Theses Titles: From Strange to Stranger

Cranking out a seventy-something page paper that is supposed to represent the culmination of all that you have learned in four years of college sounds almost impossible. Amazingly, year after year, students manage just fine.

Here is a list of some of the weirder senior theses that have been written in Crimson pen. From theses published in 1948 to those completed most recently in 2010, Harvard has its fair share of quirky titles to spark your interest.

"A study of hand form in 250 Harvard men" (1948)

"Models have feet of clay: a thesis" (1977)

"Ontogeny, function and phylogeny of human chins and mandibular symphyses" (2003)

"Cooking practices of the Hadza and Ju/'hoansi : a modern culinary analogue for ancestral hominid species" (2003)

"The relationship of waist-to-hip ratio to ovarian hormones and implications for health and fecundity" (2004)

"Why is the gluteus so maximus? : the role of the gluteus maximus in human running and its evolutionary implications" (2005)

"The effects of insulin and energetic stress on ovarian function in rowers" (2006)

"Milk matters: human breast milk composition from an evolutionary perspective" (2006)

"Distinction based on age, sex, and status: a comparative analysis of Lambayeque mortuary practices in the Chicama and Jequetepeque Valleys" (2010)