Anthropology senior theses and prizes awarded

Where to go find (and read) an Anthropology senior thesis:

» Princeton University Senior Thesis Catalog
» Senior Theses Collection on DataSpace (Princeton-network access only)
» Anthropology Department library of bound senior theses (for reference by current students) 


The titles of selected Anthropology senior theses are listed below to help illustrate the breadth of research topics chosen by our majors. 

Senior Thesis Prizes: Anthropology senior theses have been recognized for excellence by many academic programs and units across the University. The following examples of senior thesis titles list prizes that have been awarded to Anthropology majors. The use of bold print followed by an asterisk (*) denotes a first-prize or co-winner.

Occasionally Anthropology senior theses include creative components. For examples, see: Andie Ayala, Eamon Foley, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, E Jeremijenko-Conley, Madeleine LeCesne, Lauren McGrath, Julia Ressler, Feyisola Soetan, Brady Valashinas.

Senior theses from 2014 to the present are available online. Bound copies of 2019 and earlier senior theses are available in the Department of Anthropology office in Aaron Burr Hall.


Selected Senior Thesis Titles

Rund Abdelfatah, 2013
The Veiled Phantoms of Andalucía: A Journey through Time, Space, and Memory toward Demystifying Identity.

Elektra E. Alivisatos, 2014
"You Can't Teach That Love": Implementing government initiatives for healthy eating in public schools.

Sophia Alvarez, 2018 (Anthropology / Community-Based Learning*)
When It Rains, It Floods: An Ethnography of Infrastructure and Citizenship in New Orleans.

Adaugo Amobi, 2009 (Anthropology*
"It's Not Perfect But It's Home": Returnees in Ghanaian Society.

Talia Anisfeld, 2020 (Judaic Studies* Near Eastern Studies*)
“In the end, we’re neither here nor there. And yet we’re almost there”: Disidentification Among Ethiopian Jewish Israelis.

Ellen Anshelevich, 2019
A Disease in Disguise: Addressing the Stigma of HIV/AIDS and Its Repercussions in Healthcare.

Margaret Arbuthnot, 2007 (Environmental/Stroh*
Bordering on Extinction: The Mahout-Elephant Relationship in Modern Thailand. 

Andie Ayala, 2019 (Anthropology)
Kaleidoscope Stories: Film (My Nana's Home) as a Dialogic Platform for Life Stories.

Ysabel Ayala, 2021 (Anthropology*)
Movements Toward Decolonization: Considering Dance as Communicative Practice for PilipinxAmericans in the Bay Area.

Colleen Baker, 2016
Teach a Man to "Fish Forever": The Integration of Culture in Community-Based Fisheries Management.

Catherine Bauman, 2015
Into the Woods: American Narratives and the Appalachian Trail.

Kathryn S. Benedict, 2010 (Anthropology) 
Into the Flower and Willow World: Geisha, Gender, and Performance. 

Megan Berry, 2019
Staging Queer Lives: An Ethnographic Exploration.

Francesca Billington, 2019 (Canadian Studies*)
Home and Native Lands: Infrastructures of Integration in Toronto and Stockholm.

Zoë Billington, 2014
Roma, Reframed: Examining the Disparate Views of the Roma Rights Movement through the Lens of the Law.

Joshua Blaine, 2008 (Anthropology* / Community-Based Learning*). 
"It ain't dere no more" New Orleans Mental Health Care in Recovery: An Ethnographic Investigation.

Christine Anne Blauvelt, 2012 (Global Health)
Economies of Survival. When Global AIDS Interventions Meet Local Communities in Kenya.

Kujegi Camara, 2016
Migration as Continuity and Rupture: A Discord in the Soninke Imaginary.

Carolina Cantu, 2020 (Brazilian and Portuguese Studies*)
The Politics of Indigeneity in Brazil: From Colonial Representations to Indigenous Activism Today.

Jasmin Capellan, 2020 (Global Health)
Living on Wheels: An Ethnographic Account of Disability, Sanctuary, and Kinship in the Dominican Republic.

Martina Car, 2010 (Anthropology / Environmental Studies*)
Évolène: A Case Study of the Challenges to Sustainable Development in Alpine Agro-Pastoral Systems.

