princeton spia senior thesis

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As seniors sweat theses, SPIA offers short extension

Robertson Hall houses Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs.

Angel kuo / the daily princetonian.

“I am very grateful for the thesis extension given to seniors in SPIA. When the announcement was made, a collective sigh of relief could be heard from all SPIA seniors across campus,” Taryn Sebba ’23 said.

As seniors across campus scramble to finish their theses, the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) recently announced that the deadline for students’ senior theses would be extended from April 6 to April 10.

In a statement to The Daily Princetonian, SPIA Director of Communication Tom Durso said that, “We looked at our calendar and realized we could afford to give students a few extra days to work on their senior theses.” 

This extension is not without precedent. In recent years, the deadline was extended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and last year, the Politics Department extended its deadline. When asked when the deadline usually is, Durso stated “on or close to April 6.” 

The senior thesis has been a graduation requirement since 1926, with only some engineering students excluded from completing one. The University deadline for the senior thesis this year is Monday, May 1, but each department is free to set its own deadline. Any extension beyond that date is given only for a compelling reason, and the extension must be approved by both the department and the residential college dean.

University media relations assistant Ahmad Rizvi told the ‘Prince,’ “In setting their individual deadlines, departments take into account their particular timeline for the completion of the thesis as a year-long project, as well as the time period needed to allow for a thorough evaluation of the thesis by two or more readers before submitting grades and determining departmental honors” — the deadlines for which are May 18 and May 24, respectively, according to the University’s academic calendar .

Among the different University departments, the Philosophy Department has the earliest senior thesis deadline at April 3, while the Mathematics, Physics, and African American Studies departments have thesis deadlines of May 1.

Moreover, the announcement comes months after the University piloted a program last semester that would allow 24-hour extensions on Dean’s Date assignments, amid campus discussion around academic rigor and mental health. 

Kanishkh Kanodia ’23 echoed this sentiment. 

“Even though in theory in four days, you really cannot change your thesis much … I think just having a broader time horizon has made me less stressed, and I am sure the same can be said about a lot of us.”

All students work one-on-one with a faculty advisor who guides the student through the thesis process. The University offers thesis boot camps for seniors, and the Office of the Dean of the College provides a month-by-month Senior Action Plan that helps students plan their writing. The University also provides funding for students to pursue their research. In particular, SPIA provides a Senior Thesis Advisor Selection Guide , which students can use to identify thesis advisors who share their interests, as well as a Senior Thesis Manual that guides students through the process of writing a SPIA thesis. All departments for which students must write a thesis have similar resources available to students. 

Kanodia described the support he has received from the SPIA department during the thesis process, telling the ‘Prince’ that “The Undergraduate Office is always looking for ways to make it a collaborative process, through which we don’t feel alone. And I feel like whenever I have needed help, if I have tried to find a resource, it has worked out.”  

Sebba also expressed that she believed other departments should also extend their deadlines for the sake of student mental health.

“Four days may not seem like a lot, but it is a significant enough amount of time to encourage students to rest, allow them to have unabashedly cheered on our men's basketball team, check in on their friends with looming deadlines, and simply breathe. Academic rigor must not, and doesn’t need to, come at the expense of students’ well-being. I hope other departments will follow suit.”

Olivia Sanchez is a News staff writer for the ‘Prince.’

Please direct any corrections requests to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.

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Undergraduate Announcement 2023 - 2024

Princeton school of public and international affairs, general information, program offerings:, program offerings.

The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs offers a multidisciplinary liberal arts major for students who are interested in public service and becoming leaders in the world of public and international affairs. Students will acquire the tools, understanding and habits of mind necessary to pursue policy problems of their choosing. The major is largely self-designed, but provides the structure and guidance needed for an education that is both broad and deep.

Please note : These requirements apply only to SPIA majors in the Classes of 2026 and beyond . Students in the Classes of 2024 and 2025 should consult the appropriate archived Undergraduate Announcement for detailed information about departmental requirements.

Goals for Student Learning

Curricular learning goals.

• Prerequisites  are meant to provide basic social science literacy and a foundation for studying and analyzing public policy, and domestic and international affairs. Prior to major declaration, students must complete four prerequisites.

Core courses  introduce the practical art of policymaking, and further emphasize analytical tools and theory that students will need to understand, evaluate, engage with, craft and/or implement public policy and international affairs. The core prepares students for junior and senior independent work through thematic or disciplinary depth.

Electives are designed to encourage disciplinary breadth required in public and international affairs; intellectual depth, by discipline or policy area; and a regional focus that recognizes relationships, institutions and effects that cut across national borders.

Independent Work Learning Goals

• To think analytically about a public policy problem.
• To critically review evidence about a public policy problem and its potential solutions.
• To present evidence in a clear, logical and well-organized manner.
• To evaluate solutions that have been tried or proposed, and potentially develop new solutions to deal with a public policy problem.
• To clearly and concisely summarize the evidence and the alternatives, and to make recommendations to stakeholders on how best to address a public policy problem.  
• Identify a knowledge gap or public policy research question.
• Generate a logical and testable hypothesis.
• Identify or collect evidence that will allow you to test your hypothesis.
• Apply appropriate research method(s) to analyze your data.
• Draw evidence-based conclusions from your analysis that apply to the relevant public policy debate.

Prerequisites

Students must complete four prerequisites from a list of preapproved courses prior to the fall term of their junior year. Students should consult the Undergraduate Program website for the most up-to-date list of approved courses.

All courses taken to meet these prerequisites must be taken on a graded basis. First-year seminars may not be used to fulfill prerequisites. Students must earn a grade of C or higher in all courses counting toward prerequisites. The following courses may be used to satisfy the prerequisites:

One Course in Statistics

• SPI 200 Statistics for Social Science
• ECO 202 Statistics and Data Analysis for Economics
• ORF 245 Fundamentals of Statistics
• POL 345 Introduction to Quantitative Social Science

Note that students may not fulfill this prerequisite with AP credit.

One Course in Microeconomics

• ECO 100 Introduction to Microeconomics (or AP score of 5 in Microeconomics, IB Higher Level score of 7 in Economics or GCE A-level grade of A in Economics)

One Course in Sociology or Psychology

Students must choose from an approved list of courses. Please consult the Undergraduate Program website for the most current list of courses that meet this prerequisite.

One Course in Politics or History

All courses taken to meet prerequisites must be completed before September of junior year with a grade of C or higher. A summer course or a course taken abroad may count to satisfy a department prerequisite if the course has been approved by the relevant department and by either OIP or the student's residential college dean or assistant dean for transfer credit. All requests to use a transfer course to satisfy a department prerequisite must be approved in advance by the SPIA director of undergraduate studies.

A course taken at Princeton and used as a prerequisite may also be used to meet either a departmental core requirement (if it is on the list of core requirements) or as a departmental elective (if it is on the electives list).

Program of Study

The curriculum consists of a wide range of courses offered through the school and through our partner departments that are relevant to the study of policymaking, policy analysis and policy evaluation. Students take courses in economics, sociology or psychology, and politics or history. An introductory public policy course is required, along with an ethics course and a course on power and identity. Students enroll in policy seminars in their junior year and write a policy thesis in senior year. To aid in students' independent work, a research design workshop is also required.

Majors are required to take statistics and must be able to use the basics of single-variable calculus in order to take economics courses and some advanced elective options. Students who are concerned about their preparation should consider taking a course that provides instruction in single-variable calculus. In addition, the undergraduate program requires that students engage in some extracurricular cross-cultural experience (which may include study abroad), or policy-relevant field experience (overseas or domestic).

By the end of the fall semester of junior year, students will have to select their area of intellectual depth: disciplinary depth or thematic depth (designated by SPIA). Please consult the Undergraduate Program website  for more information.

Independent Work

To satisfy the junior independent work requirement (JP), each student must complete a research paper in connection with a non-credit-bearing fall Research Design Workshop (SPI 299) and a credit-bearing spring Research Seminar (SPI 300).

