Honors

The department encourages qualified听Geography majors who wish to graduate with听honors in Geography to apply for admission to the听department honors program.听Students find the process of graduating with honors (cum laude, magna cum laude, or summa cum laude) to be a most challenging and rewarding capstone to their college career.听听听

Eligibility
  • Cumulative GPA at CU of at least 3.3
  • Geography GPA of at least 3.5
  • At least 18 credit hours in Geography with at least 1 upper division Geography course

Students who are eligible and have identified a project of interest must then:

  • Select a primary thesis advisor within Geography to supervise the Honors research
  • Select a second reader outside the student鈥檚 major department
  • Select an Honors Representative from the GEOG department. Current Honors reps include Dr. William Travis (William.travis@colorado.edu) or Dr. Taneesha Mohan (Taneesha.mohan@colorado.edu)
  • Thesis committee members must be faculty members or instructors on a multi-year contract; graduate students are not eligible to be thesis committee members
  • Your committee should be established and your project idea formulated BEFORE you apply online to the Honors Program.

As part of the application, you will need to submit:

  • a short proposal of the honors research, including your research timeline and bibliography, and
  • online registration form to the Arts and College Honors Program by the relevant deadlines (/honors/graduation)

While working on your honors project, you may be eligible to receive senior thesis credits through GEOG 4990 in both the semester prior to the defense, as well as the semester of your defense. To register, fill out the with your sponsoring faculty member. Once the form is filled out, send the form to Gabby Sales (gabriela.sales@colorado.edu) to be put into DocuSign.

Finally, for a detailed timeline of the Honors thesis project, see Geography's 听and the University's College of Arts and Sciences Honors Program