Özlem Cebeci, 2014 (Anthropology / Urban Studies*)
From Non-Places to Places: Neoliberalizing Istanbul, Taksim Gezi Protests, and Reflections on the Right to the City. 

Luciana Chamorro Elizondo, 2012 (Anthropology*Latin American Studies*)
Narrating the Nicaraguan Civil War: An Ethnographic Account of Re-membering in San Juan del Norte.

Stephen Chao, 2019
Curating Queer of Color Utopia in Queer/Trans Asian/Pacific Islander American Nightlife.

Agnes Cho, 2014
Commodifying Cookstoves: Social Entrepreneurship and the Improved Cookstove Industry.

Beata Corcoran, 2022 (Anthropology / Global Health)
Life on Island Earth: A New Generation of Kanaka Maoli Perspectives.

Wesley Cornwell, 2016 
A Fugue on Nostalgia.

Lauren Crees. 2014
Every Contact Leaves a Trace: A Contextual History of Forensic Science.

Colleen Culbertson, 2013 (Anthropology*Human Values*)
Testing the Malaria Vaccine: Membership, Expertise, and the ‘Adverse Effects’ of Accountability.

Allison Daminger, 2012 (Community-Based Learning*Global Health*)
Known, Un-known: An Ethnography of AIDS Care and Treatment Adherence in Guatemala.

Brandon Davis, 2013 (Anthropology* / Judaic Studies)
Desiring Israel: Gays, Jews, and Homonationalism.

Alexandra Deprez, 2012 (Environmental Studies*)
Nature Re-Visioned: An Ethnographic Diary from the Peruvian Amazon.

Mary DeVellis, 2021 (Anthropology)
Born in an Unsocial World: An Ethnographic Exploration of American Pregnancy Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Carol Dreibelbis, 2011 (Anthropology*)
(Not Quite) as American as Apple Pie: An Ethnographic Study of the Place of Vegan Dessert Shops in American Culture.

Divya Farias, 2015 (Anthropology / Canadian Studies*)
Unstacking Maps: The Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation and the Politics of Place and Identity.

Susan Farrell, 2017
Women in the Wild: Changing the Story We Tell Ourselves.

Mariachiara Ficarelli, 2019 (Anthropology / Human Values*)
Fuori Campo: Affect, Dwelling, and Transience in Eritrean Rome.

Olivia Fiechter, 2018
Fear, Fetish, and Façade: The Role of Privilege and Self-Curation in Educational Outcomes.

Sacha Finn, 2014
The American Fetus: Maternal and Fetal Citizenship in Conflict.

Remy Fisher, 2014
Same Name, Different Game: An Ethnography of the Female Philanthropic Identity Shift.

Bernice Fokum, 2014
Cultivating Agents of Change: Individual and Community Resilience in Chicago's Teen Health Council.

Eamon Foley, 2015 (Lewis Center for the Arts)
Director/Ethnographer, Ethnographer/Director: Using Ethnography to Create HERO, a Theater Dance Piece.

Ayo Foster-McCray, 2020 (Anthropology*)
Racializing Midwifery: An Ethnography of Blackness, Gender, and Birth Care in Atlanta, Georgia.

Joshua Franklin, 2011 (Anthropology /  Brazilian and Portuguese Studies* Community-Based Learning*Latin American Studies*)
Claiming the Right to Transgender Health in Brazil.

Raphael Frankfurter, 2013 (Anthropology*Global Health*)
Transience and the Lives Therein: An Ethnography of Global Health and Care in Sierra Leone.

Alice Frederick, 2017
The Green Tongue: A Linguistic Anthropological Framework of Esperanto and Esperantists.

Glenna Jane Galariion, 2021 (American Studies Willard Thorp* / Gender and Sexuality Studies)
“Honor”: Rapping and Representing Asian America.

Maria Garavito, 2017
The Café: Power Dynamics in a Colombian Restaurant.

Ryan Gedrich, 2016
Notion of a Nation: An Exploration of Self and the Irish Theatre.

Alex Gertner, 2010 (Anthropology / Brazilian and Portuguese Studies* / Community-Based Learning* / Global Health* / Latin American Studies*
Pharmaceutical Care, Public Experiments, and Patient Knowledge in the Brazilian Public Healthcare System.