To aid in the writing and preparation of the junior paper, the non-credit-bearing fall Research Design Workshop will introduce students to research design by discussing the following questions:

• How does one define an important and researchable question?
• How does one deploy systematic concepts and evaluate competing hypotheses/arguments?
• How does one evaluate the plausibility, ethics and relative success of alternative policy solutions?

The course will focus on research design rather than specific methods. 

In the spring research seminar course, a faculty member supervises a small group of students engaged in research on a specific topic in public and international affairs. Faculty will introduce students to the existing state of knowledge and available evidence for research within a well-defined topic that is timely and important in the area of public policy. Supported by the separate coursework required in the research seminar, students will complete their junior paper.

To satisfy the senior independent work, each student must complete a senior thesis that clearly articulates a research question about a significant public policy issue and draws conclusions that contribute to the debate on that issue.

Additional Requirements

Core course requirements (seven courses).

Students should review the list of core requirements for their specific class year.

Prior to graduation, students must complete the core course requirements listed below. Students are encouraged to take SPI 298 in sophomore year and must complete the course no later than the fall of junior year. All courses used to meet these requirements must be taken at Princeton on a graded (A–F) basis. Students must earn a grade of C or higher in all courses counting toward core course requirements.

• SPI 298: Intro to Public Policy (fall only)
• SPI 299: Research Design Workshop (fall only; non-credit-bearing )
• SPI 300: Research Seminar (spring only)
• SPI 301: Policy Task Force (fall or spring)
• Please consult the Undergraduate Program website for the most current list of courses that meet this requirement.
• SPI 370 Ethics and Public Policy
• POL 307 The Just Society
• POL 313 Global Justice
• CHV 310/PHI 385 Practical Ethics
• PHI 309/CHV 309 Political Philosophy
• SPI 304 Microeconomics for Public Policy (formerly listed as SPI 300)
• ECO 300 Microeconomic Theory
• ECO 301 Macroeconomics
• ECO 310 Microeconomic Theory: A Mathematical Approach
• ECO 311 Macroeconomics: A Mathematical Approach

Elective Courses (six courses)

Students must complete six (6) elective courses according to the following guidelines. Students must earn a grade of C or higher in all courses counting toward elective requirements.

• Disciplinary Breadth (three courses): Take one course from three SPIA-related departments (EEB, HIS, POL, PSY, SOC) not already covered by the intellectual depth requirement noted below. ECO is excluded because it is already a required prerequisite and core course. Prerequisites and core courses may double-count; ECO courses may not. By graduation, we strongly encourage students to have taken courses in departments where they have not yet taken a course (for example in a natural science, if they are focusing on the social sciences).  
• Disciplinary Depth: Take three courses in one SPIA-affiliated department, e.g., ECO, EEB, HIS, POL, PSY, SOC, SPI OR
• Thematic Depth: Take three courses that address a given theme. Courses are drawn from SPIA-affiliated departments or SPIA-approved courses.

Among the six (6) electives , a student may take only three electives from one department. For the major as a whole , a student may not take more than five courses from one department.

Regional Focus: Students should also pursue regional focus across their SPIA coursework. Thus, across the SPIA prerequisites, core and electives, students must take at least two courses that focus substantively on a particular continent. The senior thesis can count toward the regional focus requirement.

Up to three elective courses may be taken in semester-long study abroad programs.

Cross-Cultural or Field Experience Requirement

Prior to the second semester of senior year, each student must have completed an approved cross-cultural or field experience. The requirement may be satisfied in a number of ways, including but not limited to semester study abroad, summer study abroad, policy-relevant summer jobs in a domestic or international organization, ROTC training, senior thesis research in the field, extended service in an underserved community, or an internship involving public policy work in a nonprofit, government or international agency such as the United Nations, the World Bank, the US Congress, or a state or federal agency.

Summer study or thesis research must be done for at least four weeks to qualify. Students must engage in an internship, job or community service project for at least six consecutive weeks at a minimum of 40 hours per week or a total of 240 cumulative hours to qualify. Eligible community service work must involve policy work that will enhance one's learning and understanding of public service.

Cross-cultural or field experience gained during the first or sophomore year or as a participant in the Bridge Year Program may count toward this requirement. To meet this requirement, all past or proposed work must be approved by the undergraduate program.

Senior Departmental Examination

The school's senior comprehensive examination is an oral defense of the senior thesis that assesses the student's expertise related to their thesis.

Study Abroad

Any major may study abroad in one of the department's overseas programs in the first or second semester of junior year. Recent international programs include Pembroke College at Cambridge University and the University of Cape Town in South Africa. At each site, students enroll in coursework at the host university and take a Policy Task Force directed by a faculty member at the host institution. 

Additional Information

The program provides funding during summer, fall and winter breaks for travel and living expenses related to senior thesis research in public policy. The school also provides funding to students in the department who participate in public policy internships over the summer. For additional information, consult the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs  Undergraduate Program website .

• Amaney A. Jamal
• David S. Wilcove (acting)

Director of Undergraduate Studies

• Susan L. Marquis

Director of Graduate Studies

• Denise L. Mauzerall
• Gary J. Bass
• Roland J. Benabou
• Alan S. Blinder
• Carles Boix
• Charles M. Cameron
• Miguel A. Centeno
• Christopher F. Chyba
• Janet M. Currie
• Rafaela M. Dancygier
• Pascaline Dupas
• Kathryn J. Edin
• Christopher L. Eisgruber
• Aaron L. Friedberg
• Filiz Garip
• Noreen Goldman
• Bryan T. Grenfell
• Gene M. Grossman
• G. John Ikenberry
• Harold James
• Seema Jayachandran
• Jennifer L. Jennings
• Henrik J. Kleven
• David S. Lee
• Frances E. Lee
• John B. Londregan
• Nolan McCarty
• Atif R. Mian
• Helen V. Milner
• Sanyu A. Mojola
• Eduardo Morales
• Andrew Moravcsik
• Layna Mosley
• Michael Oppenheimer
• Pietro Ortoleva
• Elizabeth L. Paluck
• Grigore Pop-Eleches
• Deborah A. Prentice
• Markus Prior
• Emily Pronin
• Stephen J. Redding
• Richard Rogerson
• Cecilia E. Rouse
• Kim Lane Scheppele
• Eldar Shafir
• Jacob N. Shapiro
• Patrick T. Sharkey
• Stacey A. Sinclair
• Paul E. Starr
• Zeynep Tufekci
• James Raymond Vreeland
• Keith A. Wailoo
• Leonard Wantchekon
• Mark W. Watson
• Elke U. Weber
• Ismail K. White
• Jennifer A. Widner
• David S. Wilcove
• Deborah J. Yashar
• Julian E. Zelizer
• Owen M. Zidar

Associate Professor

• Elizabeth M. Armstrong
• Alin I. Coman
• Thomas Fujiwara
• Alexander Glaser
• Adam M. Goldstein
• C. Jessica E. Metcalf
• Jonathan F. Mummolo
• Hye Young You

Assistant Professor

• Benjamin H. Bradlow
• Tanushree Goyal
• Naima N. Green-Riley
• John R. Grigsby
• Saad A. Gulzar
• Allan Hsiao
• Patricia A. Kirkland
• Aleksandra Korolova
• Jonathan Mayer
• Rebecca L. Perlman
• Karthik A. Sastry
• Maria Micaela Sviatschi
• Guadalupe Tuñón
• Andreas B. Wiedemann

