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Princeton University Undergraduate Senior Theses, 1924-2023

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Senior Thesis Poster Session

The Department requires the production and presentation of a thesis poster in lieu of a comprehensive exam. The poster requirement has deepened students’ learning by requiring them to present their work to a wide audience of their peers and faculty members.

Early in the Spring semester, the Department hosts two poster information sessions. A handout with important guidelines will be distributed at that time. Students who are curious about what a poster looks like are welcome to view exemplary posters which are displayed outside of 127 Corwin Hall.

Students are required to upload a PDF of their thesis poster into the Politics Thesis Poster Database by the stated deadline . A link to the database, along with instructions, will be sent as the deadline nears. An initial penalty of 2/3 of a letter grade and an additional penalty of 1/3 of a letter grade for every 24 hours that a poster is late will be applied, beginning at 4:00 pm on the PDF due date. [NOTE: The Department will order and pay for the posters.]

Students must also attend the Senior Thesis Poster Session , which will be held during Reading Period. Students are required to be at the Poster Session for the full duration. 

Seniors’ posters and their oral presentations are evaluated by faculty graders according to the following criteria:

• Visuals & Mechanics: Is the poster visually appealing, legible, uncluttered, and well written (spelling & grammar)? Does it make effective use of visualizations (graphs, charts)?
• Research Question: Does the poster clearly state the main research question? Does it show one or several hypotheses that derive from the research question?
• Methods and Results: Does the poster provide information about the evidence used and link between hypotheses and evidence? Are results presented effectively?
• Structure & Organization: Does the poster have clear sections, a logical flow, and effective use of labels?                        
• Oral Presentation: Was the oral presentation clear and within the allocated time? Did it effectively and succinctly communicate the main argument made in the poster?

Beginning with the Class of 2022, the Department will award four $500 outstanding senior thesis poster prizes. Three will be determined by faculty graders, and one will be determined by an audience vote. 

Questions about the thesis poster session requirement should be directed to the Poster Session Coordinator, Vincent Heddesheimer , and Department Coordinator,  Gina Palmisano .

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Senior Theses in the University Archives

The University Archives in the  Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library  is Princeton University’s central repository for senior theses submitted in fulfillment of undergraduate degree requirements. Each senior is required to submit a copy of their thesis to the University Archives as prescribed on the policies and resources website for  Undergraduate Announcements  under the section "Independent Work." The Senior Thesis Collection consists of more than 63,000 theses and serves as an important resource for undergraduate research. 

Since the early 1990s, the academic departments have partnered with the University Archives to ensure that all senior theses are submitted for degree fulfillment are represented in the University Archives.

Departmental Instructions 

Instructions for collecting, reviewing and approving senior theses for the University Archives are available in the upper-right of this page, under "Downloadable documents."

The Thesis Central website portal opens for submissions beginning on March 25, 2024.

Class of 2024 Senior Thesis Timeline

Thesis Central open to submissions March 25, 2024

• Last day for students to submit to Thesis Central is May 7, 2024 (Dean's Date)

Review and approvals must be complete by June 24, 2024

Senior Theses are published in DataSpace between late June and prior to the start of the fall semester

About Thesis Central

Thesis Central is the online system that acadmic departments use to collect senior theses from students. The Thesis Central website  allows students to upload senior thesis files for retrieval by their home department and from which the files will be transmitted to the University Archives.

In addition, Thesis Central : 

• Replaces the need to collect senior theses from students via email or Blackboard
• Enables tracking of which students have or have not submitted their files
• Allows downloading and sharing of theses with faculty
• Provides a way to make a list of students and thesis titles
• Offers a simple review and approve process for transmitting theses to the University Archives

 If you have questions about the submission process, or if you experience issues with Thesis Central, please email the Mudd Manuscript Library Public Services team at [email protected] or call 609.258.6345. 

Downloadable Documents

The Infamous Senior Thesis

March 13, 2020, andrea reino.

The senior thesis.  What is it? Where did it come from? Why do I have to do it?

You might be asking yourself these questions. Maybe you’re waiting to hear back from the Office of Admission and you just read about the thesis online. Maybe you’ve already been admitted, and the thesis is making you question whether or not you want to matriculate. If you only remember one thing from this post, I hope it is this: don’t let the thought of a thesis scare you!