Sam Gravitte, 2017
Theatres of the National Imaginary: Economies, Spatial Politics, and Nation in French and American Theatre.

Vanessa Grégoire, 2018
Beyond Social Suffering: Rethinking Structural Violence and Care in Urban America through the Work of the Hyacinth AIDS Foundation. 

Erica E. Greil, 2010 (Anthropology) 
The Social Structures of Cooperatives in Post-Conflict Rwanda. 

Jessica Haley, 2014.
Sustaining (Female) Circumcision.

Kaitlyn Hamilton, 2011 (Gender and Sexuality Studies*)
Reclaiming Birth after Cesarean: An Ethnographic Study of the Beliefs and Practices of Midwives in the 21st Century.

Helena Hengelbrok, 2016 (Anthropology* /Global Health / Latin American Studies*)
Water Belongs to Those Who Are Thirsty: An Ethnography of Water, Political Belonging, and Health in Urubamba, Peru.

Laura Hergenrother, 2019
The Tick(ing) Time Bomb: Temporality and Morality in the Care of Late-Stage Lyme Disease Patients.

Devyn Holliday, 2018
Mythicizing the Nation: Rugby and Indigenous Pasifika Identity in Post-Colonial Oceania.

Katie Horvath, 2015 (Anthropology*)
"Llevar Palestina en el corazón": Ambiguities of Palestinian Identity in Santiago de Chile.

Edric Huang, 2018 (Anthropology* / French Studies* / Human Values*)
Life's Good Ailleurs: The Labor of Hope Among Sudanese Refugees in Paris.

Annaliese Ionson, 2015 (Canadian Studies* / Human Values*)
Competing Discourses: Diabetes and the Narrative of First Nations Identity.

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, 2006
HEART!!! and On the Writing of HEART!!! as an Anthropological Venture, or Notes Towards Writing Plays about Black People that Black and White Folks Will Want to See.

E Jeremijenko-Conley, 2020 (Lewis Center for the Arts)
An Ethnography of Pet Psychics.

Audrey Marie Jones, 2017 (Anthropology)
“I’m a friend, an aunt, an adoptive mother, a writer”: Turner Syndrome and the Contemporary American Woman.

Makailyn Jones, 2022 (Anthropology*)
At the Crossroads: An Exploration of New Orleans Vodou, Disaster, and Literary Anthropology.

Kelsey Kane-Ritsch, 2016 (French Studies*)
"La culture est l'environnement": Modernization, Cultural Transformation, and Environmental Destruction in New Caledonia.

Deberly Kauffman, 2014
The Vienna Philharmonic and 'Viennese' Sound: Performing a Cultural Identity Extending beyond the Sound Itself.

Angela Kim, 2019
Becoming "No Excuses": Lessons and Takeaways for the Future of Urban Teaching.

Jamie Kim, 2022 (Anthropology)
Listen to Her, Listen to Them: A Patient-Centered Ethnography of Breast Cancer.

Emily Kunkel, 2019
Gentrifying Spice: Refuge and Rebellion In Marseillais Spice Shops.

Akash Kushwaha, 2021 (Anthropology)
Virtualizing Violence: Playing with Power in Multiplayer Online Games (MOGs).

Jessica Lambert, 2022 (Anthropology* / Environmental/Stroh* / Center for Digital Humanities* / Human Values* / ProCES Community Engaged*)
Defending our Freedom: The U.S. Military, Environmental Contamination, and Ongoing Native Land Theft in the Choctaw Nation.

Hannah Lapkin, 2017
Logging-In to Fandom: An Exploration of Modern Fan Cultures in the United States.

Madeleine Le Cesne, 2019
Debris.

Lauren Ledley, 2010 (Anthropology*
A “Necessary Sorrow”: Protecting “Conservative” Family Values through Abortion in Japan. 

Zach Levine, 2017 (Global Health)
Conspiracy & Sorcery, The Public & Expertise: Searching For Conceptualizations of Global Health in the Post-Truth Era.

Allegra Mango, 2014
The Religious Experience of Individuals Diagnosed with Terminal Illness.

Timothy McGinnis, 2013 (Anthropology*)
We Drew an Electric Area Cycle.

