The senior honors thesis program at Madison allows students to showcase their personalized research and scholarship.
The Honors Thesis is a substantial work of independent research or scholarship, to be supervised and evaluated by a faculty member. An honors thesis provides the opportunity for a student to explore a research topic in-depth through rigorous empirical analysis and theoretical development under faculty guidance to be presented in the final semester to the JMC academic community.
Students who have finished a Senior Honors Thesis often use it for writing samples for graduate school, confirmation of research related skills for career purposes, and other meaningful illustrations of academic excellence.
Embarking on a Senior Honors Thesis
Students interested in completing a Senior Honors Thesis are strongly advised to contact the JMC academic affairs office to go over the requirements and deadlines to ensure successful completion.
STEP 1: Select a topic and identify a JMC faculty member willing to serve as your senior honors thesis advisor before the end of the fall semester of your junior year.
STEP 2: Successfully complete three Honors Options in courses required in the “core” of your major (i.e., in courses in the major with the designation MC, either required or electives). Successful completion = meeting all the specified requirements for the awarding of the honors option designation, including receipt of a 3.5 or better in each of the courses.
STEP 3: Successfully complete one independent study (MC 399, 3-4 credits or MC 490H, 4 credits) in your major during junior year. Successful completion = 3.5 or better in the course.
STEP 4: Successfully complete a senior honors thesis (MC 495H, 4 credits for each semester) and a successful public defense of that thesis. Successful completion = a 3.5 or better in each senior thesis course, or overall when the grade given in the first semester is deferred.
For examples of past Senior Honors Theses, view the lists below.
Ahmed Amir, “Enacting Karbala: South Asian Shia Diasporic Youth's Engagement with Religion and Politics” (Sayed/Amin)
Nicholas Caruso, “The Übermensch and Thy Neighbor” (Wolf)
William Castanier, "Prestige, Perception, and Power: Explaining Saudi Arabia’s Divergent Strategies in Syria and Yemen" (Lucas)
Henry Jerred, “Striking Fire from the Earth: Commons, Enclosure, and Fence Cutting on the Texas Plains” (Ahlquist/Marley)
Isabelle Radakovich, “Outsourcing Survival: Private Military Companies and Regime Survival in Intrastate Conflicts” (R Brathwaite)
Olivia Schaefer, “Break Every Yoke: How a Revisitation of Liberation Theology Provides a New Understanding of Political Resistance in 20th Century Latin America” (Burns)
Prayag Shankar, "Indian Independence: Lessons on Liberal Democracy in South Asia" (Lorch)
Benjamin Stewart, “Insecurity of Identity: The Return to Confrontational Russia-West Relations in the Post-Cold War Era” (K. Brathwaite)
Thea Walerski, "Rooted in Hope: Persistence in Black Liberalism and Humanity in America" (Cash/Hawkins)
Ateeyah Abdul-Wasi, “Decolonization and Institutional Neutrality: The Case of Michigan State University” (Ahlquist)
Olivia Heath, “Strengthening Equity and Accountability in Disaster Recovery” (Jezierski)
Marek Jaros, “Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago: Methods and Motivations” (Lorch)
Madison Kennedy-Kequom, Giiweyhn: “As the Story Goes” (Flaim)
Caleb Rose, “On Statesmanship and the Soul’s Virtue in Xenophon’s Memorabilia” (Lorch)
Marija Sagan, “Russian Civil-Military Relations and the FSB” (K. Brathwaite)
Rebekah Schoen, “Romancing the Regime: A Deconstruction of the YA Authoritarian Romance Genre” (Stein-Roggenbuck)
Caitlin Visniski, “The Role of Status in Civil Society: Educating Self-Sufficient Citizens Through the Perspective of Jean-Jacques Rousseau” (Wolf)
Meghan Vona, “Climate Migration to Protected Areas: The Implication of Livelihood Identity” (Kramer)
Sean Farnum, “Racial Homeownership Disparities in Lansing: Breaking Down Barriers to Attainment and Wealth Building” (Jezierski)
Noihrita Masud, “From Threads to Chains: An Investigation into the Systemic Gender-Based Violence and Exploitation of Bangladeshi Women Garment Workers” (Chandra)
Maggie DeHart, “Gender and Sexuality in Political Theory: Its Evolution and Importance” (Peters)
Kelly Eusebi, “Who Knows Whom?: An Examination of Terror Group Relationships Through Social Network Analysis” (R. Brathwaite)
