Senior Thesis Workshops

This session will address questions such as the scope, the purpose, and the structure of the senior thesis. It will focus on strategies for developing a good topic (finding a manageable and interesting question and case selection) as well as finding an advisor. It will also look into research resources available at Harvard (navigating Hollis, e-resources, reference works, document collections) and will include an introduction by a Harvard librarian.

Once you have decided to write a senior thesis, this session will give invaluable advice on:

• accessing the rich Europe-focused resources through Harvard's library system
• using effective strategies for requesting letters of recommendation
• finding the right thesis adviser to guide you through your thesis project.

This event provides the opportunity for CES thesis research grantees to present their research and preliminary findings and receive support and constructive feedback during their writing process from faculty, scholars and fellow students.

For the Harvard community, this event is an opportunity to learn from new research and findings on diverse social science topics related to Europe. Moreover, for those students considering writing a thesis and applying for a CES senior thesis grant, this conference helps to illustrate what to expect in preparing and writing a thesis as well as the how you will benefit from this rigorous but rewarding process.

To date, the following seniors are scheduled to present their work at the conference:

Theresa Byrne, 2018, “Words as Weapon in the Cold War: Encounter Magazine and the Publication of Dissident Literature”

Emma City, 2018, “Writing for the Vote: A Comparison of Genres of Suffragist Writing”

Benjamin Grimm, 2018, “Thesis fieldwork with Muslim communities in Malmö, Sweden”

Margot Mai, 2018, “Landscapes of violence and care: Marseille's Nigerian sex worker community”

Andrew O'Donohue, 2018, “Building Democracy after Military Dictatorship: Understanding Divergent Regime Outcomes in Chile, Thailand, and Turkey”

India Patel, 2018, “Ayahs in London at the Turn of the Twentieth Century”

Romana Pilepich, 2018, “The Residue of Authoritarianism: Croatia and the Countries of Former Yugoslavia”

Andrew Secondine, 2018, “Conceptions of the Nation in Contemporary Cyprus”

Caleb Shelburne, 2018, “Inverting the Orient Express”

Are you hoping to secure funding from Harvard for summer thesis research? Get a jump start on the Feb. 9th Harvard's application deadline with this workshop. We will outline the structure of a successful proposal, provide budgeting tips, and offer real-world samples of winning proposals. Students who attend the workshop will also be able to sign up for office hours to have their proposals reviewed one-on-one.

To attend this session, students are advised to RSVP to Hannah Callaway.

Geared towards students who are conducting research this summer in Europe, we will provide tips and answer questions for how to navigate various cities and archives in Europe.

Students must RSVP with Hannah Callaway.