Associated Faculty

• Alison E. Isenberg, History
• Guy J.P. Nordenson, Architecture

Lecturer with Rank of Professor

• Robert L. Hutchings
• Ethan Kapstein
• Stanley N. Katz
• W Bentley MacLeod

Professor of the Practice

• Heather H. Howard
• Alicia Adsera
• Frederick D. Barton
• Barbara C. Buckinx
• Andrew Buher
• Selene Campion
• Wendy Castillo
• Alan R. Chernoff
• Ramon J. Cruz Diaz
• Lauren Davis
• Lynda G. Dodd
• Kathleen Donnelly
• Darcie Draudt-Véjares
• Edward P. Freeland
• Varun Gauri
• Arbel Griner
• Jean B. Grossman
• William G. Guthe
• Razia Iqbal
• Gregory B. Jaczko
• Tessie Krishna
• Daniel C. Kurtzer
• John A. Maldonado
• Elliot J. Mamet
• Anastasia Mann
• Babak Manouchehrifar
• Carol L Martin
• Daniel J. Meuse
• Ashoka Mody
• Amal Mudallali
• Timothy J. Nelson
• Deborah N. Pearlstein
• Minh-Thu D. Pham
• Juan C. Pinzon
• Dafna H. Rand
• Etienne Rosas
• Kenneth Roth
• Timothy D. Searchinger
• Thomas A. Shannon
• Arian M. Sharifi
• Alyssa B. Sharkey
• Tsering Wangyal Shawa
• Sam van Noort

Visiting Professor

• Martin S. Flaherty

Visiting Associate Professor

• Alisa C. Lewin

Visiting Assistant Professor

• Melissa M. Valle

Visiting Lecturer

• Eduardo Bhatia
• Martha B. Coven
• Mickey Edwards
• David Ehrenberg
• Brian Kelly
• Robert Malley
• Steven Strauss
• Leonor Tomero

For a full list of faculty members and fellows please visit the department or program website.

SPI 200 - Statistics for Social Science Spring QCR

Spi 201 - introduction to urban studies (also arc 207/soc 203/urb 201) spring sa, spi 211 - introduction to quantitative social science (also pol 345/soc 305) fall qcr, spi 301 - policy task force spring, spi 304 - microeconomics for public policy spring sa, spi 306 - environmental economics (also eco 329/env 319) fall sa, spi 309 - international trade (also eco 352) spring sa, spi 310 - american politics (also pol 220) fall sa, spi 311 - the politics of development (also las 371/pol 351) spring sa, spi 312 - international relations (also pol 240) spring sa, spi 315 - grand strategy (also pol 393) not offered this year sa, spi 319 - human rights (also pol 380) spring sa, spi 323 - chinese politics (also eas 362/pol 362) not offered this year sa, spi 325 - introduction to comparative politics (also pol 230) fall sa, spi 330 - population, society and public policy (also soc 328) not offered this year sa, spi 331 - race and public policy (also aas 317/pol 343/soc 312) not offered this year sa, spi 334 - media and public policy (also soc 319) not offered this year sa, spi 339 - american society and politics (also soc 201) not offered this year sa, spi 340 - the psychology of decision making and judgment (also psy 321) spring ec, spi 350 - the environment: science and policy (also env 350) not offered this year sen, spi 351 - information technology and public policy (also cos 351/soc 353) not offered this year sa, spi 353 - science and global security: from nuclear weapons to cyberwarfare and artificial intelligence (also mae 353) not offered this year sen, spi 355 - infection: biology, burden, policy (also ghp 425/mol 425) not offered this year sen, spi 367 - latin american politics (also las 367/pol 367) not offered this year sa, spi 370 - ethics and public policy (also chv 301/pol 308) fall em, spi 380 - critical perspectives in global health policy (also ghp 350) fall sa, spi 381 - epidemiology: unpacking health with classic tools, ecology and evolution (also eeb 351/ghp 351) spring, spi 388 - causes of war (also pol 388) fall sa, spi 389 - race, drugs, and drug policy in america (also aas 393/ams 423/his 393) spring ha, spi 401 - policy seminars fall, spi 406 - issues in environmental and natural resource economics (also eco 429) not offered this year sa, spi 421 - comparative constitutional law (also chv 470/pol 479) spring sa, spi 424 - seminar in comparative politics (also pol 430) fall sa, spi 425 - seminar in comparative politics (also las 390/pol 431) spring sa, spi 426 - seminar in comparative politics (also pol 432) spring sa, spi 451 - climate change: impacts, adaptation, policy (also ene 366/env 339/geo 366) spring sen, spi 452 - global environmental issues (also cee 334/ene 334/env 334) spring sen, spi 455 - disease ecology, economics, and policy (also eco 328/eeb 304/env 304) fall sen, spi 466 - financial history (also his 467) not offered this year ha, spi 481 - special topics in institutions and networks (also soc 481/urb 481) spring sa.

SPIA Policy Task Force

February 17, 2021.

One of the main reasons I chose to concentrate in the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) is the format of the junior papers (JPs) . In one semester, juniors enroll in a research seminar, in which students learn quantitative and qualitative research methods and then write a research-based JP. In the other semester, juniors have a policy task force, which involves writing a JP that makes recommendations about the best ways to address important public policy problems affecting society today. As I was deciding which department to concentrate in, the policy task force excited me because it would allow me to gain practical skills in policy research and development. I just finished my task force and greatly learned and benefited from this experience. 

My task force was called Improving Health Care for Vulnerable Populations in the U.S. During the COVID-19 Pandemic and it was taught by Heather Howard, lecturer in SPIA and former Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services. One of the coolest parts of the task force is that they are often taught by people with real-world experience in the subject being studied. Professor Howard has an amazing breadth of knowledge and I learned so much from her. Our class only had nine students, so we all had the opportunity to get to know each other and contribute to class discussions.

It was fascinating to study the pandemic as it was unfolding in front of us. Each week, we talked about a different theme, ranging from racial disparities in health outcomes to vaccination strategies to maternal mortality. I was inspired by a discussion of the disproportionate impact the virus has had on people residing in long-term care facilities such as nursing homes. I wrote my JP on the importance of home and community-based services, which ensure that senior citizens and people with disabilities can receive support and assistance at home in a way that maximizes independence and prioritizes safety. I conducted research on how other states provide home and community-based services in order to make recommendations for the state of New Jersey.

In the last week of the semester, my classmates and I presented our recommendations to a group of stakeholders who work at the New Jersey Department of Health. It was incredible to be able to discuss our research findings with the people in charge of making decisions about the state’s health care system. They listened to what we had to say and will hopefully keep our research in mind going forward.

Because of my task force, I feel more comfortable researching and evaluating the best policy proposals to solve a problem. I plan to use these skills in my senior thesis and future career in policy and advocacy. This experience confirmed to me that I made the right choice in concentrating in SPIA.

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Center on Contemporary China

Senior thesis funding and award.

The Center has sponsored Princeton students senior thesis work.  Please see below for the senior theses that focus on the study of contemporary China by our students.  You will also find the recipients of the Jennifer Wythes Vettel '86 Senior Thesis Award, which is given to one student annually who has an exemplary student record as well as a deserving senior thesis topic.

Natalia Lalin ‘24 | SPIA

"The Pearl of the Indian Ocean: A Case Study of the Impact of China’s Belt and Road Initiative on Sri Lanka"

In her senior thesis, Lalin provides a nuanced analysis of the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) through a focused case study of Sri Lanka, a country whose engagement with the project was painted as nothing more than a cautionary tale by Western media. By challenging these prevalent narratives and exploring the country-specific context related to BRI, this thesis reveals the true, complex story of BRI in Sri Lanka, examining its economic, political, and human rights impact on citizens. Motivated by a notable gap in the literature on BRI in Sri Lanka and a commitment to elevating Sri Lankan perspectives on this issue, the thesis employs a qualitative model composed of in-depth interviews conducted over the course of a two-week field research trip to Colombo, with a range of stakeholders, including politicians, diplomats, business leaders, and community advocates. These interviews provide insight into what elite opinion makers in Sri Lanka believe are BRI’s most significant consequences.  Contrary to initial assumptions, the findings of this study suggest a mixed impact that was not uniformly negative. While some projects brought economic benefits to citizens and spurred competition, others resulted in ‘white elephant projects’ which exaggerated Sri Lankan debt. Politically, BRI stirred domestic unrest but also catalyzed movements for accountability that were long overdue. Its human rights impact remains largely negative as a result of significant environmental degradation, potential media censorship, and concerns around labor rights. Beyond its findings specific to Sri Lanka, the work hopes to underscore the importance of community consultation and local perspectives in international development projects, emphasizing the need for greater accountability, transparency, and consideration. 

