Departmental Honors is a distinction conferred at the student's graduation for the successful completion of an approved academic project in the major discipline. To be eligible, a student must have at least a 3.2 cumulative GPA and at least a 3.5 in the major, and the project proposal must be approved by the Departmental Honors (DHON) Committee before the student begins work on the project. After approval by the DHON Committee, the student works under the supervision of a favorite professor for two semesters. At completion, the project must be defended before an examining committee. For more details on the regulations and procedures, see the topics below:
Handbook for Departmental Thesis and Deptartmental Honors
Deadlines for 2009-2010 Academic Year
Quick Links to Departmental Honors Forms:
Completed Departmental Honors Theses
All completed DHON theses are housed in the Special Collections of UTC's Lupton Library. A sampling of recent theses are available in pdf format from the links below. (You must have Adobe Acrobat Reader 7.0 or later to open these files.)
Art; Biology and Environmental Science; Business Administration;
Chemistry; Communication; Economics; Education,
Engineering & Computer Science; English; Foreign Language; History;
Humanities; Music; Nursing; Philosophy & Religion; Physical Therapy; Physics, Geology & Astronomy; Political Science; Psychology; Sociology, Anthropology & Geography; Theatre
- 2005, Tapp, Liz, Infused with Wearer
- 2003, Grigsby, Sarah, Socially Responsible Design: A Visual Health Campaign Promoting Awareness of the Type 2 Diabetes Epidemic Threatening Children and Adolescents in the United States
- 2003, Lamb, Amanda, Pop Will Eat Itself: Culture Jamming and the Battle Over Corporate Media Control
Biology and Environmental Science
- 2009, Dinkins, Jamie, A Morphological Analysis of a "Confounding" Population of Castanea in Northwest Georgia
- 2008, Coffman, Catherine, Role of Serotonin 5HTC2c Receptors in Meidation of a Behavior that is a Potential Animal Model for OCD
- 2008, Kennedy, Sarah, Chloroplast DNA Analysis of Putative Chestnut Chinquapin Hybrids
- 2008, Weaver, Amanda, Mineralization of PAHs and Other Contaminants in Filtrexx Soxx
- 2007, Andrews, Bethany, The Effects of PMP22 on Gene Expression Throughout Development
- 2007, Cecere, Laura, The Use of Bacterial Batteries to Generate Hydrogen Gas
- 2007, Cohen, Eric, Phytoremediation: Investigating a Means of Removing PAHs from the Floodplain of the Chattanooga Creek
- 2006, Mayne, Ian, Examination of the ACE and ACTN3 Genes in UTC Varsity Athletes and Sedentary Students
- 2005, Davis, Tangee, Mutational Analysis of a Candidate Gene Mapped to the Genetic Locus for Hereditary Neuralgic Amyotrophy
- 2003, Chapman, Elise, Simazine Mineralization in Wetland Soils of Williams Island
- 2003, King, Amanda Erin, The Vascular Plant Flora of the Tennessee River Gardens Area
- 2002, Davis, Rachael, Construction and Characterization of hypC Mutants in Helicobacter pylori
- 2002, Ford, Jessica, The Effects of Human Impact, Macrophytic Algea and Toxic Dinoflagellants on the Coral Reef Ecosystem on the Big Island of Hawaii
- 2002, Sanders, Whitney, Assessing the Efficacy of the Pediatric Growth Curve: An Analysis of One Children's Hospital's Procedure
- 2009, Dickinson, Liz, An Examination of the Factors Affecting Organizational Citizenship Behavior
- 2008, Acree, Shannon, Exploring the Effects of Requests for Positive Service Evaluations on Customer Satisfaction
- 2005, Rawlston, Melissa, The Influence of Team Cohesiveness on new Product Performance
- 2004, Luckey, Elizabeth, Preliminary Assessment of Best Practices and Standardized Cost Accounting in Healthcare
- 2003, Moore, Amy, Emotional Intelligence and Moral Development
- 2002, Kuban, Scott, A Practical Study of the Micro-Business
- 2009, Naik, Rishi, Progress toward Self-Assembled Platinum Group Molecular Squares
- 2006, Brooks, Timothy, Answers in Ashes: Elemental Analysis of Cremains by ICP-OES
- 2005, Dickerson, Jane, Biomonitoring: An Analysis of Plants for Metals Using ICP-AES
