Undergraduate Research | Department of Political Science

Undergraduate students interested in conducting original research should consider the political science honors program. During their senior year students in the honors program write a thesis on a topic of their choosing while being supervised by a political science faculty member.

Award Winning Thesis Projects

Year	Thesis Title	Author (Student)	Faculty Advisor
2024	An Investigation into the Scientific Re-Biologization of Race and Sex	Erin M. Haslett	Samantha Frost
2024	Citizen’s Voices in Climate Migration: Exploring Public Opinion’s Influence on Government Action	Rayna Patel	Rana Khoury
2023	There's No "I" in Erdoğan: Predicting Power Personalization with Pronoun Usage in Turkey	Emily Sallenback	Avital Livny
2022	Use of Force in the BLM Era: How High-Profile Citizen-Killings by Police Affect Use of Force Outcomes in Dallas, Texas	Thomas Ballard	Scott Althaus
2022	AmeriCAN I…?” : The Effect of the Strength of American Identity on Civic Participation in Second-Generation Americans	Tyeese Braslavsky	Cara Wong
2021	Who Does the Rule of Law Rule Out? Examining the Access to Justice for Victims in Post-Conflict Colombia	Jessica Angel	Alyssa Prorok
2019	Rising Temperatures and Inequality: Collective Action in a Changing World	Rebecca Laurent	Robert Pahre and Daniel Miller
2018	Personality's Role within the World's Greatest Deliberative Body: How the "Big Five" Factors Drive the Rise of United States Senators to Legislative Success	Matthew Rice	Jeffery Mondak
2017	Intraparty Factions and Interparty Polarization	Collin Schumock	Gisela Sin
2016	From the Washington to the Beijing Consensus: China's Economic Rise and the IMF	John Knoblett	Xinyuan Dai
2015	A Perpetuating Negative Cycle: The Effects of Economic Inequality on Voter Participation	Jenine Saleh	Thomas Rudolph

2023-2024 Thesis Projects

Thesis Title	Author (Student)	Faculty Advisor
Shaping Public Trust: The Impact of Personal and Vicarious Experiences with the Police and Courts	LJ Brockington	Jeff Mondak
Adaptation in Crisis: Leadership Styles and Turnover During the COVID-19 Era	Natalie Cheung	Don Casler
Pilgrimage Perspectives: Exploring the Impact of Diasporic Returns on Homeland Perceptions	Christina Chrones	Rana Khoury
Roulette or Resurrection? Convergence, Divergence, and Russia's Place in the Western Led International Order	Ethan Cooper	Robert Carroll
An Analysis of Russia’s National Interests and the OSCE’s Reactions During Russia’s War on Ukraine: A Study of International Relations Theories in Practice	Natalia Crane	Robert Pahre
Digital Payment Infrastructure and its Impact on Geopolitics	Xinyuan (Frank) Cui	Paul Diehl
"You're Cancelled:" Understanding Content Moderation Habits for Extreme Political Content on TikTok	Faith Dahman	Aleks Ksiazkiewicz
Public Response to Political Crime: The Effect of Elected Official Crime on Political Polarization	Nico Divizio	Aleks Ksiazkiewicz
Why is the System Failing Victims of Sexual Violence? A Theoretical Framework of the Epistemic Failures of the Adversarial System	Morgan Feeney	Ben Miller
	Emily Fitch	Cara Wong
is Beyond Conviction: A Theoretical Framework for Extending Deliberative Democratic Theory to the Reformation of Post-Conviction Practices	Alexandra Gergova	Ben Miller
An Investigation into the Scientific Re-Biologization of Race and Sex	Erin M. Haslett	Samantha Frost
Treading Water: Hydropolitics in an Increasingly Torrid World	Max Issel	Nick Grossman
Are democracies really open to trade?	Chenyu Jiang	Rob Carroll
Interstate Rivalry and Social Development: Exploring Potential Tradeoffs	Sarine Kalayjian	Paul Diehl
I'm Just a Bill: The Impact of Civic Education on Democratic Engagement	Vindhya Kalipi	Jeff Mondak
Bleeding Borders: U.S. Intervention and the Rise of Femicide in Mexico	Mia Macias	Gisela Sin
A Legitimacy Crisis: How Politicized Media Undermines Support for the Supreme Court	Lindsay Mallak	Alicia Uribe-McGuire
The Repercussions of Extremist Groups on Intraparty Polarization	Daniela Marin	Jake Bowers
Faith and Foreign Relations: Effect of Religious Values on Alliance Types	Nancy Mi	Don Casler
Pandemic Paranoia: The Economic Quake of COVID-spiracy on US-China Relations	Angela Park	Yujeong Yang
No Laughing Matter: Late Night Jokes About Terrorism	Ben Pekay	Scott Althaus
Citizen’s Voices in Climate Migration: Exploring Public Opinion’s Influence on Government Action	Rayna Patel	Rana Khoury
Healthcare in the Balance: Unmasking the Role of Privatization in the Access, Equity, and Outcomes of Health Systems Around the World	Ethan Thuo	Jake Bowers
Beyond Belief: Impact of Candidates' Religious Affiliations on American Undergraduate Voters	Sam Webb	Thomas Rudolph
Shelby County v. Holder: Examining the Impact of New Voting Restrictions	Chanel Ziegler	Brian Gaines

