Comps, honors papers, and prize-winning works of the Political Science Department are featured here. All works have been self-submitted by the student authors. Descriptive information about each work is available to search or browse. Access to the full text of the works is limited to current Carleton affiliates with faculty permission. Learn more about how to submit your work and how to request access to the full text of works.
Submissions from 2024
Quinn Buhman, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2024, From Polanyi to the Plow: Theorizing Market Struggles and Opportunities in the Rural Landscape
Rosemary Colima, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2024, A Culture of Complicity: Gender Norms, Government Inaction, and the Crisis of Feminicide in México
Clayton Dippold, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2024, Legacy Admissions and the Perpetuation of Racial Hierarchies
Katelyn Hemmer, Political Science (POSC) 2024, Sustainable Agriculture as Resistance against a Market Society
Aleia Johnson, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2024, Losing Her Ground By Standing Her Ground: A Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of the Gender Stereotypes within the 2022 Arizona Gubernatorial Election
Lucinda Johnson, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2024, The Impact of Feminist Movements on Violence Against Women Policy Implementation in Rural Communities
Chak Li, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2024, Advisory Influence and Presidential Disposition: Dissecting the Trump Administration's Impact on U.S.-China Trade Policy
Leon Morduch, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2024, Breaking the Populist Spell: The Impact of Education and Popular Psychologies on Reception of Populist Appeals in the United States
Kai Oishi, Political Science (POSC) 2024, The American Dream? The Self-Reinforcing Cycle of Segregation and Upward Mobility in the US
Aidan Phinney, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2024, Why Have the Military Bases Remained Open? U.S., Japanese, and Okinawan Relations Since 1991
Max Serota, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2025, Autocratic Radicalization: The The Strategic Choices of Autocratic Executives and the Death of Democracy
Submissions from 2023
Evangel Anyiwe, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2023, Justice: Political Structure’s Effect on Sentence Length
Jancyn Appel, Political Science (POSC), Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2023, Equality isn’t the Goal, but the Expectation: An Investigation of the Constitutionality of Racialized Policies through the Lens of Thurgood Marshall’s Supreme Court Opinions
Juliana Bachulis, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2023, Xi’s China and Trong’s Vietnam - The Emergence of Populism in the Authoritarian Context
Harper Brooks-Kahn, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2023, "The 90 Minute Patriot": Sports and Secessionism through Time-Series Regression Analysis
Abraham Faber, Political Science (POSC) 2023, Who Defends Democracies in Crisis? Discerning How Groups Advocating Electoral Reform React to Democratic Backsliding
Ryan Flanagan, Political Science (POSC) 2023, The Olympic 'City of Exception' and the Subversion of Pluralism: Observing Convergence between Beijing and Rio de Janeiro
Emma Freedman, Political Science (POSC) 2023, #Academic: The Legal Struggle to Apply Academic Freedom and Freedom of Speech to Digital Scholarship
Bjorn Holtey, Political Science (POSC), Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2023, Considering the Court: A Content Analysis of Online News Coverage of the Supreme Court and the Overturning of Roe v. Wade
Hana Horiuchi, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2023, It's What They Call the Rise & Fall
Christian Irons, Political Science (POSC) 2023, Brexit Voting Inconsistencies Throughout the Celtic Fringe: Analyzing the Interplay of Pro-Brexit Populist Movements With Devolved British Systems of Multi-Level Governance
Falagbenne Kombate, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2023, Place-Based Identities and Political Party Preferences: Urban and Rural Place Identities in Electorate Party Preferences & Federal Welfare Spending Attitudes
Madeleine Parr, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2023, Mothers and Monsters: Nationalism, Religious Extremism and Gender Norms
Mikhalina Solakhava, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2023, Por Las Familias y La Revolución, #CóDigoSí: Imagining the National Family in Cuba
Maya Stovall, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2023, We Need to Save Us: Climate Justice as Revolution
Julian White-Davis, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2023, Dwelling in America
Submissions from 2022
William Bausch, Political Science (POSC) 2022, Analyzing Variation in US NATO Policy: A Role Theory Approach to the Clinton and Trump Administrations
Anne Bensen, Political Science (POSC) 2022, #SheikhJarrah: Gendered Modes of Palestinian Digital Resistance Amid Violent Ethnic Displacement
Carly Campana, Political Science (POSC) 2022, The Green Machine: Urban Greenspaces, Environmental Gentrification, and the Modern Growth Machine
Leander Cohen, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2022, Progress or Power Grab? Gender Reform and Protest Masculinity in the Saudi-Iran Proxy Conflict
Edwin Driver, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2022, Rioting For Change: Effectiveness of Violent Protest in Sparking Policy Reform