Walter Hanley, “What Do We Owe the Poor?: Jeffries Homes and Detroit’s Public Neighbors” (Stein-Roggenbuck)
Sumaya Malas, “Patterns of Authoritarian Rule and Political Legitimacy in the Middle East: The Case of Syria, Egypt, and Iran” (M. Olcott)
Matthew Rappe, “Kurdish Opportunities in Retrospect” (M. Olcott)
Ian Shumway, “The Methods of Asymmetric Warfare: A Theoretical Analysis of the Vietnam War” (K. Brathwaite)
Manon Steel, “Ameritocracy: How Michigan’s Education Policies have Challenged the American Dream” (Jezierski)
Kaila Waineo, “Slavery in the Front Yard: How Israel Successfully Fought Women’s Trafficking for Prostitution” (Aronoff)
David Warshay, “Comparing Genocides: Mapping Out the Beginnings of Horror” (Aronoff)
Jake Wier, “How Aquarium Fish Could Save the Rainforest: Global Pressures and the Viability of Brazilian Ornamental Fisheries” (Kramer)
Rory Womack, “Xenophon’s Cyrus: Virtue and its Rewards” (Lorch)
Raneem Alkhatib, “The Role of Film and Fiction Through Decades of War and Conflict” (M. Olcott)
Emilee Evans, “Minimum Nurse Staffing Requirements and its Effects on Nursing Home Quality and Elder Abuse” (S. Stein-Roggenbuck)
Eric Gerson, “Media and Social Change in Iran: Cassettes, Cinema, and Weblogs” (M. Olcott)
Heather Tackett, “The Institutional Illusion of Judicial Supremacy” (Kleinerman)
Lauren Brown, “Individual Liberty, Collective Consensus? The Influence of John Rawls on the Supreme Court” (Kleinerman)
John Antishin, “Physical Integrity Rights and Transnational Advocacy Networks: Exploring the Requisite Means of Human Rights Proliferation.” (Zierler)
Hannah Boyke, “Trumped Up?: Contextualizing Political Cartoons about Mexicans and Mexican Americans in the 2016 Presidential Campaign” (Pegler-Gordon)
Mario Gruszczynski, “Urban Governance, Partnerships, and Community: Characterizing the Urban Power Structure in Lansing, Michigan” (Jezierski)
Mahmoud Haidar-Ahmad, “Grand Strategy, Economy and Ideology: Understanding Saudi Intervention in Yemen (Axelrod)
Celia Hallan, “Spatial and Scalar Challenges to Sustainable Fisheries Management: A Case Study of Nicaragua’s Atlantic Coast” (Kramer)
Lucas Hesskamp, “Nationalism Capitalized: Corporate Colonization and Orientalism in the Global Car Market” (Rohs)
Lauren Honer, “The Finland Phenomenon: Is America Compatible Enough to Learn from Successful Finnish Policies?” (Grant)
Alexander Kurrie, “Tocqueville Today: The Future of our Liberal Democracy” (Lindahl)
Jacob Leppek, “The Political Nature of Iraqi Media Organizations” (M. Olcott)
Emily Linden, “Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon: Privatization and Economic Policy” (Zierler)
Christina Pastoria, “Corporate Environmental Decision-making in the Michigan Utilities Sector” (Axelrod)
Karl Schneider, “Challenging the Regional Order: The Influence of the Corporacion Andina de Fomento (CAF) in the Inter-American Development Bank” (Axelrod)
Sarah Schuit, “Women’s Access to Reproductive Health Care Across Class Lines” (Stein-Roggenbuck)
Spenser Warren, “The Determinants of U.S. Ballistic Missile Policy, 1953-2017” (Zierler)
Alexander Parsell, “Compromising on Education: An Attempt to Define the Nature of Institutional Failure.” (Emmett)
Apoorva Dhingra, “Ethno-religious Nationalism in India and Sri Lanka.” (Racioppi)
Justin Allen, “Shklar’s Liberalism of Fear, Political Produce, and the American Regime.” (Lindahl)
Tanner Delpier, “School Choice and the Lansing School District: Politics, Markets, and Michigan’s Schools” (Grant)
Ian Hoopingarner, “Lineages of Dissent: Popular and Artistic Resistance to Imperialism and Extraction on ‘the beautiful island’” (Tremonte)
Raziel Lavalais, “Lincolnian Statesmanship.” (Lindahl)
Alexis Noffke, “From ‘Troubles’ to Peace: Paramilitaries and Political Parties in Northern Ireland.” (Racioppi)
Clare O’Kane, “Western or Universal, Foreign Aid or International Development: Americans and Tanzanians on Human Rights as Human Development.” (Pinto)
Cody Schulz, “Azerbaijan: Destined for Diversification or Doomed to Decline?” (Graham)
Beatriz Navarro-Garcia, “Between Parrots and Pig’s Tails: A Study of the Private and Public Realms in One Hundred Years of Solitude.” (Garnett)
Adam Cusick, “Government of the People, or For the People?: The Crisis of Democracy in the European Union” (Lindahl)
Arian Koochesfahani, “The Drama of Republic I and Why a Philosopher Would Want to Rule” (Petrie)
Paul Rose, “Transnational Network Influence on Great Powers: The Case of Germany and Russia” (Axelrod)