Best Thesis Award: Erin Haslett- An Investigation into the Scientific Re-Biologization of Race and Sex. Advisor- Samantha Frost
Rayna Patel- Citizen’s Voices in Climate Migration: Exploring Public Opinion’s Influence on Government Action. Advisor- Rana Khoury

Poster Award Winner: Faith Dahman – “You’re Cancelled:” Understanding Content Moderation Habits for Extreme Political Content on TikTok. Advisor – Aleks Ksiazkiewicz

2022-2023 Thesis Projects

Thesis Title	Author (Student)	Faculty Advisor
Motivations Behind Voter Mobilization Post-Dobbs Decision	Claire Accardo	Cara Wong
Supreme Court Legitimacy and the Impacts of Perceived Politicization	Nicole B Arnold	Alicia Uribe-McGuire
Exploring Conflict Engagement: The Impact of Age on the Conflict Engagement of Government Leaders	Anna Blair	Alyssa Prorok
Money or Morals? The Use of Violence by Rebel Groups Faced with New Resource Flows	Ryan Coady	Alyssa Prorok
University Ideology Relating to Sexual Misconduct Policies	Claire Fleming	Robert Pahre
The Power of an Individual's Socialization: Why Racial Identity Impacts Americans' Perceptions of Which Political Issues Are Most Important	Sotirios Gouriotis	Robert Carroll
Cops, Courts, and Confidence: How Police Interactions Affect Public Trust in the Judiciary	Emma Henderson	Jeff Mondak
Motivations for Nuclear Renunciation: When Do States Give Up Nuclear Weapons?	Nick Larson	Nicholas Grossman
Political Messaging Receptivity Among American Age Demographics	Olivia Lynch	Thomas Rudolph
Rising up, for One Less: Examining Feminicide and Mobilization in Colombia	Melany Montesdeoca	Damarys Canache
Ideological Polarization: Political Division in Activists and the Masses	Zheng Yuan Mor	Thomas Rudolph
Public Involvement in Agency Rulemaking: How State Agricultural Output Impacts Public Participation in the Notice-and-Comment Process	Mariama Mwilambwe	Brian Gaines & Carmen Ugarte
ReACTION: The Effect of Online Emotions on Offline Conviction Towards Social Movements	Jasmine Ng	Jake Bowers
There's No "I" in Erdoğan: Predicting Power Personalization with Pronoun Usage in Turkey	Emily Sallenback	Avital Livny
“High Stakes Finance”: How Battlefield Outcomes Affect Rebel Group Financing	Sonja Shirkevich	Alyssa Prorok
Political will, not capacity: refugee reception policymaking in Poland	Nicole Ward	Rana Khoury