Almost every student at Princeton has to write a senior thesis in order to graduate. It’s basically just a long(er) research paper on a topic of your choice. Since most students have to write one, pretty much everyone will be familiar with the process at some point during their Princeton career. This means that you are never struggling through it alone.

When I was a prospective student, I remember being a little intimidated by the senior thesis. I had never written something so long in my life! I had no idea where to even begin. However, as the semesters started flying by, my interests began solidifying themselves, and it became apparent to me what I wanted to focus on at Princeton: a combination of policy, the criminal-legal system and race/discrimination.

Once you know what you are interested in, choosing a thesis topic becomes much easier. I knew I wanted to go to law school after Princeton and I’ve always been interested in criminal justice reform. So, I made sure to choose a topic that encompassed all of that! I applied for funding from the Woodrow Wilson School ⁠—the department I’m majoring in⁠—and planned a trip to Norway. While there, I spent two days at a men’s maximum-security facility in order to learn about their prison system. I conducted interviews, took pictures and observed the individuals who have been incarcerated along with the staff (read  this post to learn more about my thesis!). Honestly, it didn’t even feel like work⁠—since it’s a topic I’m genuinely interested in, I really enjoyed the research.

I think that’s the key to conquering your senior thesis: make sure you choose a topic that you are genuinely interested in, and the research won’t feel so much like work. Keeping this in mind, don’t let the senior thesis scare you. As a senior, I feel so much support from my classmates, since I know they’re going through the same process. I’m excited to see the final product of all my hard work and I’m so glad I didn’t let it scare me away from committing to Princeton!

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Senior thesis collection, 1926-2022.

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• Since its introduction in the mid-1920s the senior thesis has been a core element of the undergraduate curriculum at Princeton University. The collection contains the senior theses of Princeton undergraduates.
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Inbox thesis trauma and a recurring nightmare.

The recent PAW thesis piece honors the glories of the senior thesis, but doesn’t spend much time on the agonies.

As a Nassoon, I spent year after year watching my good friends senior to me go through the rituals of getting their theses done, such that I had acquired a good case of “thesis PTSD” by my senior year.

I hated my carrel, used only for working with books that had to say in the “libe”; wrote my thesis in a two-week marathon session of getting up at noon, eating lunch, then writing until 6 the next morning (visited nightly at 3 a.m. by the herds of cockroaches who lived in Laughlin Hall); and finished a pedestrian effort that earned me the Princeton equivalent of a B+, then graduated.

Looking back, I so regret the lost opportunity to really do something with my thesis (as I regret not majoring in history to study the 20th century, as I do now on my own). I also marvel at how that effort seemed so daunting looking back from much higher hills conquered in later life.

For decades afterward, I periodically had the thesis equivalent of the famous “exam dream” —  It’s due today! Have I started it? Where do I turn it in? No wait, I was an early concentrator and actually wrote it last year — whew! Or did I? Ugh!

Princeton University Tried To Bridge US-Iran Gap, Then Tehran Kidnapped, Detained 2 Students

A n attempt by Princeton University to act as a mediator in mending U.S.-Iran relations resulted in two of the university’s students being kidnapped or detained by Tehran and its allies, Semafor reported on Thursday.

During the Obama administration, Princeton established an Iran center, hosted an Iranian diplomat as a scholar and opened a student exchange program, according to Semafor.

Two students who traveled to Iran and the Middle East at Princeton’s behest were eventually kidnapped or detained, and they and their families blame the university for doing too little to help free them, according to internal emails, documents, and public records obtained by Iran International and reviewed by Semafor.

Read: Biden Admin Funded Both Sides Of Growing Israel-Iran Faceoff

Princeton’s student exchange program started when an American-Iranian scholar, Ariane Tabatabai , established correspondence in 2014 between one of the university’s Iran center’s officials and Mostafa Zahrani, a senior Iranian foreign diplomat linked to the country’s military, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC), according to Semafor.

Tabatabai, who is currently an official at the Pentagon, was reported in 2023 to be a member of the Iran Experts Initiative, an influence operation that sought to recruit Western scholars to promote Iran’s reputation on a global stage.