Brianna Starosciak, “The Future of Warfare in Eurasia” (Garnett & Zierler)
Brittany Zwierzchowski, “Tocqueville’s America and Pierre Manet’s Christianity: The Compatibility of Democracy and Religion” (Lindahl)
Jack Carlson, “Rousseau and the Moral Worth of Compassion” (Lorch)
Joy Cullen, “US Intelligence Networks on Human Trafficking” (Zierler)
Noah Doederlein, “Mobilizing Culture in Response to Development: Re/commoning and the Potentials of Pluriverse along the Ing River”
Aditi Kulkarni, “The Instant Noodle Effect: Why Food-Insecure College Campuses Are Hungry for Change”
Gabriel Sandoval, “Literary Depictions of Egyptian Regimes, Revolutions, and Resistance” (Olcott)
Audrey Damman, “The Mekong and its Stories: How Water Level Transforms Livelihoods and Knowledge in Chiang Khong, Thailand” (Flaim)
Shimon Likhtman, “Cambodia’s Emergency Response to COVID-19” (Flaim)
Solomon Kronberg, “Haunted Renewal: Stories of Blasted Landscapes in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and Chiang Rai, Thailand” (Flaim)
Rosa Razmi, “Motherhood and the State: A Conceptualization of Iranian Citizenship and the Relationship Between Activism Maternal Health” (Sayed)
Christopher Eyke, “Edge of Empires: History, Identity, and Ethnic Conflict in Nineteenth-Century Transcaucasia” (Olcott)
Jack Wheatley, “When Hate Had a Home Here: a historical reexamination and oral history of MSU Young Americans for Freedom, the country’s first student-based hate group” (Rohs)
Madison Coil, “Reimagining and Redefining the Work of American Women and Their Families” (Burns)
Allie Lobbia, “Analysis of Interventions to Manage IUU Fishing in Comparative Context: Transponders and PSMA Implementation” (Axelrod)
Seth Marvin-Vanderryn, “The Victory of the Animal Laborans: Environmental Degradation and Modern Discontent” (Wolf)
Julia Kemple-Johnson, “The Commodification of Privacy” (Barksdale-Shaw)
Chris Tyson, “Our Work Begins Here: Settler Colonialism, Land-Grant Universities, and Ecological Catastrophe” (Peters/Flaim)
Delaney McDermott, “Bridging the Gaps Between Arab Americans: How Identity Formation and Trumpian Immigration Policy Creates Difference Between Arabs in the U.S.” (Sayed)
Isabelle Thelen, “The Position of Christian Citizens Within Non-Christian Politics in the Writings of Saint Augustine” (Lorch)
Shiksha Sneha, “Being Desi: Studying South Asian American Political Behavior” (Das Gupta)
Callie Keller, “Japan and R.O.K Security Relations through G.S.O.M.I.A” (Qing)
Danny Olweean, “Farms, Workers, and Pandemic Relief” (Pegler-Gordon)
Elizabeth Lancaster, “Where We Go One, We Go All: QAnon and the Modern Political Conspiracy Theory” (Jackson)
Anthony Luongo, “Thinking Beyond the State: US Democracy Assistance in Africa since the Cold War” (Zierler)
Kathleen Fallon, “What Mediators Mean for Peace: Analyzing the Implications of Local, Regional, and International Mediation Efforts on United Nations Peacekeeping Operations” (Zierler)
Paula Salazar-Valiente, “Support for Child Survivors/Victims of Sexual Abuse in Western Belize” (Goett)
Ben Schwabe, “Thucydides' Critique of the Athenian Vision of Politics” (Lorch)
Chloe Damon, “Governance by Ambiguity: Mapping, Gender, and Land Tenure Contestation in Upland Northern Thailand” (Flaim)
Hanna Foreman, “Avoidable but Inevitable: An Analysis of Inter-Korean Relations and the U.S.-ROK Alliance, and its Influence on South Korean Unification Discourse, 1988-2017” (Komori)
Bridie (Brigid) McBride, “Digitizing Lithuanian Independence, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Metadata" (Olcott)
Jordan George, "America’s Ancien Regime?: Insights About Democracy from Alexis de Tocqueville’s Analysis of France in The Ancien Regime and the Revolution and their Contemporary Applications" (Lorch)
Vishnu Kannan, "Moral Visions and National Security Objectives: Lessons from Two Decades of Democracy Promotion in Afghanistan" (Lorch)
Emily McHarg, “Catalyzed by Crises: Examining Far Right Political Support in Europe” (R. Brathwaite)
Fish (Bryce) Fisher, “Lockean Christianity in Modern Politics” Malahni Ngalle, “Black Feminism in Afro-dance” (Flaim/Harrison)
Katarina Huss, “How to be a Refugee: Expectations and Implications of the 1980 Refugee Act for U.S. Refugees” (Pegler-Gordon)
Harrison Greenleaf, “Shared Interests: An Analysis of the U.S.-Saudi Alliance” (Zierler)
Jonathan Walkotten, “Gender-Affirming Care: Trans Organizing and the Opportunities of Community Health” (Grant/Stein-Roggenbuck)