A highlight of the University Scholars program is the required senior honors project. Honors projects involve an intensive exploration of a topic that is related to the student’s major and is studied within the context of the Christian faith. These projects demonstrate one way in which SPU students engage the culture in order to change the world.

All completed Honors Projects are catalogued and put into the permanent collection at the SPU Library for public access.

2011 University Scholars Honors Projects

William Anderson, Computing Science. Philosophical Perspectives on Semantic Web Development

Kristen Andre, European Studies: Spanish and Linguistics. Waking Sleeping Beauty: A Translation of Ana Maria Matute’s El verdadero final de la Bella Durmiente

Sarah Baggs, Student Designed Major. Who Wears the Pants in Evangelical Marriages? An Analysis of Headship and Submission

Joel Bradshaw, Computing Science and Electrical Engineering. Personal Sound Localization: Building a Device to Monitor Sound Events Outside Visual Focus

Tyson Conner, Sociology. Spiritual Acculturation: North American Missionaries in Southeast Asia

Lorrie Cope, Accounting. The Economic and Psychological Effects of Cash for Clunkers

Sarah Cunningham, English. Confession and Conscience in Four Short Stories of Edgar Allan Poe

Harrison Dietzman, English. A Solitary Journey Home: What It Means to Be Lost and the Possibility of Salvation in Denis Johnson’s Tree of Smoke

Laura Grafham, English. The Just Death: Destruction and Repair in Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony

Derek Hanson, Computing Science. TheaSearch.com: A Search Engine for Theatre Company Websites

Alexander Kato, Communication. Mark Driscoll, Aristotle, and Authoritative Preaching in a Postmodern World

Caitlin Kincaid, Political Science. Revolutionary Referendum: The AKP and Turkey's Quest for Democratization

Hannah Shun-yu Larson, Mathematics. An Exploration of Graph Similarity Scores

Olivia Lenz, Chemistry. Chemical Synthesis of Inorganic Nanomaterials for Energy-harvesting Devices

Christopher Lute, Philosophy. Women Priests: A Case for the Ordination of Women in the Eastern Orthodox Churches

James McDonald, Biochemistry. Investigation of Homologous Recombination Efficiency in Agrobacterium tumefaciens C58

Hannah McMillen, Global Development Studies. The Development of Civil Society in Post-Soviet Uzbekistan: Comparative Perspectives

Zachary McNay, Philosophy and Classics. David Lewis's Counterparts: Too High a Price to Pay, to Gain Modal Satisfaction

Brent Miles, History. Writing “in a field cultivated with such labor”: The Chronica of Guilhem de Puylaurens and the Future of the Midi

Emily Miller, Global Development Studies and European Studies–French. Civil Society in Algeria

Valerie Moser, English. The Internalization of the Onion: Grushenka's Transformative Discourse in The Brothers Karamazov

Lauren Oglesby, Music. Synthesis and Subversion: Word-Tone Interaction in Three Settings of Goethe's Gretchen am Spinnrade

Michael Richards, Business Administration. Mobile Money at the Base of the Pyramid: Profitable Business Empowering the Poor

Nathaniel Rogers, English. One Hand on a Hexagram, One Hand on a Girl: Leonard Cohen and the Heresy of Artistic Creation

David Rowan, Biology. In Ethical Consideration of Personal Genetic Information and Its Use In Personalized Medicine

Alina Sayre, English. Light: A Palimpsest

Stephen Schale, Chemistry. Classifying Biodiesel Source and/or Biodiesel/Petrodiesel Blend Ratios Using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry with Chemometrics

Anna Schwulst, English. A Philosophy of Story: Knowing Relational Truth Through C.S. Lewis’s Myth and Gabriel García Márquez’s Magical Realism

Noah Simpson, Global Development Studies. “God Is for All”: Re-narrating Hutu and Tutsi Identities Toward Reconcilation in Rwanda

Kali Wagner, English. Poetry and the Art of Conciliation

Adam Waldo, Political Science. Peace Talks Reinitiated: Palestinian, Israeli, and U.S. Policy in 2010 and 2011

Kael Wanamaker, Psychology. Childrearing Experiences and Practices in Three Generations of an Enrolled Tlingit Family

Project Guidelines and Requirements (PDF)

For more information about the University Scholars program, refer to the University Undergraduate Catalog. You may also contact Luke Reinsma, director of University Scholars, at lreinsma@spu.edu or
206- 281-2093.