Our student dissertations reflect the wide range of interests and expertise in the department. Below is a list of recent dissertations, you can also visit the Department's Dissertation Collection at ScholarWorks@UMass.
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Zachary Albert: "Partisan Policymaking: Research and Advocacy in an Era of Polarization"
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Martha Balaguera Cuervo: "Citizenship in Transit: Perils and Promise of Crossing Mexico"
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Kaylee Johnson: "Whitewashed: The Racialization of America's Middle Class Identity"
- Michael Stein: "The Solution is the Problem: An Immanent Critique of Capitalism's Crisis, 2008-2018"
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Sam Stoddard: "Why Education Matters: Political Participation and Interpretive Experiences at High School"
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Wouter Van Erve: "The Paradox of a Town Meeting: The Influence of Forms of Local Government on Citizen Representation"
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Alix Olson: "The Promise(s) of Resilience: Governance and Resistance in Complex Times
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Mia Costa: "Communication is a Two Way Street: Race, Gender and Elite Responsiveness in U.S. Politics"
- Candan Turkkan: "Embodied, Rationed, Precarious: Conceptualizations of Sovereignty in Urban Food Regimes"
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Sarah Tanzi: "Free-Market Authoritarianism and the Election of Donald Trump"
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Moise St. Louis: "Looking Beyond the Rubble toward Louverturean Statecraft: The post-occupation state and the historical fault line of responsive government in Haiti (1791-2010)"
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Alyssa Maraj Grahame: “Democracy in Crisis: Social Mobilization against Financial Capital”
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Nicklaus Laverty: “Imperial Janus: Patterns of Governance in the Western Borderlands of the Tsarist Empire”
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Kevin Pallister: “Bringing the Ballot Box to the People: Election Administration and the Origins of Inclusive Voting Practices”
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Khorapin Phuaphansawat: “My Eyes Are Open but My Lips Are Whispering: Linguistic and Symbolic Forms of Resistance in Thailand during 2006-2016”
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Alper Yagci: “Managing the Agricultural Biotechnology Revolution: Responses to Transgenic Seeds in Developing Countries”
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F. Gizem Zencirci: “The Local Production of Welfare Humanitarianism in Neoliberal Turkey”
Our students often work with faculty members of other subfields on their dissertations, which has produced vibrant intellectual eclecticism and the cross-fertilization of traditional political science subfields. For example, Comparative Politics students work with faculty in other subfields including American politics (Kevin Pallister and Sarah Tanzi), Political Theory (Alyssa Maraj Grahame and Gizem Zencirci), and International Relations (Alper Yagci and Alyssa Maraj Grahame).