DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

Award Winning Theses

The following theses are recent examples of outstanding work:

• Julian Fefer: "“We are the union”: a case study of UNITE HERE Local 1’s internal structure", 2015 Janda Prize Winner for Best Honors Thesis (Due to IRB restrictions, the paper will not be published on the department website)
• Brian Hempker: "Manipulated Maps, Manipulated Participation: How Partisan Gerrymandering Influences Conventional and Unconventional Political Engagement", 2025 Janda Prize Winner for Best Honors Thesis
• Max Feinleib: "Redesigning the Filibuster for More Effective Lawmaking in a Polarized Senate", 2024 Janda Prize Winner for Best Honors Thesis
• Laila Skramstad: "How the Presence of Syrian Refugees Affects Elections in Turkey", 2024 Janda Prize Winner for Best Honors Thesis
• Zoe Golub: "Citizen Mobilization in Post-Katrina New Orleans: Do Local Government Failures Inspire or Inhibit Political Participation?", 2023 Janda Prize Winner for Best Honors Thesis
• Naomi P. Kostman: "The Brazilian Evangelical Church and Right-Wing Support by Low-Income Voters", 2023 Janda Prize Winner for Best Honors Thesis Honorable Mention
• Matthew Norambuena: "Experiential Solidarity and University Protests: Why Syrian Students Mobilized on Campus", 2023 Janda Prize Winner for Best Honors Thesis Honorable Mention
• Peter Spoerri: "The American Sound: Country Music and Political Dialogue in the United States", 2023 Janda Prize Winner for Best Honors Thesis Honorable Mention
• Kelly Miller: "American Oligarchy? Billionaires, Polarization, and Tax Policy in the
  2020 Senate Elections", 2022 Janda Prize Winner for Best Honors Thesis
• Andrew Myers: "The Rise of Zoom: Studying the Effectiveness of the Emerging Virtual Platform in U.S. Political Campaigns Andrew Stephen Myers Honors Thesis", 2022 Janda Prize Winner for Best Honors Thesis Honorable Mention
• Akash Palani: "Long Distance Nationalism: Indian Americans and Hindutva", 2021 Janda Prize Winner for Best Honors Thesis
• Hayden Richardson: "Cheerleading at Northwestern University: A Case Study of Institutional Failure", 2021 Janda Prize Winner for Best Honors Thesis (Due to IRB restrictions, the paper will not be published on the department website)
• Natalie Sands: "Inequity in Accommodations: Minimizing Bias in Higher Education Disability Services", 2020 Janda Prize Winner for Best Honors Thesis
• Jonathan Goldberg: "Game of Drones: The Effect of Drone Strikes on Terrorists’ Tactical Diversity", 2020 Janda Prize Winner for Best Honors Thesis Honorable Mention
• Avery Goods: "An Inconvenient Group: The Effect of Motivated Messages on Climate Change Attitudes and Behaviors of Skeptic Audiences" 2019 Janda Prize Winner for Best Honors Thesis
• Joshua Varcie: "The Artificial Incumbency Advantage: How Bipartisan Redistricting Schemes Protect Incumbents" 2019 Janda Prize Honorable Mention for Distinguished Honors Thesis
• Benjamin Alan Weinberg: " Ballot Challenge: Explaining Voting Rights Restrictions in 21st-Century America" 2018 Janda Prize Winner for Best Honors Thesis
• Logan Scott Peretz: "How Hillary May Have Lost the White House: The Electoral Effects of Presidential Campaign Visits in 2016" 2018 Janda Prize Honorable Mention for Distinguished Honors Thesis
• Aaron Gordon: "An Empirical Appraisal of the Liberty of Contract" 2017 Janda Prize Winner for Best Honors Thesis
• Hayley Hopkins:"Restrict the Vote: Disenfranchisement as a Political Strategy" 2017 Janda Prize Winner for Best Honors Thesis
• Matthew Gates: "Ideological Basis for the Gay Rights Movement" 2017 Janda Prize Honorable Mention for Distinguished Honors Thesis
• Elena Barham: "Passing the Buck: World Bank Anti-Corruption Reform and the Politics of Implementation" 2016 Janda Prize Winner for Best Honors Thesis
• Remy Smith: "Inherently Unequal: The Effects of Equal Representation on Senate Policy Outcomes" 2016 Janda Prize Honorable Mention for Distinguished Honors Thesis
• Laura Rozier:  "The Media, the Innocent, and the Public: A Nuanced Look at Exonerations and Public Opinion of the Death Penalty"  2015 Janda Prize Winner for Best Honors Thesis
• Kaitlyn Chriswell: “Cross-cutting cleavages: Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, Terra Lliure, and the centrality of networks”, 2014 Janda Prize Winner for Best Honors Thesis
• Jordan Fein: "Searching for Health Care Reform: Studying Media Coverage and Framing Public Opinion of the 2009-2010 Health Care Debate", 2011 Janda Prize Winner for Best Honors Thesis
• Dylan Lewis: “Unpaid Protectors: Volunteerism and the Diminishing Role of Federal Responsibility in the National Park Service”, 2011 Janda Prize Honorable Mention for Distinguished Honors Thesis
• Benjamin Zhu: “Resource Distribution in Post‐PRI Mexico: De‐Politicized or Re‐Politicized?”, 2011 Senior Marshall for Distinguished Honors Thesis
• Ben Armstrong: “Ne Touche Pas Ma Constitution: Pressures and Presidential Term Limits”, 2011 Barry Farrell Prize for Academic Achievement
• Jeffrey Paller: “Where are the people? The Relationship between Government and Civil Society in South Africa”, 2006 Janda Prize Co-Winner for Best Honors Thesis
• Samir Mayekar: “The Piquetero Effect: Examining the Argentine Government’s Response to the Piquetero Movement”, 2006 Janda Prize Co-Winner for Best Honors Thesis 


Janda PRIZE for DISTINGUISHED Honors Thesis REcipients

The Kenneth F. Janda Prize for Distinguished Honors Thesis in Political Science is awarded annually for the best undergraduate Honors thesis of the year.