Undergraduate Alumni Theses

NameDefendedThesis TitleHonors LevelAdvisorLink to CU Scholar
Belen RoofSpring 2025Does Winter Outdoor Recreational Traffic Impact Concentrations of Microplastics in Colorado鈥檚 Snowpacks?summa cum laudeNoah Molotch听
Wesley ThomsonSpring 2025Abolition Geographies and the Making of Liberatory Geographies in Aurora, Coloradosumma cum laudeIsaac Rivera
Elizabeth BannisterSpring 2023How the Differential Vulnerability of the Elderly Hinders Wider Community Capacity for Resilient Adaptation on the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts.cum laudeJennifer Fluri
Jordan LeeSpring 2023Eating Ourselves Into Being: Navigating Identity Through Queer Foodwayssumma cum laudeAbby Hickcox
Anila NarayanaSpring 2023Food for Thought: Investigating Wellbeing, Belonging, and Barriers to Community Gardening During the COVID-19 Pandemicsumma cum laudeAzita Ranjbar
Megan PyzolaSpring 2023ZIP codes and beyond: Inequality in college preparation in Colorado Springs high schoolssumma cum laudeAbby Hickcox
Paloma SiegelSpring 2023Drivers of Stable Water Isotope Anomalies in a Temperate Alaskan Ice Core on the Juneau Icefieldsumma cum laudeHolly Barnard
Zoe BoiarskySpring 2022Flooding Memorials in the Northern Front Range of Colorado: Hazard Memorialization and the Human 鈥 Environment Relationshipsumma cum laudeAbby Hickcox
Zac ClementSpring 2022Imagining 鈥楬ome鈥: Undergraduate Housing Insecurity in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemicsumma cum laudeAzita Ranjbar
Reese GregorySpring 2022Examining Spatial Differences in Soil Solute Chemistry in a Semi-arid Montane Catchment, Manitou Experimental Forest, Colorado.summa cum laudeHolly Barnard
Mykael PinedaSpring 2022Regeneration of Ponderosa Pine Within the Southern Rocky Mountainssumma cum laudeHolly Barnard
Siobhan CiafoneSpring 2021Effects of Wind Flow and Topography on Snow Distribution and Liquid Water Content in Mountain Snowpacksumma cum laudeNoah Molotch
Esme FahnestockSpring 2021(Mis)Remembering the American West: Public Memory and the Erasure of Indigenous History in Telluride, COmagna cum laudeHeide Bruckner
Ryan CabanaSpring 2020Protests in Independent Kazakhstan 1991-2019magna cum laudeJohn O'Loughlin
Andrea ClementSpring 2020Assessing Gendered Climate Related Vulnerabilities in Community Based Conservation Areas of Southern Sub-Saharan Africasumma cum laudeSarah Kelly
Madison MatthiasSpring 2020Evaluating the Capacity of Green Infrastructure Projects to Facilitate Empathy with Nature in Their Usersmagna cum laudeBill Travis
Micheli OliverFall 2019Reclaiming Fire: Fire Management as a Form of Autonomy and Self-Determination for the Karuk Tribe of Californiacum laudeJoe Bryan
Hattie HouserSpring 2019Resisting Feminicide in Mexico through Policy, Performance, and Researchsumma cum laudeJoe Bryan
Tai KoesterSpring 2019The Cartographic Destruction of Bears Ears: Dispossession, Creating 鈥淧ublic鈥 Land, and Fighting for Indigenous Conceptions of Spacesumma cum laudeJoe Bryan
Dylan LankaSpring 2019Solifluction Lobes on Niwot Ridge: Using Drones, Time-lapse Cameras, and Weather Data to Study Periglacial Featuressumma cum laudeSuzanne Anderson
Rylee McConeSpring 2019Representations of Africa through Photographysumma cum laudeMara Goldman
Dylan MurphySpring 2019Using Random Forest Machine Learning Methods to Identify Spatiotemporal Patterns of Cheatgrass Invasion through Landsat Land Cover Classification in the Great Basin from 1984 - 2011summa cum laudeJennifer Balch
John SchererSpring 2019Comparison of the Practical Applications and Limitations of InSAR and Structure From Motion Depictions of Surface Elevation Flux for Academic Purposescum laudeBill Travis
Kai KresekSpring 2018Are perceived neighborhoods palimpsests? Analyzing self-defined neighborhoods in the context of historical redliningsumma cum laudeColleen Reid
Brooke LongSpring 2017Rather Dead Than Gay: Complicating Rights-Based Activism as a Final Step for LGBTT+ Braziliansmagna cum laudeMara Goldman
Gabi MurriloSpring 2017The Hispanic Health Paradox: Does the Barrio Advantage Exist Outside of Urban Enclaves?summa cum laudeFernando Riosmena听
Emily EleyFall 2016Neoliberalism and the Death of the Pedagogical Institutionmagna cum laudeNajeeb Jan听
Danielle BeatySpring 2016A Comparison Between Mass Balance of the Taku and Lemon Creek Glaciers Derived from Glaciological Methods and GRACEmagna cum laudeMark Serreze
Mollie BucklandSpring 2016What Is a Megafire? Defining the Social and Physical Dimensions of Extreme U.s. Wildfires (1988-2014)summa cum laudeJennifer Balch
Natalie GillardSpring 2016Changing Flood Intensities in California: Examination of Changing Annual Peak Flow Magnitudes in the Northern Coastal Region, Sierra Nevada Mountain Region, and the Southern Coastal Region, CA.magna cum laudePitlick John