Anna Gwin, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2022, Politics in Partnership: Economic & Epistemic Positionality in North-South NGO Working Relationships
Anna Hori, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2022, Minnesota Television Coverage of Female Candidates in 2008 and 2016
Rahul Kirkhope, Political Science (POSC), Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2022, A Descent into the Dissident Right: How White Victimhood and the "Great Replacement Theory" Went Mainstream
Kapani Kirkland, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2022, Fatal Eggs, Mad Scientists, and Carnival Galore: Satirical Narrative as Political Expression
Logan Knutson, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2022, A Foregone Conclusion? Race, Wealth, and the Modern Application of the American Death Penalty
Carl Marvin, Political Science (POSC) 2022, The Best of Both Worlds: Making the Most of the Middle Ground Between the US and China
Kristin Miyagi, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2022, Conflict and Hope for a Better Life: Transformative Gender Roles and Women’s Economic Empowerment During the Syrian Civil War
Yicheng Shen, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2022, Justified Cause? Assessing the Humanitarian Outcomes of U.S. Foreign Aid and Intervention Since the Cold War
Submissions from 2021
Sonja Borgmann, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2021, Reframing Gender in War: Syria through the eyes of Arab Women Journalists
Maddie Bryant, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2021, "Partisan Spillover and the Political Frames of Super Bowl Advertisements After the 2016 Election"
Annaliese Gould, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2021, Depictions and Narratives of Religious Women in Post-Revolution Iranian Propaganda
Ishmael Maxwell, Political Science (POSC) 2021, We May Disagree, but We All Love the BJP: Populists' Targeting Strategies on Twitter
Alli Palmbach, Political Science (POSC) 2021, New Political Opinion Leaders: Applying Previously Established News Repertoires to a Liberal Arts College and the American Public
Noah Rosenfield, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2021, Resisting Totalitarianism: A Critical Humanistic Sensibility in the Work of Hannah Arendt and Tzvetan Todorov
Tuomas Sivula, Political Science (POSC) 2021, Subsistence in a Changing World: How Smallholder Farmers in Myanmar’s Central Dry Zone Autonomously Adapt to Climate and Social Change
Shane Zerr, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2021, Scared into Submission? Hardly: The Unusual Affects of Economic Anxiety on Support for Authoritarianism
Submissions from 2020
Erica Cagliero, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2020, Forgotten and Invisible Refugees: A Policy Evaluation Targeting Refugees Living with Disabilities
Lydia Field, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2020, Identifying Threat: A Quantitative Study of the Influence of Identity on National Security Threat Perception in American Public Opinion
Jonah Fisher, Political Science (POSC) 2020, To Be Taken Seriously, but Not Literally: An Analysis of Memes as a Unique Form of Political Humor and Expression on Social Media
Jen Fonder, Political Science (POSC) 2020, The Tribal Sovereignty Doctrine and the State of Indigeneity in the United States
Jonas Lindholm, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2020, A Caring Ethos for a World of Global Risk: Living in the Age of Climate Change
Emika Otsuka, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2020, Beyond Contested Wartime History in East Asia: The Logic of Nationalism and The Potential for Cosmopolitan Memory
Olivia Powell, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2020, Modeling the Impact of Systemic Shocks on the Radicalization Process
Amie Salem, Political Science (POSC) 2020, Development as Freedom, A Case Study: Examining Rwanda's Development Status Using Sen's Development Framework
Anna Shao, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2020, Transcending the Self and Daemonic Philosophers in Plato’s Symposium
Milena Silva, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2020, Cities and Solidarity: The Potential of the Local as a Site for the Provision of Hospitality to Refugees
Kathleen Stoughton, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2020, Notions of the Nation: Nationalism and Role Theory
Alexander Swafford, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2020, Contradictions Between Rhetoric and Reality: Institutional Analysis of China’s Maritime Silk Road Initiative
Adin Zuck, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2020, The White Immigrant’s Racial Values and Structural Preferences: Case Studies of Rupert Murdoch, Arianna Huffington, Henry Kissinger, and Madeleine Albright
Submissions from 2019
Jen Chan, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2019, Kymlicka's Aporia: Arguing for a Culturally Adaptive Model of Multicultural Liberailsm
Shelby Jones, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2019, Making Space or Tacking Space: A Study on Allyship at Carleton College
Calvin Lundy, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2019, Military Interventions by Authoritarian States: A Comparison of Cuba in Angola and Zimbabwe in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Charles K. Lutvak, Political Science (POSC) 2019, "Devils With a Cause": How Rural and White Working Class Resentment Made Trump President
Sam Sauerhaft, Political Science (POSC) 2019, Political Humor for the Mobilized Masses: Late-Night Comedy and Political Participation in the 2012 and 2016 U.S. Elections
