distribution and Behavior at the Detroit Zoo
(Advisor: John Mitani)

Christine Campbell
Low Levels of Inflammatory Acne in a Traditional African Population
(Advisor: Beverly Strassmann)

Tiara Forsyth
Patterns of Variation and Evidence for Positive Selection on MicroRNA Loci during Recent Human Evolution
(Advisor: Abigail Bigham)

Amy Goldberg
Modeling a Sex Bias in the Admixture History of a Hybrid Population
(Advisor: Milford Wolpoff)

Grace Ignarri
Defining and Determining Tool Users in the Hominid Record
(Advisor: Milford Wolpoff)

Katya Mack
Rates of Neanderthal Introgression in Genic Versus Intergenic Regions of the Human Genome
(Advisor: Milford Wolpoff)

Cari Merritt
Retail Therapy as an Adaptive Sexual Strategy: An Attractive Way to Cope?
(Advisor: Beverly Strassmann)

Douglas Nestorovski
Mechanism of Activation by Axonal Injury for a Conserved MAPKKK in Drosophila
(Advisor: Abigail Bigham)

Sociocultural Anthropology

Laura Biltz
Sorority Women and the Body Politic: Structuring the Self Image in a World of Maize and Blue
(Advisor: Andrei Markovits, Erik Mueggler, and Graduate Student Mentor: Charles Zuckerman)

Mary Birkett
Amateur Mascots on the Loose: The Pragmatics of Kawaii (Cute)
(Advisor: Jennifer Robertson)
Winner of the Marshall Sahlins Social Science Award from the LSA Honors Program

Julie Blaszczak
Understanding the Stigma of Sexual Minority Youth in Context
(Advisor: Holly Peters-Golden)

Kristina Felder
An American Tragedy: Social Factors Behind the HIV/AIDS Epidemic in the United States
(Advisor: Gillian Feeley-Harnik)

Beth Jakubowski
This is Who I Am: Stories of Older Adults Returning to College
(Advisor: Thomas Fricke, and Graduate Student Mentor: Kelly Kirby)
Winner of the Virginia L. Voss Memorial Award for excellence in writing by senior Honors women in the category of academic writing from the LSA Honors Program

Melissa Masserang
Coping with Depression: Support, Stigma, and Deciding Whom to Tell
(Advisor: Elisha Renne)

Jennifer Morris
Things Learned—Things Exchanged: Reflections on Undergraduate Students’ Experience of a “Service-Learning” Trip to Kenya
(Advisor: Elisha Renne)

Nicole Mueller
A lo Cubano: An Ethnography of Mobility, Authenticity, and New Moral Tourism
(Advisor: Ruth Behar)

Kalila Smith
Body, Mind, and Frustration: Navigating Dance in the Context of Academia
(Advisor: Kelly Askew)

Aileen Xu
Discovering the Role and Identity of College Students in Public Health
(Advisor: Krisztina Fehervary)

Search: {{$root.lsaSearchQuery.q}}, Page {{$root.page}}

for

Search: {{$root.lsaSearchQuery.q}}, Page {{$root.page}}

Recent Honors Theses

2026

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY

SOCIOCULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

2019

2018

2017

2017

Biological Anthropology

Sociocultural Anthropology

2016

2015

Anthropological Archaeology

Biological Anthropology

Sociocultural Anthropology

2014

Anthropological Archaeology

Biological Anthropology

Linguistic Anthropology

Sociocultural Anthropology

2013

Anthropological Archaeology

Biological Anthropology

Sociocultural Anthropology

2012

Anthropological Archaeology

Biological Anthropology

Sociocultural Anthropology