Previous Honors Theses

In the past, honors projects have involved academic policy research in a wide variety of areas. Honors projects involve extended scholarly inquiry into a policy area or question. Some projects produce essays that resemble journal articles in the disciplines spanned by public policy research.

Others produce research monographs that require students to use the skills and perspectives taught in the public policy major—economics, ethics, political analysis, statistics, decision analysis and historical analysis—to delineate the dimensions of a policy problem, identify alternative policy options and analyze their strengths and weaknesses. These projects are akin to the scholarly research published by the Brookings Institution or American Enterprise Institute. The diversity of viable and interesting policy topics is well illustrated in the honors projects recently completed by PPS seniors.

 

2008 Honors Theses

  • Beyond Boarders: Consolodation, Anexation and the Role of Race in Hampton Roads During the 1950's and 1960's (Aulden Burcher)
  • "The National Flood Insurance Program and Recovery on the Mississippi Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina"  (Elizabeth Crawford)
  • Social Capital and Market Participation in Sierra Leone (David Fiocco)
  • Is There Hope for HOPE VI? The effects of HUD revitalization grants (Sarah Gordon)
  • "Small Wins and Urban Poverty: The Role of Strategy in the Successes and Failures of the Atlanta Project" (Kate Guthrie)
  • Factors that affect long-term project sustainability:  A study of the USDA's Community Food Project Competitive Grant Program (CFPCGP) 2000 and 2001 grantees (Rachel McLaughlin)
  • Comparison of U.S. Radio, Print, and Broadcast Media Coverage of Humanitarian Crises Involving Ethnic Repression (Chiara McPhee)
  • Cross-national comparison of adolescent reproductive health outcomes (Meghan O’Toole)
  • Exploring the Darker Side of the Rainbow: How Contact Theory Can Impact African American-Latino Race Relations in the United States (Ankit Shrivastava)
  • Radiation and Research in Chernobyl: A case study in biomedical ethics (Sarah Wallace)

 

2007 Honors Theses

  • “Solvable Puzzle: Understanding Problems with Diabetes for the Hispanic Population in North Carolina” (Vijay K. Brihmadesam)
  • “‘To Promote the Progress of Science’: Is it Time to Adopt a Research Use Exception in U.S. Patent Law?” (Joe L. Fore, Jr.)
  • “Ensuring Representation and the Quest for Competition in Congressional Redistricting” (Benjamin P. Freedland)
  • “Channels of Communication: How and Why Pro-and Anti-Death Penalty Groups Use the Media to Advocate Causes and Mobilize Constituencies” (Christine Elizabeth Gorman)
  • “Urban Renaissance and Decay: An Evaluation of Revitalization in Chicago Community Areas” (Theodore James Lauzen)
  • “Demand for Dollars: Explanations for the Increase in Remittances to Cuba Despite U.S. Regulations” (Cristina Maria Nunez)
  • “Foundation Grantmaking and U.S. Education Reform: Lessons from the Strategies of the Ford Foundation, the Annenberg Foundation, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation” (Megan Rebecca O’Flynn)
  • “Dictatorship to Democracy: How Television Broke Free of Censorship in Pinochet’s Chile” (Sophia Cristina Peters)
  • “Protecting the Family: North Carolina’s Religious Right and the Campaign to Control Education” (Nena Michelle Sanderson)
  • “Missteps and Movement Forward: The Decline and Revitalization of Downtown Durham” (David Andrew Snider)

2006 Honors Theses

  • “Housing in the Boston Metropolitan Area: How the Region’s Unique Structural Features Have Created One of the Country’s Most Expensive Markets, and What Must be Done to Fix It” (Lauren Amanda Deysher)
  • ‘Minority Access to Gifted and Talented Services in Context of No Child Left Behind: An Analysis of Third Grade North Carolinian Public School Students” (Marcia Jan Eisenstein)
  • “Calle Ocho Politics. Cuban-Americans in Miami from 1965-2005: Political Repression and the Silent Majority” (Seema Yogendra Kakad)
  • “Navigating the Perfect Storm: Understanding the North Korean Nuclear Proliferation Threat ” (Nooree Lee)
  • “The Effect of Community Health Centers on Access to Care” (Kathryn Elizabeth Owen)
  • “NGOs and Generation Y” (Jennifer Meredith Sasso)
  • “Policies for Pair-A-Dice: Regulating Singapore’s Casinos” (Swee San Tan)