Rice Undergraduate Theses
This collection features undergraduate theses written by undergraduates at Rice University. Copyright remains with the author.
If you are interested in making your honors thesis available through RDSA, please see Open Invitation to Undergraduates and talk with your adviser. Please contact Lisa Spiro, Executive Director, Digital Scholarship Services, at lspiro[at]rice[dot]edu with any questions.
Recent Submissions
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Phases in Ultracold Interacting Rydberg Atom Systems With The Su-Schrieffer-Heeger Model Engineered On A Synthetic Dimension
(2023)Synthetic dimensions encoded into atomic states have emerged as a powerful tool for engineering new phases of matter. These synthetic dimensions are helpful in accessing confgurations that are difcult or impossible to simulate using real space alone. Using Rydberg states to encode these synthetic dimensions allows a high level of control over system ... -
Differences between modern and ancient Martian grain size distributions may reveal different paleoatmospheric conditions and provenance
(2023)Grain size distributions in eolian (wind-blown) deposits encode information about the atmospheric conditions that enabled their transport and deposition, and grain shape encodes information about provenance and postdepositional processes. Gale crater is a ~3.7 Ga impact crater with a vast diversity of exposed sedimentary strata indicative of a varied ... -
The Effect of Nitrate Availability on Oxygen Isotope Fractionation During Cyanobacterial Photosynthesis
(2023)Marine primary productivity supports food webs and ecosystem health, driving large-scale animal distribution patterns in the ocean. Primary productivity is also a fundamental process in the biological pump, which sequesters inorganic carbon from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and transports it to the ocean interior where it can be stored for ... -
Understanding Phosphorus Mobility in Arclogites
(2023)Phosphorus (P) is an essential nutrient for life. Throughout geologic time, availability of this element has limited primary productivity. Therefore, understanding how the phosphorus moves through Earth system has important implications for understanding life history. While surface fluxes of phosphorus are well studied, less attention has been given ... -
Changes in Atlantic Tropical Cyclones and the Bermuda High: Clues from the Last Millennium to Inform the Future
(2023)Current anthropogenic climate change is expected to increase hurricane intensity, with stronger winds, higher rainfall, and increased flooding, all of which pose a major threat to coastal communities. However, climate models vary in their predictions of how climate change will impact hurricane frequency and tracks, and 20th century data sources are ... -
Environmental Control in Appalachia: Politics of the Red River Gorge Dam Controversy, 1962-1975
(2022-03-30)In 1962, Congress approved the building of a dam on the Red River in Eastern Kentucky because of recurring floods affecting Powell County, Kentucky. This dam threatened a beautiful and ecologically unique part of the Red River, and, in response, in 1967 a group of environmental activists gathered together to challenge the building of this dam. After ... -
Silences on the Strand: Contesting Public Memories of Slavery and Freedom in Galveston’s Civic Historical Landscape (1871-2021)
(2022-05)On June 19, 2021, a mural was unveiled in Galveston, TX titled Absolute Equality. It depicts several scenes representative of enslavement and freedom and it is located at the former site of the Union Army Headquarters and where U.S. Gen. Granger read the orders that abolished America’s last vestige of slavery. The mural was unveiled with effervescent ... -
Negotiating Mexican Foreign Policy on Cuba: Between Domestic Interests and the United States: 1959-1964
(2022-05)This thesis analyzes Mexico's foreign policy regarding Cold War era developments in Cuba and the United States' response to said policy. It finds that while Mexico oftentimes defied the anticommunist agenda the United States pushed on to Latin America during this period, it did so not as an immediate affront to the United States, but rather to keep ... -
Freedom’s Archive: Slavery, Emancipation, & Reconstruction in Fort Bend County
(2022-05)This thesis tells the story of the Wheat family from their enslavement in Fort Bend County by Frederick Allen Rice through their experiences during emancipation, Reconstruction, and Jim Crow. It studies questions of change and continuity and grapples with the inadequacies of traditional sources to try and tell a rich, colorful story of one Black ... -
Machine Learning Detection of P-Waves in Laboratory Acoustic Emission Events to Understand Deep-Focus Earthquakes
(2022)The mechanisms of deep-focus earthquakes (DFEQs)—those between 350 and 700 km depth—remain poorly understood due to our inability to directly measure their fault properties in situ. One potential explanation for DFEQ nucleation is the transformational faulting hypothesis, which theorizes mineral transformations initiate the faults. To analyze these ... -
When is Drone Photogrammetry Useful for Flood Risk Assessment?