Best Thesis Award and Poster Award Winner: Emily Sallenback

2021-2022 Thesis Projects

Thesis Title	Author (Student)	Faculty Advisor
Migration and Democracy in the European Union	Rumeysa Aydogdu	Cara Wong
Use of Force in the BLM Era: How High-Profile Citizen-Killings by Police Affect Use of Force Outcomes in Dallas, Texas	Thomas Ballard	Scott Althaus
Being Left Behind: Disseminating Populist Rhetoric on Twitter	Jacob Berlinger	Nora Webb Williams
Foucault, Power, and Public Health Disparities	Shivani Bhogaraju	Samantha Frost
AmeriCAN I…?” : The Effect of the Strength of American Identity on Civic Participation in Second-Generation Americans	Tyeese Braslavsky	Cara Wong
Party Systems and Climate Change Mitigation	Gina Fumagalli	Xinyuan Dai
Factors in State-Level Native American Voter Suppression	Jake Gulick	Robert Pahre
Maintaining Legitimacy in Crises: Examining EU Citizens' Trust	Melisa Ilkhan	Konstantinos Kourtikakis
The CCP's Greatest Hits: An Analysis of Personalism and Propaganda Music	Kaylynn Kattiyaman	Yujeong Yang
Violence Against Land Defenders in Colombia	Ari Kelo	Mckenzie Johnson
Autonomous Civil Society Organizations in Authoritarian Regimes: A Case Study of China	Edward Kim	Yujeong Yang
Identity and Politics: The Mechanisms Behind Politically Motivated Covid-19 Behavior	Katherine King	Avital Livny
Partisanship and Progeny: The Effect of Political Polarization on Perceptions of Family Functioning	Jane Knight	Thomas Rudolph
The Fight for Gideon: Public Defense Resources and Its Impact on Incarceration	Zachary Kowalski	Alicia Uribe-McGuire
The RFRA Arrowhead: Understanding State Level Religious Liberty	Matthew Krauter	Alicia Uribe-McGuire
Behind the Barred Felon Vote: Political Implications of Felon Disenfranchisement	Isabel Launspach	Jeff Mondak
A Justification for Paternalism: Identifying the Good of Subjective and Objective Ends	Alice Lee	Benjamin Miller
Patterns of Influence: How Governments Utilize Minority Targeting Propaganda Campaigns	Benjamin Nathan	Alyssa Prorok
The Impact of Changes in the Law on the “Court of Public Opinion”	Adem Osmani	Jake Bowers
Women Belong in the House (and the Senate): An Analysis of the Impact of Gender and Occupation on Legislative Effectiveness in the United States Senate	Steph Petrov	Gisela Sin
Deplatforming the Alt-Right: A Study of Hate Speech and Twitter Bans	Malia Sayad	Nicholas Grossman
When Fact-Checks Fail: Instilling Social Responsibility on Social Media	Alexandra Simon	Thomas Rudolph
Corporations, Personhood, and the Right to Bend the Law	Clay Ward	Samantha Frost

Best Poster Award Winners: Kaylynn Kattiyaman

Best Thesis Award Winners: Thomas Ballard and Tyeese Braslavsky

2020-2021 Thesis Projects

Thesis Title	Author (Student)	Faculty Advisor
Who Does the Rule of Law Rule Out? Examining the Access to Justice for Victims in Post-Conflict Colombia	Jessica Angel	Alyssa Prorok
Egotism: American Refugee Politics	Arnoldo Ayala	Cara Wong
Reputation and Rivalry: How Reputation Building Leads to Conflict	Christopher Buckley	Robert Carroll
Four Horsemen of the Populist	Hannah Buzil	Thomas Rudolph
Coronavirus and IOs: How the Pandemic has Affected American Attitudes Towards the WHO and Other International Institutions	Mark Choate	Robert Pahre
A Rawlsian Justification for International Climate Agreements	Kimmy Chuang	Benjamin Miller
Faction Effectiveness in the House of Representatives	Naomi Maehr	Gisela Sin
Neoliberalism and Clinical Labor	Kassidy Mahoney	Samantha Frost
Crime and the Electoral Outcomes of Progressive Prosecution	Ali Mirza	Alicia Uribe-McGuire
Time, Motivation and Politics: How the COVID-19 Pandemic Increased Political Participation	Halle Noone	Jake Bowers
Who Picks WHO: Accessing Foreign Policy Attitudes Towards Vaccine Development	Ami Punatar	Aleksander Ksiazkewicz
The Role of Context in the Partisan Divide Over COVID	Jason Reed	Scott Althaus
The Hidden Underbelly of Neoliberalism: How Neo-Utilitarianism Makes the System Work	Kyra Sadovi	Samantha Frost
Mental Health in a Modern Democracy: How Anxiety Impacts American College Students’ Political Behavior	Aishwarya Shekara	Jeff Mondak
Beneficiaries and Project Outcomes: The Role of Aid Beneficiaries in the Success of Sustainable Agricultural Projects	William Smithson	Daniel Miller
Who Participates? Latinx Identity Preferences and Their Impact on Civic Engagement and Political Participation	Estrella Vazquez-Hernandez	Cara Wong
The Identity Crisis in Europe: Analyzing EU Enlargement, Turkey and Cultural Convergence	Hannah Wernecke	Konstantinos Kourtikakis