Lauren McGrath, 2021 (ProCES Community-Engaged* / Center for Digital Humanities*)
The Side Unseen: Ethnographic Data Visualization as a Methodology to Visualize the Health Impacts of Structural Violence in Urban Philadelphia Communities.

Amalya Megerman, 2016 
"You Don't Come to This Earth to Live a Normal Life".

Ailee Mendoza, 2021 (Anthropology)
Reflections on a Twilight World: Ethnographic Imagination in the Movies and Marvels of Christopher Nolan.

Anna Menke, 2016 (Environmental/Stroh*)
Using the Environment to Claim Identity: The Nicaraguan Canal and Indigenous People.

Anna Miller, 2009 (Anthropology*)
Stories of Our Emergence as Modern Humans.

Damaris Miller, 2015
The Practice of Knowing: Environmental Education and Action in a Tibetan Buddhist Monastery.

Kalila Minor, 2011 (Anthropology) 
Coming Back Stronger: Neighborhood and Individual Recovery in Post-Katrina New Orleans.

Angelika Morris, 2021 (Anthropology)
Surviving the Cesarean: An Analysis of the Clinical Decision Making Culture in Obstetrics & Gynecology.

Gaya Morris, 2014
Do Toujours Laay Am. "It's not every day that I Have": Notes on Gifts and Economy in an Urbanizing Village in Senegal.

Do-Hyeong Myeong, 2017 (Anthropology / East Asian Studies*)
Between the Two Koreas: Ambiguous Citizenship among North Korean Defectors.

Varshini Narayanan, 2016 (Anthropology*)
Ser y Estar: The Art of Being Flamenco.

Rebecca Newmark, 2014 (Gender and Sexuality Studies)
The Fruit of Their Labor: Placentophagia and Embodied Meaning-Making among American Women.

Anika Nishat, 2021 (Anthropology*)
Cooking the Home: An Ethnographic Account of Home Cooking in a Bangladeshi Diaspora.

Gabriela Novogratz, 2017 (Anthropology)
This Great Symbol of Hope: Examining the Predicament of the Modern Refugee through the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Ashley Nurse, 2021 (Princeton Prize in Race Relations Senior Thesis Prize*)
The Veil: The Silent Lynching of the Black Woman.

Jamie O'Leary, 2019 (African Studies* / Anthropology* / Gender and Sexuality Studies*)
Duma Doyal Ci Maam Maryaama: Ins and Outs of Gendered Embodiment in a Senegalese Daara.

Morayo Odujinrin, 2018
No Loitering: The Spatial Concentration and Exclusion of Individuals Experiencing Homelessness in Los Angeles' Skid Row.

Anna Offit, 2008 (American Studies* / Environmental Studies*). 
Imagism Re-Imagined: An Ethnographic Approach to Ezra Pound's Modernist "Invention".

Toyosi Oluwole, 2021 (Global Health)
The Label: Forging Meanings of a Rare Genetic Diagnosis.

Rachel Parks, 2015 (Brazilian and Portuguese Studies* /Latin American Studies)
Bolivians in Brazil: the Interface of Culture, Race, and Health in an Immigrant Community of São Paulo.

Caitlin Paul, 2010 (American Studies*
A Place at the Table: The Potential for Sustainable Food Equality in the United States. 

Anna Pearson, 2018
Where Are You From? Defining Home and Belonging as a Third Culture Kid.

Minerva Pedroza, 2014 (Brazilian and Portuguese Studies*)
Lives in Transition: Navigating Public Trans Healthcare in São Paulo, Brazil.

Pooja Pendri, 2014
Navigating Uncertainty: Negotiations on the Care of Extremely Preterm Infants.

Caroline Pinke, 2012 (Global Health)
An Ethnography of Care: Reclaiming Dignity for Boston's Chronically Homeless.

Sonia Porter, 2011 (Anthropology / CBLI)
The Art of Aspiration: Crafting Life Chances at an Income Generation Project in Cape Town, South Africa.

Storm Portner, 2014 (Global Health)
Imagining Partnerships: An Ethnography of Community Health Workers in a Global Health Intervention in Sierra Leone.

