Comps, honors papers, and prize-winning works of the American Studies program are featured here. All works have been self-submitted by the student authors. Descriptive information about each work is available to search or browse. Access to the full text of the works is limited to current Carleton affiliates with faculty permission. Learn more about how to submit your work and how to request access to the full text of works.
Submissions from 2023
Ellen Schlick, American Studies (AMST) 2023, The Innocent Outlaw: How Extralegal Violence Built Western Democracy
Submissions from 2022
Palina Buchanan, American Studies (AMST) 2022, Buchanans in the Pacific Northwest: Constructing Scottish Settler Belonging and Innocence Through Selective Family Oral Histories
Natalie Lafferty, American Studies (AMST) 2022, The Monster of Mental Illness: The Representation of Mary Todd Lincoln’s Mental Health in American Culture
Siena Leone-Getten, American Studies (AMST) 2022, American Individualism: White Supremacy, Patriarchy, and the Curtailing of American Democracy
Thomas White, American Studies (AMST) 2022, Curating a Self(ie): The Expression of Friendship on Instagram
Submissions from 2021
Rebecca McCartney, American Studies (AMST) 2021, Acting in(to) Utopia: Shifting Power & Resilience to the People
Venecia Mitchell, American Studies (AMST) 2021, In the Wake of Hurricane Katrina: The Rise of Charter Schools in New Orleans and its Impact on Black Youth
Sasha Mothershead, American Studies (AMST) 2021, Pandemics as Perpetuation, Pandemics as Portal: An Examination of the Complicated Role of State Expansion in Pandemic-Based Movements for Change
Submissions from 2020
Clara Liang, American Studies (AMST) 2020, “A Church Without Walls”: Glide Memorial (Methodist) Church and Postsecular Potential in Urban Religion
Sarah Lieberman, American Studies (AMST) 2020, The Basel Effect: Global Art World Impacts on Local Neighborhood Culture in Wynwood, Miami
Submissions from 2019
Kessa Andrews, American Studies (AMST) 2019, Selling the Suburban American Dream to Modern Consumers: The Cooptation of “Family Diversity” by Obama Era Advertisers
Jesse Barrera-Ledezma, American Studies (AMST) 2019, The Elusive Quest for Equality? U.S. Education Policy in the Post-Brown v. Board Era
Sydney Botz, American Studies (AMST) 2019, The Unforeseen Consequences of Chromebooks in Public Education: Rethinking the Digitally Intimate Relationship between Google and Students
Maya Margolis, American Studies (AMST) 2019, Water Bottles, Mosques, and Bombs: Found Objects in the Barry M. Goldwater Range
Noah Robiner, American Studies (AMST) 2019, “A Store for the Neighborhood”: Kowalski’s Markets and a Vision for Democratic Renewal
Submissions from 2018
Emma Magdalen Bruhl, American Studies (AMST) 2018, Redoubt Falls: Local Impacts of Alaska Native Reparations
Adriana Castillo, American Studies (AMST) 2018, Mi Tienda: Finding a Home Away from Home and Cultural Importance Within a Business
Victor Manuel Huerta, American Studies (AMST) 2018, Echoes of the Law: Madrigal v. Quilligan and the Reproduction of Hierarchy in the Twentieth Century
Natalie Simone Jacobson, American Studies (AMST) 2018, American Bounty, American Hunger: Bridging the Gap Between Food Abundance and Food Scarcity in Northfield and Faribault, Minnesota
Allison S. Tucker, American Studies (AMST) 2018, So Far from Community: Concerts, Collaborative Consumption, and the Commodification of Community
Will Daniel Yetvin, American Studies (AMST) 2018, The Organization Formerly Known as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society: HIAS' Organizational Development and the Invention of Jewish American Tradition
Submissions from 2016