“I wanted to introduce you to a friend who is in Princeton, and you will see him in Vienna in three weeks,” Tabatabai wrote to Zahrani in an email reviewed by Semafor. “He is interested in sharing with you a plan to send Iranian students to Princeton and to send American students to Iran.”

By 2015, Princeton was ready to send their first student, a Chinese-American named Wang Xiyue, to Iran, Semafor reported.

Read: Iran Threatens To Attack Israel With New Weapons “Not Used Before”: A Growing Concern

Wang told Semafor that he was nervous about traveling to Iran. He had relayed to Princeton his concerns about safety in the country, which regularly detains and arrests American citizens, and the fact that the U.S. had a historically poor relationship with Tehran, the outlet reported. He also didn’t speak the country’s native language, Farsi, and his Ph.D. studies weren’t explicitly related to Iranian affairs.

Wang emailed Princeton officials in December 2015 and told them he wanted to be “as transparent as possible” with Iranian officials about the nature of his studies to protect his interests and “not be deported from the country for doing things my visa does not prescribe me to do,” according to Semafor. Princeton officials affirmed to Wang that he would not be in any danger while in Iran and underscored the importance of learning Farsi for his studies, according to emails reviewed by the outlet.

“It’s a good time to go [to Iran] — looks like they are in a good mood over there,” Kevan Harris, an official from Princeton’s Iran center, reportedly told Wang in an email just weeks before his trip to Iran in January 2016. “Take advantage of it.”

Read: Florida Rep. Greg Steube Intros The Iranian Terror Prevention Act

Wang’s passport was confiscated by Iranian intelligence officials six months after his arrival and he was subsequently arrested on espionage charges that August, according to Semafor. He was sent to prison for three years, and was sometimes subject to solitary confinement and threats of death.

Wang was released in 2019 during exchange negotiations between the Trump administration and Iran, according to Semafor.

Princeton’s connections to Iran were not properly utilized to free Wang from prison, he reportedly alleged in a 2021 lawsuit against the university, accusing them of negligence.

“Simply put, after encouraging and convincing Mr. Wang to go to Iran, Princeton chose to put their reputation and political interest ahead of Mr. Wang’s personal safety,” the lawsuit reads, according to Semafor.

Princeton reached a settlement with Wang in September 2023, but denied that it put its reputation and Iranian sources ahead of Wang, or was negligent to Wang’s plight, according to Semafor. It also denied that it downplayed to Wang the risks of traveling to Iran.

Read: Alan Dershowitz: Why Is Biden Stopping Israel From Attacking Iran’s Nuclear Weapons Program?

“Princeton did not direct, and indeed did not have the power to direct, Mr. Wang’s travel,” Princeton spokesman Michael Hotchkiss told Semafor. “And it was Princeton University that undertook a relentless, multi-year and multi-million-dollar global effort to secure his release.”

The second student, Elizabeth Tsurkov, was in Princeton’s graduate program at the time of her kidnapping in the Middle East, according to Semafor. Tsurkov was born in Russia and raised in Israel, and she had traveled to a number of Arab states to extensively cover ongoing conflicts in the region.

Tsurkov’s studies at Princeton focused on political systems within Lebanon, Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan, according to Semafor. Her thesis proposal in 2021 — which was funded and signed off on by Princeton — described her prior work in the Middle East and her plans to return to the region.

Tsurkov was kidnapped during a trip to Baghdad, Iraq, in March 2023 by a group that the U.S. and Israeli governments believe was Kataib Hezbollah , an Iranian-backed terrorist group, according to Semafor. Kataib Hezbollah is based in Iraq and regularly takes cues from the IRGC — the group is responsible for killing three U.S. troops in Jordan in January.

Tsurkov remains in captivity, according to Semafor. Kataib Hezbollah reportedly released a proof-of-life video of a visibly fatigued Tsurkov in November, in which she says that she is a CIA and Mossad, an Israeli intelligence agency, operative. The U.S. and Israeli governments deny the claims.

Emma Tsurkov, Elizabeth’s sister, has been openly critical of Princeton’s response, alleging in August 2023that the university denied its involvement in approving the trip, according to an op-ed in the New Jersey Star-Ledger.