Katharine V GregorySpring 2016Iceland's Environmental Saga: Motivations for Sustainable Action and Beliefsumma cum laudeAbby Hickcox
Katelynne KnightSpring 2016Current conditions and future flood policy recommendations for the st. vrain watershed through a historical Hydrologic analysis of the Town of lyons, coloradocum laudePaul Landerhttps://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/undergraduate_honors_theses/c821gk316
Caitlin McShaneSpring 2016The Spatial Characteristics of Extreme Precipitation in the Arcticcum laudeMark Serreze
Jesse NestlerSpring 2016Take a Walk on the Wild Side: GIS Modeling of Environmental Controls on Trail Degradation in the Maroon Bells鈥揝nowmass Wilderness near Aspen, Coloradosumma cum laudeStefan Leyk
Will RempelSpring 2016A Review of Historic and Modern Oil and Natural Gas Well Drilling and Abandonment in Greeley, Colorado, and the Potential Applications of a Historic Geographic Information Systemmagna cum laudeBill Travis
Charles A SolbergSpring 2016Visual Media鈥檚 Influence on Land Policymagna cum laudeBill Travis
John TarriconeSpring 2016Optimizing Hydrologic Model Selection for Low-Flowsmagna cum laudeJohn Pitlick
Kyle G WebberSpring 2016Deciphering the Effects of Decentralization on Water Rights: State to Urban Inconsistencies in Boliviamagna cum laudeBryan Bryan
Jennifer BloomFall 2015Geothermal Reconnaissance: Remote Sensing and GIS Applications in the Investigation of Thermal Anomalies Near Trinidad, Coloradomagna cum laudeWaleed Abdalati
Jeremy ArkinSpring 2015An Analysis of Tree Regeneration following the Hayman Fire in the Upper-Montane Zone of the Colorado Front Rangecum laudeTom Veblen
Keli BakerSpring 2015The Truth About Organic: Sustainability, Practice, and Perceptioncum laudeAbby Hickcox
Jessica BarnesSpring 2015Phenological and altitudinal changes in plants responding to drying Neotropical Cloud Forestssumma cum laudeHolly Barnard
Noah BrauerSpring 2015Microscale Temperature Fluctuations In The Boulder Valleycum laudeJohn Cassano
Laura ConwaySpring 2015Gentrification In The Neoliberal World Order: A Study of Urban Change in the River North District of Denver, Coloradocum laudeNajeeb Jan
Catarina MassaSpring 2015Wild Women: The Positive Transformation of Women and Girls Through Female-Only Adventure Educationsumma cum laudeMara Goldman
Anthony MelusoSpring 2015Reinvention: A Spatial History of Westwoodsumma cum laudeBill Travis
David ScarrSpring 2015Exploring Climate Change Driven Shifts to Water Rights and Policy Along the Colorado Rivermagna cum laudePaul Lander
Nathan Zick-SmithSpring 2015Food Support Networks and their Relationship to Food Insecurity in Colorado Countiesmagna cum laudeElisabeth Root
Bryan HankinsonFall 2014American red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) abundance in spruce beetle-infested forests of Coloradomagna cum laudeTom Veblen
Madison MusgraveFall 2014An Inquiry into Disparities in Teenage Birth Rates Between Douglas County and Pueblo County, Coloradocum laudeElisabeth Root
Kelly AndersonSpring 2014The Use of Dendroecological Techniques to Build a Master Chronology and Determine Fire Effects in a Mixed-Severity Fire Regime Forest of Northern Montanasumma cum laudeTom Veblen
Benjamin BellmanSpring 2014Segregation and Urban Form: Towards an Understanding of Dynamics Between Race, Population Movement, and the Built Environment of American Citiessumma cum laudeSeth Spielman
Fabian PtokSpring 2014Alternative Irrigation Methods: Structured Water in the context of a Growing Global Food Crisis due to Water Shortagescum laudePaul Lander
Lindsay WieboldSpring 2014Physically and Financially Trapped: Migration Desires and the Geopolitics of Cuba's "Lineamientos"summa cum laudeAbby Hickcox
Robert SemborskiFall 2013Dust Deposits from Anthropogenic Sources on the Snowpack of the Glaciers in the Cordillera Blanca, Perusumma cum laudeMark Williams
Nicholas StoryFall 2013U.S. Coastal Retreat: Historical Analysis, Policy Options and Political Willingnessmagna cum laudeBill Travis
Michal FagreliusSpring 2013Ground Penetrating Radar Validation of Seasonal Snow Depth Variations in Forested and Non-Forested Transectscum laudeNoah Molotch
Alexander LoomisSpring 2013Montane pine species differ in water use efficiency under drought conditions across a small, headwater catchmentmagna cum laudeHolly Barnard
Sarah McKinnellFall 2012Dimensions of Disaster During Hurricane Katrina: Landscape, Levees, and the Least Fortunatemagna cum laudeBill Travis
Tracy PihlFall 2012Medical Geography of the Pima Indian Reservation Diabetes Epidemic: The Role of the Gila Rivercum laudeElisabeth Root
Jessica DehartSpring 2012Modeling Fate and Transport of Hydraulic Fracturing Fluid Organic Additivessumma cum laudeMark Williams听