Best Thesis Presentation Award (in place of “Best Thesis Poster”): Jessica Angel
Best Thesis Award: Jessica Angel

View presentation videos here.

2019-2020 Thesis Projects

Thesis Title	Author (Student)	Faculty Advisor
It’s My Party and I’ll Switch if I Want To: Electoral Impacts of Party Defection by MPs in the UK House of Commons, 2010-2019	Jackson Barnett	Carol Leff
Making Friends and Influencing People: The Effects of Social Media Networks on Subjective Political Knowledge	Jonathan Bonaguro	Scott Althaus
Disinterested: The Role of Rational Self-Interest in White Working Class Attitudes Towards the Affordable Care Act	Joseph Dillier	Cara Wong
A (Manly) Man’s Game: Masculinity, Gender Threat, and Political Participation	Casey J. Griffin	Aleksander Ksiazkiewicz
Social Movements, Party-fit and Female Representation	Millie G Johnson	Thomas Rudolph
What Happens When the Cavalry Actually Comes?: Investigating Relationships between Intervention, Grievance Type, and Conflict Intensity during Civil Wars	Corbin Kakac	Nicholas Grossman
Revisiting Ethnic Social Identification Theory	Chih-Ming (Louis) Lee	Avital Livny
Public Opinion and Minority Rights after the EU’s 2004 Enlargement	Miranda MacNaughton	Carol Leff
Variety in U.S. Intervention: Middle Eastern and North African Conflicts Since 2003	Sophia Wickum	Nicholas Grossman

Best Thesis Presentation Award (in place of “Best Thesis Poster”): Casey J. Griffin & Jonathan Bonaguro

2018-2019 Thesis Projects

Thesis Title	Author (Student)	Faculty Advisor
Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in UN Peacekeeping: An Intersectional Approach	Nair Marie Banks III	Samantha Frost
Territorial Claims and the Avoidance of War and Militarized Interstate Disputes	Yixin Bao	John Vasquez
Reexamining de facto power in Acemoglu & Robinson’s Autocratic Society: Differentiating Coercive Force from Collective Action	Joshua Bi	Avital Livny
The Electoral Effects of Religious Homogeneity	Adam Camp	Thomas Rudolph
Paying More for Politics: The Extent to Which Political Ideology Influences Spending Choices	James Jones	Aleksander Ksiazkiewicz
Rising Temperatures and Inequality: Collective Action in a Changing World	Rebecca Laurent	Robert Pahre and Daniel Miller
Rural Resentment and the Urban/Rural Divide: An Empirical Test	Zion C. Little	Jake Bowers
Race and Redistricting: Does Gerrymandering affect Ethnic Representation?	Peter C. Miller	Brian Gaines
Women and The House: Transformative And Transactional Leadership Styles On The Path To The United States House Of Representatives	Sara O'Malley	Gisela Sin
The Ramifications of Social Media: Differentiating Truths from Falsities and Facts from Opinions	Valerie Peterson	Thomas Rudolph
"Not My Justice": Affective Polarization and the Legitimacy of the United States Supreme Court	James Grant Semonin	Jeffery Mondak
Trust in the European Union: Effect of Energy, Refugees, & Distance	Colin A Staske	Kostas Kourtikakis

Best Poster award winners: Rebecca Laurent and Valerie Peterson
Best Thesis award winner: Rebecca Laurent (Honorable Mentions: Adam Camp, Sara O'Malley, and Valerie Peterson)