- 2005, Gant, Randi, Degradation of Pyrimidines by Pseudomonas Syringae
- 2005, Ziegler, Katherine, Predicting Molecular Interactions with Nonporous and Nanoporous Carbon Using Computational Chemistry
- 2003, Boaz, Elizabeth, Reductive Catabolism of Pyrimidines by Psuedomas Lemonnieri
- 2003, Sewell, Sarah, A Mechanistic Study of Palladium Catalyzed Dehalogenation
- 2002, Fitch, Jamie, Application of Flourescence Spectroscopy to Environmental Studies
- 2002, Hooper, Dana, Predicting Second Gas-Solid Virial Coefficients
- 2009, Adkins, Jenny, Young Adults and the Future of Newspapers: A Study of News Sources, Needs, and Approaches
- 2007, Broderick, Katie, Framing Femininty: Media Coverage of a Tennessee Mayoral Campaign
- 2007, Matthews, Tania, Digital Media and the Indigenization of Christianity in China
- 2005, Perryman, Zsavonne, "Sorry You're Not What We're Looking For": The Segmentation of African American Models in U.S. Television Commercials
- 2002, Waddle, Tolsun Nur, Promoting a New Red Scare: Media Framing of the Czech Television Management Shift
- 2003, Blake, Patrick, The Effectiveness of Gun Control Laws: A Statistical Analysis
- 2004, Poff, Laura, Integrating Picture Story Books into the Algebra I and Geometry Classrooms
- 2003, Summey, Carmen, Examining the Effectiveness in Implementing Everyday Math
- 2002, Burris, Lindy, A
Correlational Study of Teacher Absences and Student Test Scores in
Urban and Suburban Enviroments
- 2002, Morgan, Rebecca, Censorship in American Public Schools;Two Examples: The Catcher in the Rye and Huckleberry Finn
Engineering & Computer Science
- 2008, St. Charles, Whitney, Noun Phrase Extraction
- 2007, Kennedy, Benjamin, Finite Element Analysis of Electromagnetic Interference Supression Components
- 2006, Chilton, David, WingFind: A New Algorithm for Analyzing the Velocity Structure of Molecular Clouds
- 2006, Hixson, Jason, Application of Engineering Fundamentals in the Design and Testing of a Compressive Hip Construct
- 2006, Whitt, Justin, Computational Modeling of Steady, Compressible, Viscous Flow for the F-16XL Fighter Aircraft
- 2006, Wilson, Stephanie, A Study of the Effects of Various Flow Obstructions on Heterogeneous Micromixing in Biocatalytic Microchannels
- 2005, Kilby, John, The Effects of Game Awareness on the Decisions of Texas Hold'em Poker Agents
- 2003, Cofer, Adam, Mancala in Java: An Experiment in Artificial Intelligence and Game Playing
- 2003, Gunter, Aubrey, Dynamic Mathematical Model of a Distillation Column
- 2003, Patel, Alok, Dynamic Mathematical Model of a Heat Exchanger
- 2002, Ranasinghe, Mevan, Non-Classical Level Control of the UTC Distillation Column
- 2009, Beise, Brian, Long Stories Short
- 2008, Baze, Thomas, Engaging the Text: The Moral Dilemmas of Relativism, A Dramatic Exposition
- 2007, Seay, Sara Beth, Invisible Empire: The Power of Language and Metaphor in Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities
- 2007, Williams, Alison, Jesus and Rama: Interpretations of the Incarnation
- 2006, Fulkerson, Kelly Jo, The Absent Voice: The Politics of Representation in the Canon and Responsive Texts
- 2006, Wheeler, Elizabeth, Dying to Be Remembered: The Autobiographer's Creative Response to Death Anxiety
- 2003, Elwood, Barbara, Seasons of Authority: An Account of the Development, Duration and Demise of the King James Version of the Bible
- 2003, Finney, James Alan, Concepts
of Despair in Walker Percy's The Moviegoer,
- 2003, Moore, Kelly, Self Portrait in a Two-Way Mirror
- 2003, Severson, M.J. III, Victims
of Circumstance: Determinism in the Novels of Cormac McCarthy
- 2002, Bilbrey, Mark, A New Village: Mark's Bad-Ass Poetry Project
- 2006, Johnson, Jr., Donnie, In Other Words: On Translation and Translating Cicero's In Catilinam
- 2005, Griffin, Melanie, Translating the Language of Love in the Ex Epistolis Duorum Amantium
- 2009, O'Dea, Meghan, Edible Armaments: Food as a Weapon in the Cold War and Culture
- 2005, Dolan, Autumn, The True Patron of Ireland: Saint Brigit and the Rise of Celtic Christianity