(2021-05)Drone technology and the high resolution datasets it enables stand to revolutionize our understanding of the Earth’s surface. This research is Houston specific, and studies how drones can be used to systematically collect photogrammic data to detect environmental changes, and how that data is valuable for flood planning purposes. This data is the ... -
Orgullo Crítico: An Anti-Capitalist Approach To Pride In Spain And The United States
(2021-05)Every June, many people around the world come together to celebrate queer identities at various state-sponsored Pride events. However, given the infiltration of rainbow capitalism in mainstream Pride movements, many radical leftists within the queer community have begun to organize anti-capitalist "Critical Pride" protests. In this thesis, I trace ... -
The Impacts of Concrete on pH and Calcium Concentration in Houston’s Bayous
(2021-05)As the human population grows, so does the percentage of people living in urban areas. This means that an increasing amount of landmass must be used for urban infrastructure and housing to accommodate a greater number of people. The environmental impacts of urbanization are not completely understood. However, one important aspect that may be impacted ... -
Affection: Essays on Affect, Empathy, and the Politics of Feeling
(2021-05)Often, we view feelings as squishy—personal and subjective, therefore private and apolitical. Even within ourselves, our feelings can often seem reflexive and out of our own control. This thesis represents my attempt to hold these squishy feelings and look at them up close, from different angles. In doing so, I hope to see how our affects may not ... -
Critical Theory, Normativity, and Catastrophe: A Critique of Amy Allen’s Metanormative Contextualism
(2020-05)Critical theory is an approach to philosophical and cultural analysis that focuses on oppression and liberation. In this essay, I consider the prospect of moral-political progress in critical theory, focusing primarily on Amy Allen’s position of metanormative contextualism as described in her 2016 work, "The End of Progress." I first consider Allen’s ... -
Glacially-controlled variations in the biological pump of the Ross Sea in the Mid-to-Late Pliocene
(2020-05)The mid-to-late Pliocene (~3.3 – 2.5 Ma) is an intriguing period for investigating Earth’s past climate dynamics as a potential analogue for future warmth due to anthropogenic climate change. In the Southern Ocean, the Ross Sea and the adjacent West Antarctic Ice Sheet exert significant influence on global climate through their roles in carbon cycle ... -
Competing Claims: An Analysis of References to the Past Made to Justify Ownership of the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba
(2019-05)Competing claims of ownership to the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba, a popular tourist site, have emerged in the twenty-first century. The Cordoban Chapter of the Catholic Church was permitted to register the space as its formal property in 2006. Some politicians, particularly members of Spain’s Socialist party, the PSOE, dispute the law that allowed ... -
Empathetic Blame: Moral Evaluation in the Face of Luck
(2020-05)In this thesis I offer a new interpretation of blame and criticism rooted in P.F. Strawson's distinction between the subjective and objective points of view. In Part I, I use the problems presented by circumstantial moral luck to expose the inadequacy of standard intuitions about what's required to blame another. Proposed solutions to these issues, ... -
Public Libraries as Social Infrastructure in Disaster Resilience and Recovery: Houston Libraries and Hurricane Harvey
(2020-05)Current work in the social sciences highlights social infrastructure and its role in communities, especially in cases of disaster resilience and recovery. This study furthers that body of work by examining the role of public libraries in flooding recovery
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