2017-2018 Thesis Projects

Thesis Title	Author (Student)	Faculty Advisor
The Violence of Religious Difference: A Study of Civil War Onset	Ljubica Basica	Alyssa Prorok
The Effect of Party Turnover on Government Corruption	Thomas Bishop	Matthew Winters
Economic Interdependence and Probability of Conflict: Territorial Disputes as a Moderating Factor	Chase Bloch	John Vasquez
Investing in Science: Professionalization Effects on the Provision of Constituent Service	Thomas Dowling	Jake Bowers
Hierarchical Capture: Bridging the Gap in Analyses of the Bureaucracy	Stephen Duginger	Gisela Sin
The Impact of the Syrian Refugee Crisis on Immigration	Reema Ghabra	Avital Livny
Cooperation with International Environmental Agreements -- The Role of Regional Forms of Government	Gina Gonnella	Robert Pahre
Ideological Drift and the Personal Lives of Supreme Court Justices	Granger Gridley	Alicia Uribe-McGuire
Media Influence on Public Opinion: Civil Liberties vs. National Security	Cordelia Grob	Thomas Rudolph
When More Knowledge is Not Sufficient: Political Sophistication, Motivation & Ideological Constraint	Shawn Kim	Aleksander Ksiazkiewicz
Ethnic and Religious Discrimination: Is there a Difference	Autumn Langdon	Carol Leff
Going Viral: Characteristics of Newsworthy Tweets	Julia Nusgart	Scott Althaus
Racial Bias in Sentencing and Courts	Kanishk Patel	Alicia Uribe-McGuire
Revisiting the Effect of Presidential Approval: Observing the President Leveraging His Popularity	Christoper Piper	Gisela Sin
Personality's Role within the World's Greatest Deliberative Body: How the "Big Five" Factors Drive the Rise of United States Senators to Legislative Success	Matthew Rice	Jeffery Mondak
Who Would Have Won: Electing the President Through the Direct Vote, 1980-2016	Jeff Talley	Brian Gaines
An Examination of NASA Funding: Causal Factors, Funding Trends, and the Implications of These Findings	Kevin Wenzel	Nicholas Grossman

Matthew Rice was selected as the winner of Best Poster and Best Thesis for his project titled "Personality's Role within the World's Greatest Deliberative Body: How the "Big Five" Factors Drive the Rise of United States Senators to Legislative Success?"

2016-2017 Thesis Projects

Thesis Title	Author (Student)	Faculty Advisor
Investigating the Impact of Congressional Inconsistency	Ethan Amburgey	Brian Gaines
Campaign Messaging Strategies on Twitter	Amelia Berger	Scott Althaus
Representation of Racial and Ethnic Minorities in State Judiciaries	Nadia Gonzalez	Alicia Uribe-McGuire
Authoritarian to Democratic Transitions: The Impact of Legacies	Mandi Heitz	Sarah Hummel
The Effect of Ideology on Protest Behavior in Latin American Countries	James Holevas	Damarys Canache
Approaches to Education Policy and Refugee Outcomes in European Union States	Derek Hoot	Stephen Chaudoin
The Impact of Judicial Vacancies on Decision Quality	Peter Miles	Alicia Uribe-McGuire
World Wars: Investigating the Nature of World Wars, Why They Occur, and Why They Do Not	Moksha Muthukrishan	John Vasquez
Understanding the Brexit Referendum: Direct Democracy and International Regimes	Amy Radlinski	Konstantinos Kourtikakis
An Investigation of Third Party Voting in U.S. Presidential Elections	Aaron Reinsbach	Aleksander Ksiazkiewicz
Intraparty Factions and Interparty Polarization	Collin Schumock	Gisela Sin
Transformative Networks: The Case of North Caucasian and Central Asian Jihadist Networks	Caleb Weiss	Carol Skalnik Leff

Thesis Award Winners

2017 Best Thesis award winner, Collin Schumock

The 2016 Best Thesis award winner is Collin Schumock for his thesis "Intraparty Factions and Interparty Polarization."

2017 Best Poster award winner, Amy Radlinski

The 2017 best poster award winner is Amy Radlinski for her thesis "Understanding the Brexit Referendum: Direct Democracy and International Regimes."

