2026 Student Awards

Diana Zhou

  • “The Vestiges of the German Democratic Republic: Memory Politics and Xenophobia in Former East Germany”

Tom Inouye

  • “Revisionist Political Coalitions, Queering, and the Transmission of Violence”

Yahjairi Castillon

  • “Legitimacy Competition and Narrative Constructions: Analyzing Sudan’s Civil Conflict”

Arlo Jay

  • “A Clean Break? Chinese Green Industrial Investment and Domestic Value Capture in the Global South”

Hayden Beauchemin

  • “Assessing the Feasibility of Small Modular Reactor Deployment on Islands in Southeast Asia and the Pacific”

Celine Wang

  • “The Role of the Party-State in China’s Emerging Technology Development”

Pallavi Raju

  • “Balancing the Scales of Justice: The Unconstitutionality of Marital Rape in India”

Samuel Johnson-Saeger

2025 Student Awards

Tara Emad Dawood

  • “Preserving Roots: Assessing the Assyrian Community in Iraq through the Eyes of Aid Workers”

Joshua Morganstein

  • “‘Houston, We Have a [Legal] Problem:’ Militarization, Resource Extraction, and the Law of Outer Space”

Chloe Kastl

  • “Alliance Building in Chinese Foreign Policy: Strategies from the 1950s, 1980s, and the 2010s”

Nicolas Petersik

  • “Creating an EV Supply Chain in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Vehicle for Industrialization?”

Adam Terenyi

  • “Macromobile Micromobility: Policy Movement and the International Politics of Bicycle Governance”

Anjali Thakore

  • “Macromobile Micromobility: Policy Movement and the International Politics of Bicycle Governance”

Sasha Shunko

  • “Beyond Teaching a Man to Fish: Smallholder Cultivation, Certification, and Cooperation in Southeast Asian Aquaculture”

Adrian Flynn

2024 Best Thesis Awards

Sumanje Chigwenembe

  • “Harnessing the Sun as a New Mode of Development: Reviewing the Potential for Solar Energy in Africa”

Jorlen Garcia

  • “From Urban Margins to Integration: Evaluating Human Security in Medellín’s Informal Settlements through Governance & Planning”

Eliza Friend

  • “The Language of Power and Violence: How Political Narratives Influence the Course of International Conflict and Underpin American Foreign Policy Responses ” 

Sonja Woolley

  • “Serving with Pride: Analyzing LGBTQ+ Personnel Policy in the U.S. Military”

Laura Velez Somoza

  • “Does the Constitution Follow the Flag? The Paradox of Puerto Rican Identity and Citizenship”

Riley Green

  • “Savage Tales: The Colonialist Narratives Underpinning Indigenous Genocide”

2023 Best Thesis Awards

Anya Syed

  • “The Prosecution of Rape as Genocide in International Courts”

Ben Eibl

  • “A Tale of Two Cities: The Divergence of Social Housing in Berlin and Vienna”

Thomas Falci

  • “Cracking Down on Cutting Sleeves: The History of “Homosexuality” in China and the CPC’s Recent Crackdown on LGBT+ Rights”

Eric (Herbert) Lohmus

  • “The Role of the Wagner Group in the Russo-Ukrainian War”

Ava Liao

  • “Autonomy, Influence, and Impunity: The Failures of the Western Intelligence Institution”

Caelyn Smith

  • “Recommendations for the Operationalization of a Loss and Damage Fund”

Nisha Singh

  • “Planning Equitable Cities for the 21st Century: A Multi-Scalar Analysis of Urban Refugee Integration in Beirut and Istanbul”

2022 Best Thesis Awards

Kaito Komoriya

  • “In Search of Unicorns: An Analysis of Japan’s Startup Ecosystem”

Kelsey Clarke

  • “The Exclusion of Cultural Genocide from International Criminal Law and China's Uyghur Genocide”

Katrina Frei-Herrmann

  • “The Impact of Social Movements on Austerity Measures: An Analysis of Argentina’s Piquetero Movement and Greece’s Anti-Austerity Movement”

Yara Ismael

  • “Environmental Degradation Caused by Turkish Activities and Policies in Kurdish Areas” 

Sydney Heath

  • “A Critical Analysis of American Policy in Syria During the Syrian Civil War”

Elena Neff

  • “The War Made the Guards, and the Guards Made War: The Role of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in State Formation in Post-Revolutionary Iran”

2021 Best Thesis Awards

Katherine O’Neill

  • “Making the Connections: Gender Quotas, Representation, and Critical Mass in Latin America”

Caroline Jenkins

  • “Stronger as One? Examining US-Saudi Relations Since 9/11”

Sahib Bhasin

  • “Safe Third Country Concept: A Poor Instrument of Refugee Governance”

Tallan Donine

  • “US Government Responses to Genocide: A Comparison of the 20th and 21st Centuries”

Nandeeni Patel

  • “The Sri-Lanka-China-India Triangle: A Regional Power Transition”

Xinyi Zhang

  • “The Chinese National and Subnational Government During the Public Health Crisis of COVID-19”