Koji Kawamoto ‘24 | SPIA

“What the Taiwanese Want From America: Taiwanese Public Opinion on the Recent U.S. - Taiwan Relationship”

In his senior thesis, Kawamoto addresses the research question: What does the Taiwanese public want out of the recent U.S.-Taiwan relationship? Taiwan, or the Republic of China (ROC), has been a longstanding key partner of the United States since the end of WWII despite the U.S. decision to switch its official recognition of China from the ROC to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in the 1970s.  Besides, the U.S. government has increased its engagement with Taiwan in recent years amidst the intensifying U.S.-China bipolarity as well as the worldwide shortages of semiconductors, whose major manufacturers are concentrated in Taiwan. While this deepening of the U.S.-Taiwan relationship seems beneficial for the future development of the two societies, there is a growing skepticism among Taiwanese citizens toward the United States (“疑美論” in Mandarin). Surprisingly, there are few scholarly works that explore Taiwanese public opinion on the recent U.S.-Taiwan relationship in-depth. Therefore, Kawamoto developed two self-designed research projects measuring Taiwanese public opinion to better understand Taiwanese skepticism toward the United States while also filling a gap in scholarship that pays scant attention to the voice of the Taiwanese people.

The research consisted of an online poll survey in Taiwan in October 2023 (n = 1,049) and a series of street interviews in five major cities in Taiwan between December 2023 and January 2024 (n = 80). The results of these empirical and qualitative analyses were striking. The empirical analysis found that although the Taiwanese people were generally in favor of the recent U.S.-Taiwan relationship, their approval of military, political, and scientific cooperation between America and Taiwan was relatively lower and it seemed to decrease their overall rating of the bilateral relationship. Likewise, the qualitative analysis revealed that whereas most Taiwanese citizens have due appreciation to the United States for its longstanding support for the island, they also question the ways in which the U.S.-Taiwan relationship has been handled recently. Interviewees expressed their skepticism toward and dissatisfaction with U.S. intentions, adverse effects of the engagement on the Cross-Strait relationship, and an unequal power dynamic between the two governments.

These findings not only cast doubt on the foreign policy ethics of the U.S. government but also warn Washington of repeating past mistakes by ignoring foreign public sentiment and producing national security threats, such as in Iran and some Latin American countries. Based on these concerns, Kawamoto provides four strategic implications for the U.S. government. First, it should investigate why military, political, and scientific cooperation is not appealing to Taiwanese citizens. Second, it should clearly communicate the purpose of its engagement with Taiwan. Third, it should expand its soft power engagement, which the Taiwanese people believe will increase mutual benefits between the two parties. Fourth, American politicians should consider revising their assumption about Taiwanese preoccupation with various threats from the PRC. Modifications of the U.S.-Taiwan policies based on these suggestions will reinforce the relationship between the two democracies and allow them to flourish even more in the future.

Johanne Kjaersgaard ‘23 | History

“Transnational Production, Sovereignty and the Zone: Transformation of Hong KongOriginated Manufacturing, 1970s–90s”

In her senior thesis, Kjaersgaard traces the evolution and practices of “Hong Kong’s own USstyle multinationals” from the 1970s through the 1990s, seeking to “follow the goods” and investigate the restructuring of Hong Kong manufacturing across the Chinese border. She assesses the nonlinear impacts of integration on Hong Kong-originated production systems. The study specifically sheds light on the ways in which the cementing of Hong Kong as an international center of finance and trade coincided with, what she hypothesizes to be, new systems of production. She seeks to approach Hong Kong from the perspective of the rise of multinational corporations and their relationship to questions of sovereignty, special economic zones, and global supply chains, applying this literature to the case of Hong Kong manufacturing. This research will have implications not only for how we make sense of Hong Kong’s economic growth, suggesting ways in which we might rethink “deindustrialization” as a restructuring toward cross-border production and seeking to offer insights on the specifics of this development but also speak to trends of global trade and interdependence more broadly.

Owen Matthews ‘22 | Politics and Recipient of the Jennifer Wythes Vettel Senior Thesis Award 2021-22

“Effect of Chinese Government Online Public Diplomacy on Attitudes toward China”

In her senior thesis, Matthews conducts a multi-country survey experiment testing the persuasive power of the Chinese government's online public diplomacy. Her research question addresses the question of how the Chinese Communist Party’s tweets impact viewers’ attitudes toward China and the United States. Specifically, does the impact vary by nation and tweet content? Does it matter if the tweet comes from a source that is clearly identifiable as state-affiliated? Public diplomacy is seen by both academics and governments as one of the most valuable tools for enhancing a country’s soft power—i.e., its ability to “entice and attract” the foreign public in order to achieve its international goals. The United States spent $2.8 billion on public diplomacy in 2017. The CCP spent over $10 billion. Since 2015, the CCP’s public diplomacy efforts have rapidly expanded, garnering attention from governments, journalists, and academics around the globe. The US government seems particularly concerned that the CCP’s public diplomacy strategy could give it an advantage in the “competition” to influence countries in Africa and South America, and ultimately, the competition for power on a global scale. Dozens of studies have been devoted to studying the CCP’s public diplomacy strategy and reach. However, only a handful of studies investigate arguably the most important question about these efforts: do they work?

Amy Wang ‘22 | SPIA

“Chinese Vaccine Diplomacy”

Wang studied the mechanisms and outcomes of China’s COVID-19 vaccine diplomacy. Because China’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution has been global, directly impacting 115 countries, many popular news and trade presses have sought to understand the tangible impact of its vaccine diplomacy. In spite of heightened attention to this issue, there is relatively little research on how China’s vaccine diplomacy has performed, especially in expanding its influence and soft power abroad. To contribute to these conversations, her main research question is: How effective have Chinese COVID-19 vaccine sales and donations been at improving attitudes towards China? The two sub-questions explored under this are: 1) Does receiving a Chinese vaccine change individual attitudes towards China? And 2) Does news coverage of Chinese vaccine exports to one’s country change individual attitudes toward China?

Florence Wang ‘21 | SPIA

“The Rise and Drivers of Nationalistic Sentiment in Contemporary China”

In her senior thesis, Wang explores the conventional wisdom of “rising nationalism” in contemporary China. Since the early 1990s, “rising nationalism” has become a major meme in commentary on China’s development, and is often perceived in the West as a destabilizing force for international security that needs to be contained. However, reports and analysis on this topic frequently do not provide systematic evidence that Chinese nationalism is in fact rising. To the extent that there is evidence, it is ethnographic (and based on small numbers of non-random interviews) or non-generalizable (analysis conducted on geographically specific samples, such as the Beijing Area Survey) in nature. Her research aims to contribute to existing literature through asking whether Chinese nationalism is in fact rising and, if so, what the drivers are.

