Honors

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Honors

Students who demonstrate exceptional academic performance and scholarly achievement in the International and Public Affairs concentration have the opportunity to be recommended for graduation with honors.

To Be Considered for Honors, Students Must:

  1. Complete by the end of the 6th semester junior year: the Gateway course, the Track Foundational Course, the Junior Seminar, the two-course methodology requirement (or language study option and one methodology course), and at least three track electives.

    We strongly recommend that honors students take both qualitative and quantitative methods courses so that they have a full toolkit of skills as they start their theses. Students who are conducting research in another language should also, of course, achieve proficiency in that language before starting their research.

    We also strongly recommend that students take at least one elective related to their proposed thesis topic before senior year.
     
  2. Have two-thirds “quality grades” in the concentration. A “quality grade” is defined as a grade of “A” or a grade of “S” accompanied either by a designation of “with distinction” or by a course performance report (CPR) indicating performance at the “A” standard.
     
  3. Complete the application form, including: the signature of the primary thesis advisor (first reader), the signature of the second reader, and an essay describing the research question, significance, research design, preliminary hypothesis, and research preparation, along with a preliminary bibliography. 

In 2025, honors applications will be due on Friday, April 25th by 5 p.m.

Application forms will be reviewed by the faculty committee and students will be notified of their status by mid-May. Only students with approved thesis applications will be admitted to the senior thesis seminar in the fall.

 

Thesis Funding

Honors concentrators in IAPA can apply for summer thesis funding. Deadline for summer research is May 16th, 2025.

 

To Receive Honors, Students Must:

  1. Complete the senior thesis seminar in the fall of senior year and complete the independent study class with their primary thesis advisor (first reader) in the spring of senior year.
     
  2. Submit an honors quality thesis (of 80-120 pages in length) by the deadline, as judged by the student’s thesis committee – the primary thesis advisor and the second reader. Both readers must submit a written evaluation of the thesis. In the event of a lack of consensus, a member of the Faculty Committee will also evaluate the thesis.
     
  3. Complete an oral presentation on the thesis at the annual IAPA thesis conference in the spring of senior year.

Resources

Thesis Conference

2024 Conference Schedule

2023 Conference Schedule

 

