2016 Undergraduate Honors Colloquium

Fifteen political science majors participated in this year’s honors program and presented their yearlong research projects at the annual Honors Colloquium on June 10. Students who participate in the honors program, spend their senior year engaging in independent research, culminating in a written honors thesis and participation in the honors colloquium. Students are advised by Professor Lorraine McDonnell (Director of the Honors Program) and another faculty member of each student’s choosing. This year’s students included:

Amanda Dillon - Cyber Insecurity: Defining National Security in a New Cyber Age

Marta Gonzalez - Stringent States: A Study of State Campaign Finance Reform

Jacob Gorham - Jesters Do Oft Prove Prophets: An Analysis of Political Agenda-Setting Within News Media & Its Relationship to Last Week Tonight With John Oliver

Nicolas Hernandez Harnish - The Snowden Effect on National Security: An Overdue Urgency to Reform Intelligence Collection Methods

Corinne Jaques - Explaining Youth Voting Behavior in the 2004 and 2008 Elections

Elliott Lee - What's in a Question? Supreme Court Nominations, From Bork to Now

Anibal Lopez - Responding to Crisis: A Study of Pre and Post 2007 Crisis Decision-Making in the Federal Reserve

Maria Navarro - Supply Side Anti-Narcotic Policy: Does it Work?

Isabelle Ninh - Far-Right Parties and the Politics of Immigration Policy: A Comparative Case Study of Denmark and Sweden

Samira Seraji - OPEC: Suspicions of a Two-Part Cartel

Grant Stanton - The Liberal Republic

Stephanie Teuber - Time and Money: Education Policies and Professional Development in California

Austin Yack - A Powerful Advocate for the President: The Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel

Shirley Yang - Stolen Girls, Stolen Dreams: Unlearning "Prostitution" in California

Amanda Zachwieja - Grassroots Activism in LA: An Ethnography of Leadership Development

Several members of this year’s honors class also participated in the University’s Undergraduate Research Colloquium (hosted by the Office of Undergraduate Education) in May. Participants included: Marta Gonzalez, Isabelle Ninh, Grant Stanton, Stephanie Teuber, Shirley Yang, and Amanda Zachwieja.