Eliot Chen, Politics ‘20 and Recipient of the Jennifer Wythes Vettel '86 Senior Thesis Award “Information Manipulation and Public Opinion in China”

In my senior thesis, I intend to examine positive information manipulation in China and its effect on public opinion. Recent scholarship on information manipulation in China has primarily looked at the effect of negative information manipulation (e.g. censorship), but apart from King et al.’s paper, little work has been done on the effect of positive information manipulation (e.g. propaganda). Researchers in Princeton’s Department of Sociology have recently begun looking at this kind of information manipulation through 7 years of Chinese print newspaper data. Drawing on ongoing research by Professors Brandon Stewart (Department of Sociology) and Margaret Roberts (UCSD), as well as Hannah Waight (GS, Sociology), my thesis aims to examine two questions: (1) To what extent do consumers of the news recognize evidence of media manipulation? and (2) How effective is positive information manipulation at regulating public confidence in the Chinese government? My thesis consists of two main sections, only the second of which requires funding, to support the disbursal of small financial awards to reward participation in an online survey experiment. The funding that I received from the Center on Contemporary China was to pay participants to take a 10-minute original online survey. I wrote and designed the survey for the purpose of collecting public opinion data from Chinese citizens. Originally, I planned to deploy the survey exclusively on witmart.com, a survey platform operating as a subsidiary of zbj.com, a popular mainland Chinese task outsourcing program designed for North American employers. Prior research conducted by Li et al. (2018) found that witmart.com respondents are not nationally representative but that they are broadly representative of the demographics of Chinese internet users. I decided to use witmart.com after receiving advice from a graduate student who had successfully used the platform to obtain survey responses. With the collected data, I plan to conduct OLS regressions with the purpose of examining the relationship between newspaper source attribution and public trust in reported statistics in China. The treatment in this experiment is ‘source attribution,’ for which there are 4 treatments and 1 control condition.

Naomi Cohen-Shields, WWS ‘20 “Socioeconomic Status and Air Pollution Disparities Across Chinese” I am proposing to explore the relationship between air pollution exposure and socioeconomic levels in China, using data, policy, and ethical analyses. My research trip to China over Winter Break proved very productive and beneficial towards my research. In Beijing, I spoke to the Dean of the School of the Environment at Peking University about the multitude of factors that impact the creation/spread of air pollution. He helped me to gain a much more concrete understanding of the problem, and it was important ethically and culturally to learn from an academic studying the problem in-country and with personal experiences that inform his research/knowledge. I also spoke to several residents of Beijing, some of whom had lived there a long time and others who were there only temporarily, and discussed their perceptions of air quality improvements in Beijing, comparisons with other regions, and what they know about the roots of the air pollution problem and what the Chinese governments are doing to address it. Being in Beijing (and the rest of the cities) and walking around also opened my eyes to the fluctuations in air quality: there were blue skies on the day I arrived, but the haze had descended by the time I left five days later. That perspective helped me understand why it can be hard to fully draw people's attention to an issue. In Xi'an, I actually witnessed the most smog of my whole trip. During the train ride there, I could see the gradual buildup of pollution amidst the dry agricultural landscape. And driving around the Xi'an region, there were times when nearby skyscrapers were completely obscured. While in Xi'an, I also travelled to a village outside of the city and learned about efforts to remove coal-based stoves/heating appliances and replace them with electric ones. I heard a lot about government policies for rural China, and about the village-district governance structure. Learning about these issues from citizens' perspectives was really enlightening, especially as I could gain insight into the elements they emphasized more or less. In Chongqing, I gained an appreciation for the difficulty of distinguishing between fog and smog: the city (surrounded by mountains and straddling two intersecting rivers) is known as the 'city of fog' and well deserves that name. However, studies show that a certain amount of that is smog as well. I met with professors in Atmospheric Chemistry at Southwest University, located outside of the more highly populated downtown city area. They explained their work to me in analyzing pollutants at the regional level in order to evaluate the primary pollution sources in that area. I got to see the equipment they use to do this and to hear how their results differ from those in other regions of China. This was especially important because the Chongqing/Chengdu region could be considered the fourth major metropolis region in China, yet public and governmental attention primarily only goes to the top three regions. I also learned a lot about the important relevance of geological factors to air pollution concentrations, factors that are quite hard to control. Lastly, my time in Guangzhou revealed just how stark the differences are across the country. Located on the Southern coast, Guangzhou has had historically lower emissions than northern cities because of less of a need to burn coal for heating. Even so, I learned from people there that the government in Guangzhou has also been taking important strides towards improving air quality. And my time in Guangzhou also showed me how widespread the popular attention to air pollution is: people I talked to there were still unhappy with their air quality, even if it is primarily better than in other major cities in China. All of this information that I gathered informs the context and background for my research. It has helped me design my data analysis, by distinguishing key factors to heed in analyses of regional differences. It has also helped direct me in my policy overview and emphasized the importance of understanding regional policy differences and cooperative schemes. I plan to incorporate the observation data collected on this trip into the background and discussion sections of my thesis.

Jack Tait, Politics ‘20 “China's Belt and Road Initiative” For my senior thesis research, I travelled to Cape Town, South Africa, to conduct interviews regarding the motivations, outcomes, and opportunities or threats of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. The interviews that I conducted were extremely helpful in providing me with a new perspective on the Belt and Road Initiative. I spoke to professors and businesspeople to establish perspectives on the Belt and Road that differ from those in the US and the West more generally. The main significance of this research was providing new ideas on the potential opportunities created by the Belt and Road Initiative. Much of the news coverage and political discussions of the Belt and Road Initiative in the US has focused on the potential threats posed by the initiative. This mainly concerns fears over China trapping recipient countries in debt and potentially creating a form of neo-colonialism when countries are unable to repay debt. However, going to South Africa and conducting interviews provided an extremely useful new perspective. The interviewees all emphasized the massive opportunity that this initiative creates for developing countries. Chinese loans through the initiative are on an unparalleled scale and come with very few aspects of conditionality compared to comparable loans and financing offered through the IMF and World Bank. The interviews gave me a wonderful chance to see that the Belt and Road Initiative is a lifeline that many developing countries see as a vital mechanism for their development. Not only was this an interesting experience, it has also massively impacted the argument direction in my thesis. Before conducting these interviews, I was mainly viewing the initiative through a US-centric lens and therefore focusing on the threats that it poses. However, the interviews that I conducted have allowed me to also argue from the perspective of developing countries who view the initiative much more positively. Incorporating these interviews into my thesis, I now plan to use the interviews to separate my argument into three sections based on three different perspectives: a US perspective, a Chinese perspective, and a recipient country’s perspective. The recipient country’s perspective has been largely informed by the interviews that I conducted in South Africa. Every person that I spoke to emphasized the importance of the Belt and Road Initiative as a massive opportunity for developing countries to gain access to crucial financial assistance to build much needed infrastructure projects. This is not something that usually gets discussed in the US, and conducting the interviews has changed my planned overall argument for my thesis as a result of showing me this new perspective. I was also able to visit the sites of some Chinese investment in Cape Town, which gave me a wonderful first-hand experience of the opportunities offered by Chinese financial assistance. Thank you again to everyone involved in making this funding available for my thesis research. It has truly changed the way that I will go about writing my thesis and it would not have been possible without the Paul and Marcia Wythes Center and WWS’s generosity.

Sophia Chen, ORFE ’19 “Demystifying the Chinese Housing Boom and its Risks to China’s Macroeconomy” Chen travelled to China to conduct research for her senior thesis, which is focused on the effects of credit risk related to Chinese real estate development companies on the Chinese real estate market (i.e., housing prices) and the greater Chinese macroeconomy. Her research consisted of visiting and collaborating with four professors at leading Chinese universities in Hong Kong and Beijing. She returned from her trip with a revised and more focused research question, quality data on Chinese real estate companies’ financial statements, city-level housing prices (which only Chinese universities have access to), and connections with leading professors and researchers in the field of Chinese real estate finance. Prior to this journey, Chen had looked into many different data sources for Chinese real estate market data, but was not able to find any that were reliable and fit her research area of interest. Meeting with local experts allowed her to find the relevant datasets for her thesis research. Her thesis may be found here:  http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01k0698b360

Nina Sheridan, Politics ‘19 "Forum for American-Chinese Exchange in Beijing"  The Forum for American/Chinese Student Exchange (FACES) is a two-part conference focused on bringing together student leaders from the U.S. and China. The conference includes lectures on politics, tech, healthcare, and urbanization, as well as a trip to visit the Beijing-based bike sharing company Ofo. FACES hopes to encourage open discussions and connect students with established or potential leaders. This is a unique opportunity to make connections with professionals and student leaders in China and learn from a well-established organization whose conference spans two continents. I hope to use this conference for making connections for my senior thesis. As co-president of Princeton U.S. China Coalition, I plan to improve our own spring conference and ensure our delegates gain as much out of their time there. 