Thesis Titles 2021-2024

YearLastFirstWorking Title
2024BernoldLizzyWorking on Working Conditions in Congress
2024BrinsonEmoryBuilding a Better Foundation: State Takeovers, State Pre-K, and Communities in Conflict
2024DankerLoganZoning for Climate Change: How and When Climate Interest Groups Engage in Zoning Reforms
2024ForysWilliamThe Long Road to a State-sanctioned Supervised Consumption Site in Rhode Island
2024JoAliceCOVID-19 Pandemic Archives: Diversity in Archives of Crisis During the First Digital Pandemic
2024LehmanAlexandraImagined Bodies in Imagined Communities: (Re) Producing the Nation in Bosnia and Herzegovnia
2024MinkoffEthanThe Crossroads of Defense: Analyzing Contention Surrounding Domestic Social Issues in the Defense Authorization Processes of 1994 and 2024
2024PierceSiriChoosing Change: The Effects of Intradistrict Choice Amid Diversification in Portland Public Schools
2024StronskiIsaPeace Education: The Potential of Schooling to Promote Societal Healing and Reconstruction After Genocide in Bosnia and Rwanda
2024UlgenAycaForeign Interventions in the Age of Computational Propaganda: Diminishing the Effects of Foreign Authoritarian States' Computational Public Opinion Intervention Efforts on an Interface Level
2024AmesurAkshayThe Dose for Development: The Role of Political Economy and Academic Infrastructure in Pharmaceutical Innovation
2024AzazogluEvaBeyond Borders and Beliefs: The Influence of Institutionalized Religion on National Identity Formation Among Ethnic Minorities
2024SchwerdtfegerAnnieEffective Service Providers: Rebel Groups in Complex Emergencies
2024ShammashGabrielleReassessing the Measurement of Cash Transfer Effectiveness: "The Lifecycle Freamework"
2024SheppeSpencerLanguage Policy, National Identity, and Unity: A Multi-Level Analysis
2024SinghSaloneeReassessing Detainee Repatriation: Negotiations Between the U.S. and Third-Party Countries Over the Detainees of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
2024TrendellElliottPrivate Violence in International Conflict: State Decision-Making Under an Accountability Dilemma
2024Yee-WadsworthSofiaShifting Powers in a Changing World: A Critical Framework for Examining Competition Between a Hegemon and a Rising Power
2023Aguilar DellisantiValerieDismantling Gender Inequality in the Household and the Market: Microfinance and Women’s Unpaid Labor Dilemma—A Credit-Unpaid Labor Model Through Household Technological Adoption in Peru
2023AnuszewskiMaguireThe Impact of Telehealth on Rural Health Care - Comparatively Analyzing Care Pre and Post COVID-19 with a F ocus on Maine.
2023AuriemoBiancaDistrict of Development: A Relational Ethnography of the Washington DC International Development Ecosystem
2023BandlerJohannaPolitics of Health Care Reform in Vermont
2023BrownErikTrue to Their Roots or a New Shade of Green? The Evolution of the
German Green Party’s Position Toward NATO (1980–1999)
2023CarbajalAbigailThe Impact of Armed Conflict on Women’s Migration Decisions: An Analysis of the Guatemalan Civil War and Sendero Luminoso
2023GiordanoSimonPilot Agencies and the Origins of Late Industrial Development: A Comparative Case Study of Developmental State Institutions
2023GoldenbergCaitlin (Katie)"Responsibility to Protect" & its Effects on Forced Displacement: Humanitarian in Principle or Practice?
2023HahnAdelineDifferent Paths: The Politics of Medicaid Expansion in Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota
2023HajiArianaAd Astra! Cooperation Between Hegemonic Powers: A Contextual Framework for Understanding Collaboration between the United States and Russia on the International Space Station
2023KellsOlwynThe Strategic Logic of Lawfare in State-to-State Coercion
2023LeeAnnetteThe Impact of Immigration on Democratic Consolidation: Political Culture, Trust, and the Case of South Korea
2023MaselliGerilynUnintended Audiences of Intra-Alliance Signaling
2023McMahonLeo“Freedom Is not Won with Flowers”: An Operational Analysis of the American Occupations of Cuba (1906-1909), Haiti (1915-1934), and Nicaragua (1927-1933)
2023MurphyMeaganSuccess of Peripheral Diplomacy? Cambodia’s Small State Alignment with China Since 2000
2023MuttaYohanThe Rich Man’s Road: The Indelible Mark of the Nairobi Expressway & the Modern Kenyan State's Approach to Development
2023NelliCatherineBetween Empire and Post-Colonial Nation-Building: A Case Study of French India’s Decolonization in Chandernagore and Pondicherry (1947-1954).
2023ShapiroAmeilaTechnical Sophistication and the Decision to Use Cyber Attacks: The Cases of China and Russia
2023Spencer-BlumeAmienneDisembodying Bodies: Reconceptualizing Gait Recognition Technology as Hegemonic Artifact
2023TukpahNailahPrioritizing Black Girl’s Educational Experiences: Policy Recommendations to Eliminate Black Girl’s School to Prison Pipeline
2023WilkeTuckerFacilitation, Distribution, and Execution of Debt-based Climate Finance in Global South Cities
2023YepesIsabellaThe Correlation Between Democracy Assistance, Counterterrorism, and the Quality of Democracy: Evaluating Changes in the Effects of U.S. Aid to Colombia (2000-2011)
2023YoungwoodBenjaminBreaking Down Gerrymandering: Conceptions of Fairness in Municipal Level Redistricting
2022BeckwithIsabelleThe Effects of the Rhode Island Hospital Merger on Access to Care for Vulnerable Populations
2022BendicksenLiamPaternalism, Neglect, and Promise at the Margins of Federal Policy: Mapping the Elusive Right to Health Care in the United States
2022HodgesClaireDomestic Violence and Police Avoidance: Evaluating barriers to reporting and alternatives to policing intimate partner violence
2022LohJian CongOne Belt, One Road, One Community? Implications of Chinese Development Finance for ASEAN Regionalism
2022MacKenzieLachlanGreat Power Competition and Russia’s New Nuclear Weapons
2022McKeeverEamonEthics and Efficacy: A Study of the Efficacy of Future Technologies in Conflict as a Result of Human Perceptions of Ethical Ramifications
2022MooreDylanAttitudes towards Women as Predictors of Human Trafficking
2022MoravegLeonardoThe lack of Democratic Consolidation in Mexico: Detriments of the “Myth of Mestizaje”
2022SteinbergAndrewTip of the Spear: Deported US Veterans and the Strategic Use of Respectability Politics
2022SusiniAnnaInstitutional Change and Democratic Deepening: Examining the 2019-20 Chilean Protests' Call for Constitutional Replacement
2022TengYue Yue (Emily)Creative Commons Zero: A legal analysis of open access initiatives and digital repatriation in museums -- OR -- A decentralized museum: cultural heritage, copyright law in the digital realm
2022LowdenFinnianUnlikely Partners: Corporate Philanthropy and the Environmental Movement
2021KimElainaProvocations as Engagement: Korea’s Foreign Policy Strategy in 2017
2021KumlebenEmmaConstructing Arenas of Great Power Competition: Policymaking Narratives and the Globalization of US-China Competition
2021ReiceAlexandraWhat is the Capacity for Institutional Learning? An Analysis of the IMF in South Africa and the Ivory Coast
2021BanfieldGraceRecasting the Iron Triangle Fails to Serve our Nation’s Veterans: Partial Privatization of the VHA under the Veterans Choice and VA MISSION Acts
2021BellezaIsabelleDesegregating Suburban School Districts: Understanding Challenges and Evaluating Practices for Effective Policy Implementation
2021BennettKatherineA Nation of Growth and Decline: Charter Schools and the Broken Promise for Efficiency and Equity in American Public Education
2021KasthuriVikneshDefensive Medicine: An Elusive Beast
2021KimAudreyHolding States Accountable: The Politics of Open Records Laws at the Subnational Level
2021ShapiroAudreyInnovation in Practice: A Program Evaluation of Young Entrepreneurs of Providence (YEP!)
2021SkahillEmilyThe Price of Liberty: Implications of Digital Contact Tracing for Privacy, Public Health, and the Economy
2021VakilMandanaThe Invisibility Problem: A Study of the Implementation of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act using Two State Case Studies
2021WintonLuciaPrivate Wealth for Public Good? A Critical Examination of The Role of Philanthropic Foundations in American Democracy