Distinguished Thesis Award Winners

Wen Nin (Shania) Khoo (2022) 

• Even if the Institution Forgets, We Remember: How Activist Memory Drives Duke Asian/American Student Organizing. Research Advisor: Calvin Cheung Miaw (History)

Stefanie Pousoulides (2021)

• The Politics of Memory: The Meaning of Home to Armenian Genocide Survivors (1919-1991). Research Adviser: James Chappel (History)

Valeria Yin (2021)

• Boundless Skies: Exploring How Asian Latin Americans Negotiate Belonging Across Borders.” Research Advisor: Susan Thananoparvan (Thompson Writing Program)

Ivan Robles (2020)

• Disaster Futures: Puerto Rico’s Encounter with Hurricane Maria. Research Adviser: Richard Rosa (Romance Studies)

Daniela Flamini (2019)

• Fact-Checking in Buenos Aires and the Modern Journalistic Struggle Over Knowledge. Research Advisor: Philip Napoli (Public Policy)

Phoebe O'Hara (2019)

• Exercising Agency: Women, Space and Place in Saudi Arabia. Research Advisor: Erdag Gökner (Asian and Middle Eastern Studies)

Parmida Mostafavi (2018)

• Shukhi-ye Zesht o Tekrari: Performing Blackness in Iranian Entertainment. Faculty Supervisor: Negar Mottahedeh (Program in Literature)

Chloe Ricks (2018)

• "Last Stop Destination:" Poverty, Antiblackness, and University Education in the Mississippi Delta and Baixada Fluminense. Faculty Supervisor: John French (History and African and African American Studies)

Diana Dai (2017)

• Working on the Inside, Living on the Outside: Migrant Domestic Workers in Jordan. Faculty Supervisor: Frances Hasso (Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies)

Iris Kim (2016)

• The Intimacies between Tibet and Korea: Imagination, Religion, Politics. Faculty Supervisor: Hwansoo Kim (Religious Studies)

Alexandra Lynn Schwartz (2015)

• Furnishing a Globalized World: Local Distinctiveness in the International Furniture Industry. Faculty Supervisor: Gary Gereffi (Sociology)

Ieshia Smith (2014)

• The Plastic Face: Nation-Branding and Personal Branding in 21st Century South Korea. Faculty Supervisor: Cheehyung Kim (Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, History)

Hannah Sieber (2013)

• Chinese “Sea Turtles” and Importing a Culture of Innovation: Trends in Chinese Human Capital Migration in the 21st Century. Faculty supervisor: Timothy Lenoir (University Professor and Kimberly Jenkins Chair for New Technology and Society)

Katherine Soltis (2012)

• "Biting the Bullet" and Banning Guns: The Brazilian National Referendum of 2005 and Its Defeat at the Polls. Faculty supervisor: John French (Professor, History Department)