Angela Feng, Independent Study-Linguistics ’19 "Grammatical Particles in Tujia" The goal of this work is to provide an account of the tonal behavior of certain grammatical particles in Tujia, a language spoken by the Tujia ethnic minority of China. The only existing in-depth analysis of tone sandhi in particles can be found in Xu and Lu (2005), in which there is an attempt to group tonal behaviors that cover a rather random assortment of words. Tujia is spoken in south-central China, in the provinces of Hunan, Hubei, and Guizhou, as well as Chongqing municipality. Though the Tujia people number among the millions and are one of the largest ethnic minority groups in China, less than 1% of their population speaks the language. Feng’s research question is about the role of particles in Tujia. These “particles” perform a variety of grammatical functions but have not yet been systematically analyzed. Tujia is one of the many languages in China that are currently vanishing due to the pressures of Mandarin Chinese, and its ethnic people have no desire to revitalize it. All research that can be done on this language must thus be done now, because no one knows how much longer it will be around. Thesis: http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp015138jh712

P.J. James Greenbaum, WWS ’19 “The East is Red (Ink): China, Aid, and Debt Diplomacy in Sub-Saharan Africa” China’s challenge to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)-led donor regime in sub-Saharan Africa has piqued the interest of a small army of Western academics, many of whom argue that China gives development aid to Africa as a means to secure natural resources and political influence in recipient countries. Greenbaum investigates how recipient country domestic politics – in this case the degree of ethnopolitical competition in sub-Saharan African countries – influences the allocation of Chinese foreign aid. Funding from the Center was provided for fieldwork in Kenya, where Greenbaum considered the following questions: What is the impact of Chinese Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) on ethnic politicking in Kenya? How have the benefits from Chinese FDI in Kenya been distributed amongst the various ethnic coalitions in Kenya? What political strings have been attached to the Chinese aid and investment? Can FDI function in a manner similar to a “resource curse,” and if so, what policies can work to make FDI function more equitably? Greenbaum found, after a month of field work in Kenya and Tanzania, that Chinese aid had been captured by the ruling political coalition in Kenya but not by that in Tanzania. In return for billions of Chinese aid dollars for unprofitable “prestige projects,” leaders of Kenya and Tanzania have tied their developmental models to China at the expense of their country’s economic futures, all while strengthening their own coalition’s hold on political power and increasing ethnic divisiveness. Thesis: http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01tb09j8501

Frances Ash Lodge, WWS ’19 “The Decline of Chinese International Adoption” Since the inception of the intercountry adoption program in 1992, China has sent over 130,000 children abroad for intercountry adoption. Today, however, adoptions from China are increasingly rare; since their peak in 2005, intercountry adoptions from China have fallen by nearly 85%. Little consensus exists among those who study and work in adoption as to what is driving this dramatic decline. This thesis ultimately argues that the Chinese adoption landscape has existed as an institutional buffer to external demographic, economic and political forces. Lodge shows how the adoption landscape has absorbed – and therefore evidences – these three separate historical forces: first, China’s growing population and the demographic consequences of its history of birth planning; second, its improving economic conditions and the accompanying socioeconomic developments; and third, China’s rising stature on the international political stage. The implications of this argument are vast. If we are to accept that the adoption landscape can serve as a type of indicator of these internal changes, current and future shifts within the adoption landscape should be understood as a useful window into internal developments in China. Furthermore, this suggests that the Chinese institution of adoption, as it has existed since the early 1990s, has frequently deferred to other interests and concerns besides those of the children involved. Thesis:  http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01fx719q31h

Samuel Rasmussen, WWS ’19 “Chinese Soft Power Campaigns in Response to BRI-Critical Countries Reaching Out to the West” Rasmussen attempts to understand and explain how China conceives of and uses soft power and its strengths and weaknesses in the soft power arena. He uses concrete examples from Uzbekistan and Myanmar to back up his theoretical claims. Both of these countries are looking for more international partners, and China is either competing to be one of those partners, in the case of Uzbekistan, or retaining its place as the predominant international partner, in the case of Myanmar. Rasmussen’s purpose in going to Uzbekistan was to understand how China is pitching itself in that country, how the Chinese interact with local people, and what the strengths or weaknesses of China’s current approach are. He learned that China does not have a significant image problem in Uzbekistan, and the majority of Uzbeks are planning on adopting a wait-and-see approach to Chinese investment. If it is good for Uzbekistan, then they are completely supportive of Chinese investment. One particularly useful aspect of the trip was that it provided convincing evidence that China largely focuses its soft power efforts on convincing elites based on the theory that elite opinion will trickle down and influence popular opinion – in much the same way that the Confucian principle of hierarchical relations operates domestically in China. Chinese public diplomacy is rather limited, most likely because Uzbekistan lacks the civil society necessary to influence public opinion, and thus China focuses its energies on elites. In particular, China sponsors development-focused trips for political party leaders and business people to convince them that it can do tremendous things for them and their country economically, and that they should therefore throw their support behind increased Chinese engagement. This elite-engagement soft power strategy—markedly different from the West’s—played a major role in Rasmussen’s thesis, which can be found here:  http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01bz60d011t

Catherine Wang, ORFE ’19 “School Zone Scramble; How Beijing’s Changing Education Policy Impacts Housing Prices” Surging housing prices in Chinese cities like Beijing have raised concerns about asset bubbles and housing affordability. Beijing has typically directly regulated housing market growth using Home Purchase Restriction (HPR) policies (increasing down payments, restricting eligibility), the effects of which have been measured in existing literature. However, in Beijing, public education accessibility also has a strong impact on the housing market, as parents bid up home prices near top primary schools as a way to guarantee enrollment. In April 2017, due to concerns about the financial risks associated with speculation on “school district houses,” the Beijing Municipal Government announced that buying an apartment would no longer guarantee enrollment in top ranked public schools and added an element of randomization to school district assignment in each of the six core districts. This thesis is the first to specifically examine how an indirect perturbation, i.e., Beijing’s April 2017 education policy change (AEP), affects the Beijing housing market. Wang found support for the existing scholarly consensus that access to higher quality schools positively impacts housing prices. Furthermore, she shows that districts with higher average and lower variance in education quality are less impacted by the April education policy change. She also found evidence that the lag between the April 2017 policy announcement and June 2017 implementation strongly affects buyer behavior, as she identifies a price spike for certain homes. She attributes this spike to buyers feeling more urgency to buy “at-risk” homes that previously guaranteed access to top primary schools before the new policy change goes into effect. Thesis: http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01sf2687954

Shobhit Kumar, WWS ‘19 "Explaining Judicial Transparency: An Examination of the Digitization of Court Cases in China"  In 2013, the Chinese government began releasing digitized copies of court cases in a seeming move of judicial transparency. Millions of case rulings can now be accessed via a regularly-updated online database. However, there is a discrepancy between the number of actual court cases and the number published in this database. Moreover, the discrepancies vary widely between provinces. This poses the questions: (1) What explains the discrepancy between provinces? (2) Why are certain court cases not published? (3) Are certain types of cases being obfuscated? 

Cadee Qiu, WWS ‘18 "Black vs Green: China's exportation of Renewable and Non-Renewable energy and its drivers and implications"  Over the last couple decades, China has become the top energy consumer and has made incredible commitments to reduce its carbon emissions and increase its use of renewable energies. While China is making strides in renewable energy, it is also financing the construction of coal power plants abroad, especially in neighboring Asian countries. This thesis will examine the drivers behind the export of renewable and non-renewable technologies since 2000 and determine how policymakers can influence China to curb export of non-renewable energy technologies and focus on the development and export of renewables instead. 