- 2008, Barger, Amy, The Cost of Myth-Making: Racial Tension and School Desegregation in Memphi
- 2007, Wohlstein, Shana, Understanding the Problem with Poetry or The Understanding Has the Poetry the Question: Studying Chinese Poetry and Its Translation
- 2004, Vu, Lisa, Controlling the Spread of AIDS in the South African Gold Mining Industry
- 2002, Fritz, Allison, Terrorists or Freedom Fighting: An Analysis of the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland with Respect to the Idea of a Just War
- 2002, McKee, Laura, Even to Roaring: An Exploration of Character and Language in Shakespeare's The Tempest and a Creative Experiment in Poetic and Dramatic Forms
- 2007, Haston, Gabrielle, Physiological Changes in the Adolescent Female Voice: Applications for Choral Instruction
- 2003, Craig, Heather, Belting and Bel Canto: An Aesthetic and Physiological Comparison and Their Use in Music Education
- 2003, Hamrick, Michael, James Houlick's Development of Classical Tenor Saxophone Repertoire
- 2002, Huff, Julie, The Legacy of Tradition: A Study of Historically Significant Violin Repertoire
- 2005, Frassrand, Sarah, A Comparative Analysis of Stress Levels in Undergraduate University Students
- 2001, Foster, Leah, The Effects of Aromatherapy on Anxiety in Nursing Students
- 2006, Saylors, Darris, The Virgin Mary: A Paradoxical Model of Christian Womanhood/Feminine Religiosity for Roman Catholic Immigrant Women of the Nineteenth Century
- 2005, Ley, Patrick, Everybody Loves a Parade: Indian Religious Processions
- 2003, Hamrick, Michael, Solipsistic Sin
- 2003, Loy, Taylor, Ineffability: The Significance of the Presence of an Absence
- 2002, Westmoreland, John Peter, A Treatment of Nihilism
- 2006, Thomas, Stefani, Modulation of Pain through Thermotherapy: An Appraisal of Current Theories
- 2005, Wightman, Shannon, Lumbrosacral Injuries in Classical Ballet Dancers: A Review of the Literature
- 2003, Gannaway, Johnathan, Treatment and Prevention of Overuse Hand Injuries Related to Rock Climbing in Chattanooga and its Surrounding Areas
- 2003, Taylor, Alden, Low Level
Laser Therapy and its Potential Wide Use in Sports Medicine
- 2002, Steinmann, Jennifer, The Relationship Between Personality Differences, Motivation and Behavior: A Study of Collegiate Varsity Rowers
Physics, Geology and Astronomy
- 2007, Axente, Marian, A New Look at Cosmology
- 2009, Hacker, Ashley Caprill, Islam and the West: The Crisis of Modernity
- 2006, Kiggans, Marcie, Resemblance to Capital Punishment and Beliefs
- 2004, Castronova, Paul, Nationalism: The Democratization of the Mystical Experience
- 2003, Smith, Tiffany, Japan's Liberal Democrats: Maintaining Political Dominance from 1955-1993
- 2002, Boyer, Lindsay, Is the Lottery Right for Tennessee?
- 2002, Fleming, Laura, The Balance Between American Civil Liberties and Security Objectives
- 2008, Alexander, Amanda, Coaching Influences on Motivation, Stress and Personality as Perceived by Student-Athletes
- 2008, King, Jamie, "What's That Smell?" Brain Injury may Cause Alarming Problems for Your Nose
- 2008, Moore, Lauren, Work-Family Policy
- 2007, Brooks, Kimberly, Support for Reverse Developmental Trends: A Possible Correlation Between False Memory Errors
- 2003, Denver, Jenny, Age and
Cohort Differences In Flashbulb Memory
- 2003, Hamrick, Michael, Mesmer's Triumph Over Gassner: Matter Over Mind
- 2003, Silverstein, Tiffany, Disordered Prosody in the Speech of Autistic Individuals
- 2002, Dyson, Angie, A Comparison of Theories for Treatment of Autism
Sociology, Anthropology and Geography
- 2007, Dinsmore, Rachel, Einstein's Dream and the Dreamtime: Finding Harmony between String Theory and Aboriginal Spirituality
- 2006, Williams, Rachel, Emic Perspectives of Bodily Pain
- 2005, Vitek, Corrine, A Comparison in Osteological Measurements of Two Populations from East Tennessee
- 2002, Mendenhall, Nicolette, Rape Myths among a Sample of UTC Students
- 2003, Williams, Ben, Hadivadlo in Chattanooga: A Critical Assessment of the Process of Producing School for Fools
Questions or comments to: Melissa-Burchfield@utc.edu