Elisabeth Powell, 2014 (Anthropology*)
Anthropologists in Business: Professing Anthropology in the Classroom of Everyday Life.

Lauren Prastien, 2013 (Anthropology)
Relevance through Ambiguity: An Examination of the Changing Character of Chaplains and Anthropologists in the Midst of their Great “Afters”.

Sarah Qari, 2016
Identity in Play: An Ethnography of South Asian Theater in London.

Kiersten Rasberry, 2021 (Global Health)
More than a sweet tooth: Exploring the role of the built environment in the South Side of Chicago diabetes epidemic.

Irit Rasooly, 2007 (Anthropology* / Community-Based Learning*)
Planting Healthy Stores in Food Deserts: An Anthropological Study of Obesity, Consumption, and Public Health in East Baltimore. 

Isabel Reis, 2019
Ancestors of the 'Āina: Exploring the Anthropocene through Native Hawaiian Values.

Julia Ressler, 2005
Excerpts: The Production of a Play and a Search for Liminality.

Hannah Reynolds, 2022 (Anthropology)
What is a Forest? Land, Culture, and the Politics of Resilience in the Tongass of Southeast Alaska.

Elizabeth C. Rosen, 2010 (Anthropology*Women's Studies*
Public Girls, Separate Prep: Single-Sex Public Education in New York City.

Carolina Salazar, 2018 (Anthropology* / Latin American Studies*)
Estar Con La Planta: Being With Plants: Ecologies of Knowledge and Ritual Healing in the Peruvian Amazon.

Jake Schade, 2017
Addressing the Wounds of the Past: The Politics of Care in Post-Apartheid South Africa.

Ellen Scott-Young, 2020 (Environmental Studies*)
The Efficacy of a Princeton University Education In A Deteriorating World.

Charissa Shen, 2014
"Team Buhay or Team Patay?": Public Response to Reproductive Health Policy in the Philippines.

Kai Shibuya, 2014
Beyond the Bear Suit: A Cultural Translation of Kumamon.

Yuta Shinozaki, 2013 (Anthropology)
Entextualizing Culture: A Contextualization Analysis of Rakugo.

Elizabeth Skeen, 2007 (Anthropology / Law and Public Affairs*)
The Rape of a Trial: Jacob Zuma, AIDS, Conspiracy, and Tribalism in Neo-Liberal Post-Apartheid South Africa. 

Elisabeth Slighton, 2020 (Anthropology* / Global Health*)
Organic Local Theorists: A Patient and Provider Ethnography of Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

Feyisola Soetan, 2019 (Gender and Sexuality Studies)
Princeton Stories: Political Activism Through Ethnographic Theater.

Connor Still, 2014
Dental Formation Timing: A Study of the Developing Permanent Dentition in Children of African-American and European-American Ancestry Born at the End of the 20th Century.

Trina Swanson, 2020 (African Studies)
becoming mothers: journeys of young motherhood in a Tanzanian health centre.

Scot Tasker, 2016
Between Cyborgs and Zombies: Procrastination, Consciousness, and Narrative Structures at Princeton University.

Victoria Tobolsky, 2012 (Anthropology*)
Getting a Grip: Precision, Technological Innovation, and Hominin Evolution.

Brady Valashinas, 2014
Sex in Public; The Important Roles of Gender, Sexuality, Acrobatics and Performance in Cirque du Soleil’s Zumanity.

Charlotte Weisberg, 2013 (Community-Based Learning*)
“The Children Are Our Wealth”: Maternity and National Identity in French Guiana.

Alyse Wheelock, 2011 (Global Health*
Maps of Rural Health: An Ethnography of Access to Care in Peru.

Charlotte Williams, 2017 (Anthropology* / Art & Archaeology* / Latin American Studies*)
Making the Descendants: The Return of Machu Picchu’s Artifacts to an Inca Nation.

Julianna Wright, 2017
Life in Transit: The Labor Experience of Senegalese Street Vendors in Granada.

Sojung Yi, 2012 (Brazilian and Portuguese Studies*
Uncharted: Territorialization of Health Care and the Travails of the Urban Poor in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 

Naomi Zucker, 2014 (Anthropology / Brazilian and Portuguese Studies* Human Values* Global Health*)
Visions of Health and Care in São Paulo, Brazil.