2015-2016 Thesis Projects

Thesis Title	Author (Student)	Faculty Advisor
An American Evolution of LGB Public Opinions	Jack Carrera	Samantha Frost
Analyzing Executive Action: The Signals and Conditions that Help Predict the Issuance of Executive Orders	Alison Casey	Gisela Sin
The Effects of Political Strategy on the United States' Aid Allocation	Naveed Cheraghchi	Matthew Winters
Campaign Finance: Effects on Voter Behavior and Opinion	Thomas Conroy	Jose Chiebub
The President vs. Congress: Agency Compliance and Control	Michelle Gong	Jennifer Selin
Big Interest Groups Making a Big Difference: Studying the Impact of Interest Groups on Agency Policymaking	Meredith Heim	Jennifer Selin
Gender and Committee Assignments in Congress	Marie Johnson-Dahl	Tracy Sulkin
From the Washington to the Beijing Consensus: China's Economic Rise and the IMF	John Knoblett	Xinyuan Dai
Oppression of the Devoted	Janice Lin	Avital Livny
Voting in Taiwan and China: A Comparative Analysis on the Impact of Educational Attainment on Voter Turnout in Taiwan and China	Mekenah Merrill	Sarah Hummel
Gender, Embodied Subjectivity, and Religion: A Challenge to Liberal Pluralism	Hana Nasser	Samantha Frost
The Northern Ireland Conflict and the Good Friday Accord	Farhan Patel	Carol Leff
An Analysis on Eminent Domain and the Supreme Court	Christopher Ponicki	Alicia Uribe
Nuclear Confrontations	Amrutha Prasad	John Vasquez
Public Goods Satisfaction and Participation of Indigenous People in Latin America	Alexandra Turcios	Damarys Canache

Thesis Awards

The 2016 Best Thesis Award winner is John Knoblett for his thesis "From the Washington to the Beijing Consensus: China's Economic Rise and the IMF."

The 2016 Best Poster Award winner is Mekenah Merrill for her thesis poster, "Voting in Taiwan and China: A Comparative Analysis on the Impact of Educational Attainment on Voter Turnout in Taiwan and China."

2014-2015 Thesis Projects

Thesis Title	Author (Student)	Faculty Advisor
Supreme Court Justices' Response to Public Opinion	Ejulius Adorno	Alicia Uribe
Does Anti-Corruption Foreign Aid Reduce Corruption?	Ricardo Alvarez	Matthew Winters
Members of Congress and Congressional Staff Allocation	John Flach	Gisela Sin
Don't Bank On It: The Incomplete Truth of Money in Congressional Elections	Patrick Flavin	Brain Gaines
Progressive Ambition and Gender in Congress	Sarah Gortowski	Tracy Sulkin
Political Violence, Ethnic Fractionalization, and the Ratification of the Rome Statute	Ada Irem Karacal	Stephen Chaudoin
Rise of Nationalism in China and Japan: the Consequences on Domestic Politics and Sino-Japanese Relations	Joo Hoon Kim	Carol Leff
Personality and the Environment: How Internal Motivations Create Different Environmental Decisions	Lauren Krone	Robert Pahre
BREAKING (Network, Comedy, and Internet) NEWS: Differences in Memory and Perceived Credibility Across Media Platforms	Christina Lorey	Jeffery Mondak
The Head of State Effect: Discovering the Role of the Head of State in Cabinet Longevity	Quinn Marschik	Jose Cheibub
Implicit and Explicit Racial Messages and Their Effects On Citizens' Attitudes	Darrah Perryman	James Kuklinski
A Perpetuating Negative Cycle: The Effects of Economic Inequality on Voter Participation	Jenine Saleh	Thomas Rudolph
State's Attorney Gender and Rape Convictions	Richard Sledz	Joseph Hinchliffe

Thesis Awards

The 2015 Best Thesis Award winner is Jenine Saleh for her thesis "A Perpetuating Negative Cycle: The Effects of Economic Inequality on Voter Participation."

The 2015 Best Poster Award winner is Irem Karacal for her poster presenting her thesis "Political Violence, Ethnic Fractionalization, and the Ratification of the Rome Statute."