Read: Biden Admin Rushes To Impose New Penalties On Iran After Letting Weapons Sanctions Expire

Princeton admitted in October 2023 that it was responsible for Tsurkov’s travels to Iraq, but raised questions as to whether she followed proper protocols while in the region, according to Semafor. Princeton told the outlet in an email that it is fervently committed to securing her release “by making available reputable outside experts the University has retained and by advocating with US government officials to use their influence to help bring Elizabeth home safely.”

Emma is working to pressure the Iraqi government into helping release her sister, recently confronting the Iraqi prime minister at a Washington think tank and accusing him of “not doing anything to save [Tsurkov],” Semafor reported. The family believes that Iraq should be designated a state sponsor of terrorism and that U.S. aid should be cut unless Tsurkov is released.

Princeton and the Iraqi foreign affairs minister did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation .

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Moscow as a Space of the Political in Russian History: The Moscow and Petersburg Epochs

• First Online: 01 May 2021

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• Marina Glaser 3 &
• Ivan Krivushin 3  

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This chapter discusses the nature and evolution of the Moscow political from the period of Russian history, which was given the name of the Moscow epoch (thirteenth-very beginning seventeenth centuries) to end of the Petersburg epoch (very beginning seventeenth-beginning of twentieth centuries). It discusses several reasons for the upsurge of Moscow in pre-Mongolian times, causes and consequences of Moscow’s Rise in the thirteenth-fifteenth centuries. The chapter explores the dilemmas and tensions within the Moscow political under Ivan IV (the Terrible), the Time of Troubles and under the First Romanovs. It is argued that in the Moscow epoch Moscow acquired the specific essence that enabled it to assume the functions of the country’s political capital, became a city-state, a national spiritual center. The Moscow political acquired the form of a triad: antagonism—agonism—Platonism. In the Petersburg epoch, an opposition of the two capital cities arose, but Moscow did not alter the formula of its political legitimacy. The Moscow elites considered the situation of “the two capitals” a politically temporary one. The Moscow political remained Platonic till one of the key events within the Petersburg epoch, the Revolutionary Period (1905–1917), caused triumph of antagonism.

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See also Uspensky ( 2000 : 34–52).

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Glaser, M., Krivushin, I. (2021). Moscow as a Space of the Political in Russian History: The Moscow and Petersburg Epochs. In: Moscow's Evolution as a Political Space. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68673-4_2

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Protests in Moscow: What’s Different This Time?

Photo: MAXIM ZMEYEV/AFP/Getty Images

Commentary by Jeffrey Mankoff and Cyrus Newlin

Published August 22, 2019

Opposition activists held one-man pickets across Moscow this past Saturday, the latest action in six consecutive weekends of demonstrations. Protestors are demanding that opposition candidates be allowed on the ballot in upcoming City Duma elections, and for the release of those detained at previous rallies. This summer’s demonstrations have a few distinguishing characteristics that suggest Russia has entered a new political era, one that could force the Kremlin into some difficult decisions ahead of upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections.

First, protests have been massive. With over 50,000 attendees , the officially sanctioned August 10 protest marked the largest since 2011-2012 Bolotnaya demonstrations . Despite credible threats of arrest, an unsanctioned protest on   July 27 drew thousands of protestors , of whom more than 1,000 were detained. In the politically consequential Russian capital, 37 percent of Muscovites have voiced support for the protests, while 30 percent were neutral and 27 percent did not support them. These numbers refute the official line in state news outlets that recent protests are marginal.

Second, and anecdotally, a wider range of Russians are showing up at protests. While political activism in Russia is often compartmentalized among specific groups (Russians in the 18-25-year old category gave life to the 2017-2018 anti-corruption protests, and last year, pensioners turned out in numbers to protest pension reform), over the past six weekends Muscovites of varied ages and socioeconomic statuses have protested side by side. Some are new to politics entirely. One of Russia’s most well-known rappers, Oxxxymoron, announced his (unauthorized) performance at the August 10 rally to an audience of million-plus Instagram followers. He was joined on stage by other well-known performers taking their first public political stances, and presumably in the crowd by thousands of supporters heeding a call to action.

