Three students of the class Class of 2025 stand with a Department of Politics Social Media Frame cut-out highlighting "Senior Thesis Day"

During senior year, each student writes a thesis. The senior thesis is expected to make an original (or otherwise distinctive) contribution to broader knowledge in the field in which the student is working. It is important that the thesis be situated explicitly in relation to existing published literature. The senior thesis must be judged satisfactory by two members of the faculty, at least one of whom must be a member of the Department of Politics. 

It is common, but by no means required, for junior paper topics, especially in the spring term, to serve as starting points for a senior thesis topic. The Department encourages students to use the summer between junior and senior year for work on the senior thesis.

Your senior thesis may expand upon ideas that you explored in the JP. You may draw on and cite your own JP just like you would use other resources. In addition, you may re-use a limited portion of your JP in your senior thesis; for instance, the literature review could be re-used across the two. Whenever material from the JP is re-used, you must add a footnote noting the duplication across the JP or senior thesis. Note this policy does not affect the standard university guidelines for attributing ideas and research findings, whenever appropriate. The same policy holds with respect to incorporating the Fall junior research prospectus into either the Spring JP or senior thesis.

At the end of your junior year, you will be asked to complete a short survey on your thesis plans. This information will be used to match you with an appropriate faculty adviser. If you already have an informal arrangement in place with a faculty member (e.g., your JP adviser), we will do our best to take that into account if possible, but such arrangements are not required or expected.

As part of independent work, all seniors must enroll in POL 498 (Fall) and POL 499 (Spring). POL 498 is graded as P/D/F; in order to pass, students are required to meet with their thesis advisers at least twice in the Fall and also submit a senior thesis progress report. [NOTE: Failure of POL 498 may jeopardize a student’s ability to re-enroll for their final semester.] POL 499 reflects the final grade for the senior thesis and will factor into the Honors calculation. Note that neither of these placeholder senior independent work courses (i.e., POL 498 and POL 499) are considered part of the 11 required departmental courses, but they do count towards the University’s course minimum required for graduation.

An excellent senior thesis can be 75 pages or less. No thesis should be longer than 120 pages. (The page count does not include the ancillary pages for the title, dedication, table of contents, abstract, bibliography and honor code statement. It also does not include any appendix material.) Any pages after 120 may or may not be read by the second reader. A thesis longer than 120 pages will not be considered for Politics thesis prizes.

Also, seniors are required to prepare and present a professional poster describing their senior thesis results.