Guoen Sheng, EAS Dept ‘18 "Analysis of Atmospheric Water Generation as An Innovative Solution to Chinese Water Crisis"  China is facing a water crisis, and the government is spending upwards of $100 billion to build a massive canal. Water from the southern region is being piped to the North. However, this solution is expensive, time consuming and has many unforeseen social and environmental costs. More importantly, it does not look at the behavior and policy that is contributing to the water crisis. My senior thesis will look to address the water crisis through the lens of an innovative technology known as atmospheric water generation. Atmospheric water generation takes air humidity and turns it into high quality potable water. It is potentially be revolutionary to water production in China. My research will focus on the potential of this technology to complement existing solutions to the water problem. I will be looking at government policy, cost effectiveness, consumer behavior, and environmental suitability. My fieldwork will involve working with NGOs that provide clean water, investment and technology sector to gain a comprehensive understanding and analysis of the water crisis. 

Julie Goldstein, East Asian Studies Department ‘18 "Children's Health Education in China"  For my senior thesis, I will explore how children receive information about health and what is included in this information. I am specifically interested in understanding how children are taught about physical education, public health, and hygiene. I am conducting my research from an anthropological perspective: how does the information received by a person affect their understanding of the body and personal identity, their identity in relation to others, and identity in relation to their nation? My research will include interviewing faculty of elementary schools and middle schools in Beijing, NGO employees involved in health education, as well as university students. 

Vanessa Kiem Nhu Phan, Politics ‘18 "Understanding Diversionary Foreign Policy and Leadership Transitions in China"  My thesis explores changes in foreign policy during political transition periods in China. While research on nationalist sentiment and diversionary foreign policy in China exists, little research has been completed on how foreign policy rhetoric changes with leadership succession at the highest level. Does China’s norm-bound leadership succession influence the way that the CCP approaches foreign policy during periods of political vulnerability for the authoritarian regime? My thesis poses the “rally” theory should not hold in the case of China. To test this hypothesis, two lines of analyses will be conducted to test the change in the dependent variable of foreign policy rhetoric against the independent variable of leadership transition periods. First, to determine whether covariation exists between these two variables, content analysis of The People’s Daily from 2001-2012 will be conducted to quantify changes in tone and sentiment in articles mentioning the sensitive foreign policy areas of Taiwan, South Korea or Japan. Secondly, to get a better picture of how other factors influence foreign policy rhetoric, qualitative analyses of pertinent factors such as domestic sentiment, the policy of other states towards China, and international bargaining incentives will be carried out over the same timespan.

  Eric Wang, WWS ‘18 "The Impact of “One Belt One Road” on Chinese Judicial Reform"  In light of the SPC’s recent developments, my thesis examines the window of opportunity in judicial reform, as presented by OBOR, by asking: What impact has China’s One Belt One Road initiative had on China’s own judicial system? 

Matthew Troiani, EAS ‘18 "The Lingua-Cultural Effects of Mainland Chinese Immigrants on Cultural Identity in Hong Kong"  Language choice has become a topic of immediate interest in the determination of Hong Kong’s cultural sovereignty. As an increasing flood of talent from mainland China enters the Hong Kong workforce, many Hong Kongers find themselves in a struggle for cultural identity. This struggle is most saliently seen in linguistic preference and priority in the workplace, as workers’ choice of language has been shown to affect perceptions of identity, culture and opportunities for career advancement. However, with the recent influx of mainland Chinese, Mandarin has stolen much attention from English as a lingua franca. Analyzing the drivers, effects, and trajectory of this linguistic evolution will play a key role in illustrating how cultural identity in Hong Kong is evolving due to its ever-changing relationship with mainland China. In order to examine how demographics have changed and, in turn, evaluate how the Mandarin/English as a lingua franca tradeoff is affecting cultural identity, this research will survey finance professionals in Hong Kong from various lingua-cultural backgrounds.

Idir Aitsahalia, Economics ‘18 "Airline Finance and Public Policy in China"  I attended an annual aviation industry and policy conference, the Routes Asia Conference in Brisbane, Australia in March 2018 ( http://www.routesonline.com/events/191/routes-asia-2018/ ). This conference is a major forum where airports and local governments try to convince airline route planners to launch air service and add capacity into their cities, in order to help the local economy. Representatives from 100 airlines and 200 airports participated. Launching a new route is a significant financial investment for an airline, as is expanding or renovating an airport for a local authority, so much analysis and many financial incentives go into the decision process. This conference will also help me for my academic research, since I am doing certificates in Finance and East Asian Studies, and am writing an independent research paper on airline finance and public policy in China. 

Vera Lummis, WWS ‘18 Implications of the new Foreign NGO Law in China on the Political and Operational Climate for Foreign" Environmental NGOs in Beijing"  This thesis will look at China’s “Law on Administration of Activities of Overseas Nongovernmental Organizations,” otherwise known as the new Foreign NGO Law. It will examine how the law has affected the political and operational climate for environmental foreign NGOs (ENGOs) in Beijing, as well as the law’s broader implications for civil society development on the Mainland. The central questions of this thesis are: (1) How does this law fit into the Communist Party’s broader efforts to increase political and legal control? (2) How does this law affect different stakeholders in the ENGO community and their relations with the government? (3) How are different types of ENGOs shifting their strategies?

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ENV Senior Thesis Research 2023

Laura Zhang

Hi everyone! I'm Laura, and I'm a sophmore from Sydney, Australia. I'm planning on majoring in SPIA with minors in Humanistic Studies, European Cultural Studies, and Values and Public Life.

On campus, I'm involved with the Princeton Debate Panel as the Social Media and Marketing Chair and Social Chair, Model United Nations, Davis International Center as a Student Leader, The Daily Princetonian's Prospect section as a Staff Writer, Service Focus, the Humanities Sequence as a mentor, and the Princeton Legal Journal. 

I really love art, making matcha, cooking, karaoke, and (no surprise) writing! I would love to talk to you if you have any questions about Princeton or want to discuss anything I've brought up in my blogs -- feel free to reach me through my email. Happy reading!!

More Stories

A love letter to maruichi, my summer internship in kuala lumpur, malaysia, the princeton debate panel in ho chi minh city, vietnam, the humanities sequence trip in sicily, italy.

Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies

Gss awards the 2024 suzanne m. huffman memorial senior thesis prize.

GSS awards the 2024 Suzanne M. Huffman Memorial Senior Thesis Prize to Alice McGuinness (History) for their thesis: “CARCERAL KIN: Motherhood, Personhood, and Colonial Law in Bengal c. 1860–1900” and to Mirabella Smith (Politics) for their thesis: “The Political Heterosexual Matrix - Gender and Political Office as Co-Constituting Sites of Performative Subjectivity.”

Congratulations to you both!

Princeton University

These princeton students are raising the bar for accessible satellite technology.

By Molly Sharlach

June 6, 2024

Shannen Prindle, who graduated from Princeton in 2023 with a degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering, tested three student-built systems for small satellites on board a Zero-G research flight. Photo credit: Zero Gravity Corporation and Steve Boxall

The capstone of Shannen Prindle’s Princeton experience came nearly a year after she graduated. It began with a sensation of falling toward the ceiling, and ended with a game of grabbing floating jellybeans and globs of water in mid-air.

These otherworldly episodes bookended some serious engineering tests. This spring, Prindle , who graduated from Princeton in 2023 with a degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering (MAE), boarded a Zero-G research flight in Florida. Her aim was to test three student-built systems for small satellites called CubeSats , which are about the size of a loaf of bread. The flight consisted of 30 parabolic cycles that simulated space flight by allowing passengers (and their experiments) to experience weightlessness.

Prindle now works as a launch tower engineer for SpaceX’s Starship , which is the largest rocket ever built and could someday serve as a reusable vehicle for satellite launches and missions to the moon.