Jeffrey M. Bissoy-Mattis, American Studies (AMST) 2016, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air: A Narrative on Race, Class, and Black Brotherhood
Anna K.L. Guasco, American Studies (AMST) 2016, From Devil Fish to Friendly Leviathan: Guilty Wildlife Histories and American Gray Whale Ecotourism in Baja
Submissions from 2015
Lilly Athamanah, American Studies (AMST) 2015, Ride Like the Wind: Divvy Bike Share's Function as Sustainable Mass Transit or Tourist Attraction in the City of Chicago
Charles Thomas Gillmer, American Studies (AMST) 2015, I'd rather drink a beer than win father of the year: The Satire of Fatherhood in The Simpsons
Anna Kathleen Lascher Guasco, American Studies (AMST) 2016, Anacapa and the American Sublime: Perceptions and Representations in Channel Islands National Park
Victoria Rae Ostenso, American Studies (AMST) 2015, Healthy Food y La Comida Saludable: Perspectives on Healthy Eating from Mexican Immigrant Women in the Borderlands
Hannah Jane Reed, American Studies (AMST) 2015, In Defense of Babies: Framing the Family Cap in American Welfare Reform
Raina van Duym, American Studies (AMST) 2015, Duck for Turkey Day: Immigrant Celebration of Thanksgiving and Assimilation in the United States
Submissions from 2014
Mary Dahlman Begley, American Studies (AMST) 2014, Wake Up, It's Over: Punk in American Culture Today
Phoebe Lynn Chastain, American Studies (AMST) 2014, Save the Orphans: An Examination of Media Response to Operation Babylift, April 1975
Matt Weinstein, American Studies (AMST) 2014, Strength through Love: Utilizing syncretism and pluralism to build broad political consensus
Submissions from 2013
Laura Katherine Henry, American Studies (AMST) 2013, I run to be sexy. I run to be strong. : Representations of Gender Difference in American Women's Running Culture
Sam Edward James Kavanaugh, American Studies (AMST) 2013, The Minneapolis Zombie Pub Crawl: Community in Costume
Anne O. Richardson, American Studies (AMST) 2013, ... A Moment That is Mine, While I'm in Between... : Female Adolescent Identity Development in America's Suburbs
Deborah Ann Wong, American Studies (AMST) 2013, What We Talk About When We Talk About Diversity: International Student Experiences as Foreigners in the United States
Winnie Belle Zwick, American Studies (AMST) 2013, Conventional Farming, Unconventional Farmers: Reflections on 21st Century Agrarianism from Northfield, MN
Submissions from 2012
Lily Evans, American Studies (AMST) 2012, All That Jazz: Filling in American Jazz History with its Unsung Voices
Ben Hellerstein, American Studies (AMST) 2012, Building the Streetcar City: The West Seventh Neighborhood of St. Paul, Minnesota, and the Role of Transportation in Creating Place
Rachel Shizue Kittaka, American Studies (AMST) 2012, Teaching Japanese American Incarceration: A Curricular History from 1968 to the Present
Submissions from 2011
Kelley Jane England, American Studies (AMST) 2011, Education through Exploration: A Case Study of Children, Science, and the Environment Culminating in an Alternative Approach to Elementary Education
Myla Fay, American Studies (AMST) 2011, Paradox in the American Desert: The Salton Sea
Julia Diane Reid, American Studies (AMST) 2011, Miscegenation on Trial: To Kill a Mockingbird and the Doctrine of Interracial Intimacy
Richard Scheele, American Studies (AMST) 2011, The American High School: A Negotiation of Power
Submissions from 2010
Ariana Beth Kiener, American Studies (AMST) 2010, Latino Students in Northfield: Toward a Better Future in America
Joanna Rose Plotz, American Studies (AMST) 2010, Read at Your Own Risk! Tracing Adolescent and Parent Reception of Judy Blume's "Forever," 1975 to the Present
Julia Ariel Rindler, American Studies (AMST) 2010, Playing with American Identity: Margins and Mainstreams in American Girl's Construction of Nationality