Third, protestors appear to hold mixed political views. A medley of signs and political banners appeared at recent demonstrations, underscoring that attendees do not all fall into what we normally think of as Russia’s opposition, for instance, supporters of anti-corruption campaigner Aleksey Navalny. Rather, Muscovites of different political stripes are offended by what they see as a blatantly rigged election. On August 17, a separate rally organized by Russia’s Communist Party took place under the banner “For clean and honest elections!” Videos of excessive police violence, particularly on   July 27, seem to have touched a nerve in Moscow that has led a range of pundits and political voices to speak out in favor of the protests.

Fourth, the state’s response to protests has been unusually harsh. The newly created National Guard was deployed by the thousands to quell the unauthorized protest on July 27. Thousands were detained, many violently. Dozens are facing charges of inciting “mass unrest,” which carries up to eight years in prison. Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation is facing unprecedented political pressure in the form of an anti-money-laundering investigation by Russia’s powerful Investigative Committee. Navalny himself is serving a 30-day jail sentence, and several other protest leaders have been repeatedly jailed, among them Ilya Yashin, whose disqualification from Moscow city elections sparked this round of protests (he was projected to win the race for Moscow’s 45th Krasnoselsky district), and Lyubov Sobol, a prominent lawyer with the Anti-Corruption Foundation who was running in Moscow’s 43rd District. The severity of the state response to protests in the Russian capital suggests it understands the political threat posed by growing protests and is determined to stem them.

Weeks of demonstrations in Moscow cap an uptick in political activism across Russia over the past two years. Years of falling real incomes have contributed to a general sense of restiveness: Russians’ willingness to protest is the highest in two decades , and the number of demonstrations recorded in Russia in 2018 was nearly double the number in 2017. In the past year, protests over waste disposal practices in Arkhangelesk, the construction of an Orthodox church in a public park in Yekaterinburg, the arrest of journalist Ivan Golunov on dubious drug charges in Moscow, and now the exclusion of opposition candidates from Moscow City Duma elections suggest a new normal in Russia, in which ordinary people are demanding a say in the political system. While the Kremlin has tolerated some local-level activism addressing quality of life and corruption issues (such as the Yekaterinburg protests, which led President Putin to halt the church’s construction), the current protests in Moscow are overtly political and are seen by the government as an unacceptable threat.

Both inside and outside of Moscow, Russians’ growing willingness to speak out seems in part the result of economic stagnation, which has frayed the traditional social contract of political acquiescence for a higher standard of living, allowing local-level issues to gain political momentum.

But despite a general malaise and the use of a common tactic—protests—to amplify grievances, these movements remain local in nature, and it is unclear if or how they could gain national traction that could in some way alter the status quo at the national level. The challenge for the opposition is first in articulating common themes from local-level grievances in order to connect and sustain these movements, and then in gaining footholds in regional and municipal elections. As the striking of opposition candidates from the Moscow City Duma election demonstrates, the movement faces clear structural disadvantages.

At the same time, this uptick in activism across Russia occurs in the context of an impending political transition, and upcoming elections could provide an occasion for the opposition to channel widely felt anger toward shaping the outcome. In advance of the 2021 parliamentary elections and, eventually, the 2024 presidential elections, support for the ruling United Russia party is at its lowest in over 13 years, and trust in Putin is its lowest since 2006 , at 31.7 percent, though his popularity rating seems to have steadied at 68 percent. Local-level protests in Moscow, Arkhangelsk, Yekaterinburg, and elsewhere do not pose a direct threat to the government, but taken together they highlight the incompetence and corruption of local managers that exist within the system and could weigh on the Kremlin’s decision about how to handle the upcoming elections.

Through protests, Russians have signaled a new readiness to make their voices heard, even if the outcome or goal of demonstrations is not always clear. If it grows, this expectation—to be listened to— may shape the environment in which an impending political transition occurs. A smooth change of power will necessitate a degree of trust from the public. An erosion of this trust just at the time when it is most needed means political transition may not happen solely on the Kremlin’s terms.

Cyrus Newlin is an adjunct fellow (non-resident) with the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. Jeffrey Mankoff is deputy director and senior fellow with the CSIS Russia and Eurasia Program.

Commentary is produced by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a private, tax-exempt institution focusing on international public policy issues. Its research is nonpartisan and nonproprietary. CSIS does not take specific policy positions. Accordingly, all views, positions, and conclusions expressed in this publication should be understood to be solely those of the author(s).

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Jeffrey Mankoff

Cyrus Newlin

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