Justine Seligson, Political Science (POSC) 2019, The Role of National Memory: Understanding Slovakia and Bulgaria's Migration Policies
Adam Throne, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2019, Beyond the Water’s Edge: Understanding the Impact of Public Pressure upon the Composition of United States Foreign Policy Decisions (1993 – 2004)
Elyse Wanzenried, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2019, Evolving Equality: Gender Quotas, Female Parliamentary Representation, and Peace
Submissions from 2018
Damali Nzinga Britton Collman, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2018, When the Stranger is No Longer Imaginary: An Argument for an Ethos of Care
Roy Lee Cady-Kimble, Political Science (POSC) 2018, Tocqueville and Trump: Democracy Unleashed
Nick Cohen, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2018, Beyond Emergency Measures: Normative Politics after a Sucessful Securitization
Ian Carroll Doherty, Political Science (POSC) 2018, Atomic Aggrandizement: Considering the Role of Nuclear Weapons on Inter-State Rivalry and Conflict
Abe Eichner, Political Science (POSC) 2018, From Moderates to Militants: Building a Model for Social Movement Organization Tactical Choice on a Moderate-Radical Axis
Declan Robert Falls, Political Science (POSC) 2018, The Aum Shinrikyo Puzzle: Explaining the Rarity of Chemical Weapons in Terrorist Attacks
Kayla Renae Frank, Political Science (POSC) 2018, Educational Exchange Programs as a Soft Power Strategy: Testing the Relationship between the US and Countries of Foreign Fulbright Alumni Turned Heads of State
Moliang Jiang, Political Science (POSC) 2018, Iterate Rights Across Particularities: A Cosmopolitan Vision for Refugee Protection
Bomi A. Johnson, Political Science (POSC) 2018, Tsai Ing-wen and Park Geun-hye: Female Power and the Shaping of Political Movements in Countries with Confucian Roots
Guillermo Julian Palmer, Political Science (POSC) 2018, Peacekeeping and the Keeping of Peace
Juan Sebastian Tovar Montanez, Political Science (POSC) 2018, The Effects of a National Embrace of Africanness on Afro-Descendant Communities in Latin America: A Study of Brazil and Colombia
Benjamin William Votroubek, Political Science (POSC) 2018, Secessionary Movements, Too Weak to Succeed: An Examination of Secessionary Theory and its Applications, as it Pertains to Iraqi Kurdistan
Miko Nathaniel Zeldes-Roth, Political Science (POSC) 2018, Jewishness and Zionism, Justice and Forgiveness: Approaching Binationalism in Israel/Palestine
Submissions from 2017
Peter Anthony Bruno, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2017, The Role of Globalization in Latin America's Social Policy Expansion: Evaluating the Linkages of the Compensation Hypothesis in Argentina and Costa Rica
Lucas Gregory Curtis, Political Science (POSC) 2017, A Dictator’s Guide to Keeping Power: An Institutional Approach to Understanding How Autocrats Prevent Transitions to Democracy in the Face of Nonviolent Resistance
Benjamin Fischer, Political Science (POSC) 2017, Do the Poor Soak the Rich?: Explaining Variations in Individual Attitudes towards Redistributive Taxation in Contemporary China
Malcom Halpern Fox, Political Science (POSC) 2017, Buying Elections in a Post-Citizens United World: The Effect of Campaign Spending in House Elections Since 2010
Jacob Levi Frankel, Political Science (POSC) 2017, The Politics of No Technical Solution Problems: The Sustainability of Social Enterprise in the Context of Complex Adaptive Systems
Jacob Robert Gunderson, Political Science (POSC) 2017, The Gatekeeper of the Welfare State: The Role of the Political Left in the New Politics of the Welfare State
Shannon Clare Holden, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2017, Democratic Responses to Terrorism: A Comparative Analysis of the 2004 Madrid Bombings and the 2015 Paris Attacks
Katin Pilialoha Liphart, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2017, Fueling the Pariah: Using Ethnic Manipulation to Flaunt International Norms
Zizi Li, Political Science (POSC) 2017, The Road Toward An Inclusive Civil Society in China: On-screen Representation and Institutional Design
Nicole Alexandra Nipper, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2017, ISIS and al-Qaeda: Understanding and Differentiating Worldviews
Noriega Alondra Rodriguez, Political Science (POSC) 2017, Power in Positive Advertising? Spanish Political Campaigns Say Sí
Zayn Saifullah, Political Science (POSC) 2017, The Effects of Nationalism on Learning in Recurring Crises: Evidence from India's Changing Kashmir Strategy
Anna LeMay Schmiel, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2017, Herding Cats: The Process of Statebuilding and Challenging the Market in the Modern Era
Owen Rourke Solis, Political Science (POSC) 2017, Justice and Punishment: Problematizing Our Reliance on Retribution
Isabel Sophia Storey, Political Science (POSC) 2017, The Effects of Partisanship on Police Killings of African-American Youth
Submissions from 2016
Jackson Thomas Pollan Bahn, Political Science (POSC) 2016, An Examination of the Effects of Uneven Labor Migration on Informal Village Insurance in Myanmar
Eric Michael Bauer, Political Science (POSC) 2016, Ethnic Stacking: The Key Indicator in the Suppression of Popular Uprisings
Joseph Roche Burson, Political Science/International Relations (POSI) 2016, Law and Order: Strategic Considerations and Legal Development Assistance
Brian Noah Engelstein, Political Science (POSC) 2016, Twitter Terrorism: Understanding and Combating The Islamic State's Use of Twitter For Recruitment and Information