“When I started at Princeton, I didn’t even think I wanted to major in MAE, but I slowly discovered that I really like hands-on mechanical and structural engineering, and space systems,” she said.

As a first-year student, Prindle attended an interest meeting for the Princeton Rocketry Club , where she heard a talk by Michael Galvin . A senior technical staff member in MAE, Galvin had recently launched the TigerSats lab. He showed students how they could create their own systems for small satellites to withstand launch and collect images and data in low Earth orbit.

When she saw the possibilities of a CubeSat project, she thought, “Oh yeah, I’ve got to join,” said Prindle.

She is one of more than two dozen students who have worked in the TigerSats lab, designing and building novel satellite systems involving sensing, communications, flight mechanics, and ground testing — including eight students who have completed senior thesis projects advised by Galvin. These students have expanded the capabilities of low-cost satellite systems built with accessible tools, and many have gone on to careers at places like NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Firefly Aerospace, and Skydio, a drone manufacturer.

“Being part of Mike’s lab, I was able to put all the theory and homework that I was doing into a very concrete project,” said Prindle, who was part of the lab’s inaugural ProtoSat project in 2019. During her junior year she built a solar charging simulator for CubeSats, and for her senior thesis she designed a system called a reaction wheel module for stabilizing and pointing CubeSats.

On the Zero-G flight, Prindle tested her reaction wheel, as well as another stabilization technology called a gravity boom , built by 2021 graduate Michael Hauge , and a suite of devices designed by 2023 graduate Kyle Ikuma for measuring a CubeSat’s velocity, acceleration and orientation. The experiment provided the first-ever zero-G performance comparison of 3 such devices popular in the CubeSat community.

“There’s so much richness in these projects for students, and not just mechanical engineering students, but also disciplines like electrical and computer engineering, and physics,” said Galvin.

“I try to tailor the projects to each student’s skill set, but also to their skill gaps,” he said, “rather than have them only work on what we absolutely need to get us to a launch. I think it’s working as an educational model.”

It’s one thing for students to design electronics for satellites and then send the plans to a company for fabrication, but quite another to make the components by hand or use an in-house prototyping machine — and build part of something that could function and collect data in space, said Galvin.

“With just undergrad-level hands-on fabrication skills, they can actually make a lot of these components and know that their handiwork is what’s going into space,” said Galvin, whose other roles at Princeton include serving on the staff of Princeton’s StudioLab makerspace and as principal mechanical engineer for the University’s Space Physics group .

Students are continuing to test systems for the Princeton CubeSat Kit , a way for the lab to share its expertise with others as well as enable more student-led projects at Princeton, said Galvin. The lab also has a growing number of experiments that are pushing the limits of student-built hardware on both orbital and suborbital launches. These launches range from free-flying satellites and hardware onboard the International Space Station, to high-altitude balloon launches and zero-G flights.

“We’re regularly getting things off the ground in some fashion,” said Galvin. “Anything that can get your experiments into space or a space-like environment is a good [return on investment] and good educational value.”

When it comes to small free-flying satellites, getting data back to Earth is a major challenge — one that the TigerSats team experienced firsthand on one of its early launches as part of a fleet of educational ThinSat experiments in 2021.

For her senior thesis, Candace Do , a 2024 MAE graduate, tested a tiny radio for a PocketQube , which is only one-eighth the volume of a CubeSat. Typically used for satellite phone connections on Earth, the radio could connect a PocketQube in low Earth orbit to a communication satellite at a higher altitude, which would then beam data back to Earth. The radio that Do tested is a fraction of the cost of those currently in use on small satellites. In her experiments, the radio successfully beamed data from indoors, through a rainy Princeton sky, to a satellite constellation at a 500-miles altitude, which itself then successfully downlinked her “Hello, World!” message. Do received the Morgan W. McKinzie ’93 Senior Thesis Prize at the MAE department’s Class Day ceremony on May 27.

“There’s no clouds in between” the PocketQube and the communications satellite, said Galvin,” and “it’s a persistent satellite network that has full global coverage. If you can get it to work on Earth it’s going to work in space.”

Galvin feels he’s succeeded in building an undergraduate space program focused on technology development. For the moment, most of the work is “not cutting-edge science yet,” he said. “But if we can get the foundation in place, we may be able to start doing some real space science as well.”

In addition to the technology itself, the lab is training students for graduate work and careers in space systems. Hauge and Kevin Tong , a 2022 Princeton graduate, have earned master’s degrees at Georgia Tech’s Space Systems Design Lab , where Do also plans to enroll this fall. Hauge is now an engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Tong is at Firefly Aerospace in Texas.

Galvin himself earned a bachelor’s degree at Georgia Tech, and came to Princeton in 2009 for a master’s degree while working as an engineer at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Pennsylvania. Jeremy Kasdin , now the Eugene Higgins Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Emeritus, hired Galvin as part of a team developing an exoplanet telescope in 2012.

Kasdin said that “we are trying to make science, but don’t ever forget that the real product is people,” Galvin recalled. “We’re generating students who leave Princeton and go on to create bigger and better things.”

Students are drawn to the TigerSats lab and to working with Galvin in part because he balances the lab’s priorities with “what you as a student would enjoy, and also what you would gain the most from,” said Prindle. She came to the lab with an affinity for building mechanisms, but was less experienced with electronics, and Galvin knew which project “would teach me those skills that I needed to refine.”

“It was just fun to come into the lab every week and talk with Mike,” she said. “You knew that you could turn around in your swivel chair and he would be there to help answer your question. I feel like I had one of the coolest thesis experiences because I had such an attentive and knowledgeable mentor.”

The TigerSats lab is supported by the MAE department, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Princeton’s Council on Science and Technology, as well as Rutgers University, the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority, and NASA’s New Jersey Space Grant Consortium. Prindle’s zero-G flight and a balloon launch experiment by Kevin Tong of the Class of 2022 were also supported by the Fred Fox Fund of Princeton’s Office of Religious Life.

A full list of students, projects and opportunities may be found on the TigerSats website .

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Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

James Madison Program

Constitutional integrity: interpretation, construction, and freedom in the thought of keith whittington.

A private conference presented by the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions in honor of Keith Whittington for his 25 years of distinguished service to Princeton University and his many contributions to the field of constitutional studies. Co-sponsored by the Department of Politics and funded by the Bouton Law Lecture Fund.

Panel 1: "Constitutional Interpretation and Construction"

• Jack M. Balkin, Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment, Yale Law School
• Christopher Green, Whitten Chair in Law and Government, University of Mississippi School of Law
• John O. McGinnis, George C. Dix Professor in Constitutional Law, Northwestern University School of Law

Respondent:

• Keith Whittington, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Politics, Princeton University
• John Breen, Visiting Fellow 2023-2024, James Madison Program, Princeton University; Georgia Reithal Professor of Law, Loyola University Chicago School of Law

Panel 2: "American Political Development"

• Mark Graber, Regents Professor, Francis King Carey School of Law, University of Maryland
• Tara Leigh Grove, Vinson & Elkins Chair in Law, University of Texas School of Law
• Sanford Levinson, W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood, Jr. Centennial Chair; Professor of Government, The University of Texas at Austin School of Law
• Emily Zackin, Associate Professor of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University
• Alan Patten, Howard Harrison and Gabrielle Snyder Beck Professor of Politics; Chair, Department of Politics, Princeton University

Panel 3: "Free Speech and Academic Freedom"

• Robert George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence; Director, James Madison Program, Princeton University
• Jonathan Marks, Professor of Politics, Ursinus College
• David Rabban, Dahr Jamail, Randall Hage Jamail and Robert Lee Jamail Regents Chair in Law, The University of Texas School of Law
• Greg Conti, Associate Professor of Politics, Princeton University

Contributions to and/or sponsorship of any event does not constitute departmental or institutional endorsement of the specific program, speakers or views presented.

• Whittington_Conference_Booklet