Senior Thesis Advisers 2026-2027
Advisers Fields of Study Areas of Expertise
Gary Bass International Relations International Security, Human Rights, International Justice, International Law
Christopher Blair International Relations International Security, U.S. Foreign Policy, Civil Conflict, Migration, Political Psychology, Public Opinion, Statebuilding, Terrorism, Insurgency and Counterinsurgency
Carles Boix Comparative Politics, Political Economy Political Economy, Democracy, National Identity Formation
Charles Cameron American Politics Judicial Politics, U.S. Presidency, Congress, Bureaucracy, National Policymaking, Political Economy
Rafaela Dancygier Comparative Politics Extremism, Political Parties, Immigration, European Politics, American Politics
Paul Frymer American Politics, Public Law, Race, Ethnicity and Identity American Political Institutions, Law, Parties and Organizations, Civil Rights and Race, Labor and Employment, Historical Institutionalism
Germán Gieczewski Formal Theory & Quantitative Methods, Political Economy Political Economy, Game Theory, Networks, Information Transmission
Tanushree Goyal Comparative Politics Gender and Politics, Development, Inequality, Political Economy of Development, Identity Politics, Political Representation, Ethnic Conflict, South Asia, Climate Change, Political Culture
Naima Green-Riley International Relations Chinese Foreign Policy, U.S. Foreign Policy, Political Communication, Public Opinion
Andrew M. Guess American Politics Political Communication, Social Media, Misinformation, Opinion Change, Experiments
Matías Iaryczower American Politics, Comparative Politics, Formal Theory & Quantitative Methods, Political Economy Political Economy, Institutions and Collective Decision-Making in Legislatures, Courts and Electorates
G. John Ikenberry International Relations International Relations Theory, U.S. Grand Strategy, International Organizations, International Order, Liberalism and International Relations
Marzenna James International Relations Case Study Methods, Economic Power in Central and Eastern Europe, Russian Foreign Policy
Gleason Judd Formal Theory & Quantitative Methods, Political Economy Political Economy, Elections, Lobbying, Legislative Bargaining
Ethan Kapstein International Relations International Political Economy, Economic Development, U.S. Foreign Policy, Conflict
John Kastellec American Politics, Public Law American Political Institutions, Judicial Politics, Supreme Court Nominations
Yunhyae Kim Political Theory Political Philosophy, Democratic Theory, Political Economy, Capitalism, Inequality
Melissa Lane Political Theory Ancient Greek and Roman Political Thought, Athenian Democracy, Plato, Aristotle, Political Theory of Climate Change, Environmental Political Theory, Modern Political Thought
John B. Londregan International Relations, Formal Theory & Quantitative Methods South America, Political Economy, Electoral Politics, Text as Data
Nicholas Lotito International Relations International Security, Civil-Military Relations, Middle East and North Africa, Political Violence, Terrorism, Conflict, Democratization, Extremism
Corrine McConnaughy American Politics, Race, Ethnicity and Identity American Politics, Gender and Politics, Race, Ethnicity and Politics, American Political Development, Democratization, Social Movements and Protests, Policymaking, Social Identities, Federalism, State and Local Politics, Voting Rights, Political Decisionmaking
Andrew Moravcsik International Relations European Union Politics, International Relations Theory, Transatlantic Relations, International Human Rights, Qualitative Methods, International Organizations, International Law, Foreign Policy, Far-Right Populism, Global Democracy
Jan-Werner Müller Political Theory Democratic Theory, Constitutionalism, European Union, Politics and Religion
Jonathan Mummolo American Politics Policing, Bureaucracy, Political Behavior, Quantitative Methods
Elizabeth Nugent Comparative Politics Comparative Politics, Middle East and North Africa, Political Psychology, Authoritarianism, Politics and Religion
Alan Patten Political Theory Political Theory, Theories of Justice, Democratic Theory, Nationalism, Multiculturalism, Language
Grigore Pop-Eleches Comparative Politics Comparative Political Behavior, Authoritarian Politics, Historical Legacies, Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union, Latin America
Markus Prior American Politics Public Opinion, Political Involvement, Voting Behavior
Kristopher Ramsay International Relations, Formal Theory & Quantitative Methods, Political Economy Violent Conflict, War, Strategy, Political Economy, Environmental Politics
Jordan Rudinsky Public Law American Law and Courts, Federalism, Separation of Powers, American Political Thought, Political Theory, History of Political Thought, Comparative Constitutional Law, American Constitutional Politics and History, U.S. Presidency, Public Law, Public Administration
Melissa Schwartzberg Political Theory Political Theory, Democratic Theory, Ancient Greek and Roman Political Thought
Jacob N. Shapiro International Relations Conflict, Political Economy, Security, Development, Technology Policy
Sarah Staszak American Politics, Public Law American Political Development, Bureaucratic Politics, Public Law
LaFleur Stephens-Dougan American Politics, Race, Ethnicity and Identity Racial Attitudes, Public Opinion, Black Politics, Race, Ethnicity and Politics, Political Communication, Experimental Methods
Rocío Titiunik Formal Theory & Quantitative Methods Quantitative Methods, Political Methodology, Applied Statistics, Comparative Politics, Party Systems
Rory Truex Comparative Politics Chinese Politics, Authoritarianism, Repression, Human Rights
Sam Van Noort Comparative Politics Comparative Politics, Political Economy, Democratization, Democratic Backsliding
James Raymond Vreeland Comparative Politics, International Relations International Political Economy, International Organizations, Democratization, Transparency
Andreas Wiedemann Comparative Politics, Political Economy Political Economy, Economic Inequality, Social Policy, Representation
Lauren A. Wright American Politics Media and Politics, Executive Branch Politics and Policymaking, Public Opinion, Gender and Politics, Celebrity Politics
Deborah Yashar Comparative Politics, Race, Ethnicity and Identity Regime Politics, Ethnic Politics and Social Movements, Political Violence, State Formation, State Capacity, Latin American Politics
Hye Young You American Politics Interest Groups, Lobbying, American Political Institutions, Political Economy, Congress, Bureaucracy, Federalism
Noah Zucker Comparative Politics, International Relations, Race, Ethnicity and Identity, Political Economy Comparative Political Economy, Climate Change, Identity Politics, International Political Economy, International Organizations, Interest Groups