Mark RoseSpring 2012A Geographic Analysis of Armed Conflict Events in Sudan 1980-1990magna cum laudeJohn O'Loughlin
Jared BlochSpring 2011Subalpine Forest Regeneration following Mountain Pine Beetle Outbreak in Routt and White River National Forests, Coloradosumma cum laudeThomas Veblen
Thomas BrennanSpring 2011The Spatial Ecology of Lynx canadensiscum laudeBill Travis
Erik (Shane) GrigsbySpring 2011Derivation of Solar Insolation Estimates from LiDARmagna cum laudeWaleed Abdalati
Adam MasonFall 2010Snowmelt Timing in the Colorado Front Rangecum laudeMark Williams听
Atalie PestalozziFall 2010A Political Ecology Approach to Kenya's Mau Forestsumma cum laudeMara Goldman听
Alexander DurantSpring 2010Economic Effects of the Mountain Pine Beetle in Colorado Resort Communitiescum laudeBill Travis听
Michael MazzoneSpring 2010The Cost and Value of Water: How Simple Cost-Recovery is Unable to Address the Issue of Scarcity and Externalities Associated with Water Resourcescum laudeDouglas S Kenney听
Jeffrey MoskowitzSpring 2010Visualizing History Through Geographic Information Systems (GIS): The Battle of Britain August 16, 1940cum laudeKen Foote听
Nathan RockSpring 2010Analysis of Spatial and Temporal Variability of Snowpack in an Upper Montane Forest Catchment in the Front Range of Coloradocum laudeSuzanne Anderson听
Aaron Zettler-MannSpring 2010The Effects of Wave Energy Converters on a Monochromatic Wave Climatemagna cum laudeBaylor Fox-Kemper听
Matthew PrimomoFall 2009A Historical Analysis of the Stanley Avalanche Area with Implications for Predicting Road-Hit Avalanches, Berthoud Pass, Coloradosumma cum laudeMark Williams听
Ezequiel ChalbaudSpring 2009The Melting Alpine Snowpack and Water Managementcum laudeMark Williams听
Kelsi CoiaSpring 2009Border Tourism: An Embodied Solution to Israel's International Conflictscum laudeTim Oakes听
Margaret (Cody) LollisSpring 2009Soil Conservation: Achieving Efficient Policy for a variable Resourcemagna cum laudeSusan Beatty听
Justin MarlerSpring 2009An Assessment of Spatial Pattern Analysis Techniques: Stand Structure of an Old-Growth Temperate Rainforest in Southern Chilesumma cum laudeTom Veblen听
Joel ParkerSpring 2009Modeling Surface Energy Balances and Melt Energy Partitioning of a Sub-Alpine Snowpack within a Tree Stand Affected by Mountain Pine Beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae), Niwot Ridge, Coloradomagna cum laudeMark Williams听
Connor SheehanSpring 2009An Analysis of Remittances to Mexicosumma cum laudeFernando Riosmena听
Jennifer PerryFall 2008Understanding Maasi-ion Conflict in Nothern Tanzania: Implications for Community Based Conservationsumma cum laudeMara Goldman听
Daniel JarvisSpring 2008Dendrochronological Detection of Historic Spruce Bark Beetle Outbreaks in Rocky Mountain National Park, Coloradocum laudeTom Veblen听
Evan ApelSpring 2007Radical Movements in Pakistan Since Autumn of 2001magna cum laudeJohn O'Loughlin听
Andrew (Jimmy) VoneshSpring 2007Incorporating Human Perceptions into Climate Policy: Environmnetal Justice in the Arcticmagna cum laudeEmily Yeh听
Kovi BessoffSpring 2006听summa cum laude听听
Amanda ChesnuttSpring 2006听magna cum laude听听
Audrius (Otis) CritchleySpring 2006The Changing Geography of Wall Streetsumma cum laudeGary Gaile听
Kristina FournierSpring 2006听summa cum laude听听
Jaclyn GormanSpring 2006Unknown (Subjects: New Zealand Mudsnail (NZMS), fluvial processes, invasive species, Boulder Creek)magna cum laudeSuzanne Anderson听
C. Beckett HartFall 2005听magna cum laude听听
Anna MilanFall 2005听magna cum laude听听
Evan BurgessSpring 2005Developing a GIS Based Technique to Estimate the Mass Balance of the Taku Glacier, Alaskasumma cum laudeKenneth Foote and Nel Caine听
Inbar KishoniSpring 2005听magna cum laude听听
Danny KunchesSpring 2005听cum laude听听
Anna ProctorSpring 2005听summa cum laude听听
Brian TannenbaumSpring 2005Nature's Forbidden Fruit: Natural Resources and the Occurrence, Duration, and Dynamics of Civil Warsumma cum laudeUnknown听
Casey BatesFall 2004听magna cum laude听听
Chelsea JarvisSpring 2004听cum laude听听
Pavla VaneckovaSpring 2004Male Suicide Rates in Northeast Texas, 1990-2001summa cum laudeKenneth Foote听
Matthew KuhnSpring 2003听cum laude听听
Chelsea PrimakSpring 2002Cuban Women of the Night; Cuban Tourism and It Effects on Jineterismacum laudeRachel Silvey听
Melissa CrandellSpring 2001听cum laudeLynn Staeheli听
Meghann OrmondSpring 2001"We Look for Places" the Creation & Practice of "Public" Spaces by Young, Educated, Middle Class, Urban Moroccanssumma cum laudeJohn O'Loughlin听
Cynthia WolkenFall 2000听magna cum laude听听
Staci McCombSpring 2000Social and Environmental Implications of the Three Gorges Project with Case Studies of Reservoir Relocation听Unknown听
Wendy MokesSpring 2000听summa cum laude听听