University Honors Program

By Kaitlin Lewis

One of the added benefits for students in the University Honors Program is the opportunity to complete an Honors-supported thesis project with a faculty mentor. These projects cover a diverse range of fields, from creating solar-powered equipment to writing a series of short stories. Each student has the opportunity to undertake independent research while contributing new knowledge to their field. In addition, students earn six academic credit hours for their research time. 

The Honors Program asked a wide range of senior thesis writers, in fields ranging from health sciences to English, to share about their research and how it applies to their future goals in their field.

Anna Biesecker-Mast | History and English

Senior Anna Biesecker-Mast is graduating in May with a double major in history and English and a minor in women’s and gender studies. Her chosen thesis, which looks into the Black maternalist framework in Black activism, is an interdisciplinary project that allows her to utilize all of her studies at UD. 

“My historical research seeks to reveal how exactly White European notions of Blackness, womanhood, and motherhood, and the intersection of all three, were inscribed onto the lived experiences of enslaved women and mothers,” Biesecker-Mast explained. “And then, after emancipation and abolition, onto the lives of Black women in the United States up through the present moment.”

Biesecker-Mast first started research with the Dean’s summer fellowship in 2020, where she explored the vulnerability of single mothers in systems of poverty in America today. Through this research, she found many of the women to be Black and had historically experienced discrimination on more levels than one. This, along with guidance from history professor Dr. Ashleigh Lawrence-Sanders, led her to her current topic.

Biesecker-Mast said that the goal of her thesis is to illuminate the long history of Black motherhood in the United States and how Black mothers have played a crucial role in freedom efforts.

“What emerges from a critical analysis of archival omissions are Black women’s voices and experiences who demonstrate over and over that they resisted and are resisting,” Biesecker-Mast added.

Following graduation, Biesecker-Mast shared that she plans to continue her studies. One opportunity she has applied for is the Fulbright scholarship, which would allow her to study history in Scotland. Biesecker-Mast has also applied to history PhD programs at a few graduate schools, and hopes to begin her graduate studies soon. 

Biesecker-Mast said that she chose her topic to gain experience in historical research as well as her interest in her particular field.

“I’m interested in writing history against the archives to amplify the voices and experiences of Black women who have historically been silenced and erased in the U.S.,” Biesecker-Mast said. 

“For me, telling their [Black mother’s] stories against the erasure in the archives is also an important social justice project,” Biesecker-Mast added. “It’s become clear through my research that Black women’s voices have been suppressed and erased in U.S. archives, so I’m committed to the project of telling their vibrant history in spite of that violence done against them.”