harvard dissertation

• Utility Menu

ga4 tracking code

• ATLA Religion Database

Google main search box code

Dissertations and theses global (dissertation abstracts/digital dissertations).

Dissertation Abstracts/Digital Dissertations (also known as Dissertations and Theses Global) indexes dissertations and masters' theses from most North American graduate schools as well as additional content from nearly one hundred countries. Provides full text for most indexed dissertations from 1990 to the present.

Dates: 1861 - present

• Research Tools
• Key Databases A-Z
• All Harvard Databases
• Essential Tools and Services
• M.Div. Senior Paper FAQ
• Citation Tools
• Research Guides
• How to Find Archives

All virtual services are available and some libraries are open for in-person use, while others remain closed through January 23, 2022. Learn more .

• Ask a Librarian

How can I find a Harvard thesis or dissertation?

• COVID-19 Spring 2020
• FAS General
• Harvard Map Collection
• Houghton Library
• How to Do Research in...
• 2 African American Studies
• 1 Anthropology
• 1 Art in Harvard Libraries
• 2 Asian Studies
• 1 Audio Books
• 1 Biography
• 4 Borrow Direct
• 13 Borrowing
• 1 Calendars
• 6 Citation of Sources
• 1 Citation Tools
• 1 Computer Science
• 5 Computers
• 4 contemporary legends
• 1 Copyright
• 3 Crimson Cash
• 9 Databases
• 2 Digital Collections
• 2 Distance Learning
• 28 E-Resources
• 1 Economics
• 5 Electronic Books
• 1 Employment
• 1 Equipment
• 1 Extension School
• 1 Foreign Study
• 2 Genealogy
• 3 Government
• 2 Government Documents
• 1 Harvard Depository
• 3 Harvard Studies
• 3 Harvard University Archives
• 32 Harvardiana
• 5 HOLLIS help
• 5 Interlibrary Loan
• 1 Internet access
• 1 Language Resource Center
• 2 Languages
• 9 Libraries
• 3 Library History
• 1 Library science
• 3 Library services
• 1 Library student
• 1 Literature
• 2 Manuscripts
• 2 Microfilm
• 17 miscellaneous
• 17 Newspapers
• 4 Off-Campus
• 1 Permissions
• 1 Phillips Reading Room
• 3 Photographs
• 1 Plagiarism
• 4 Primary Sources
• 12 Privileges
• 1 Public Libraries
• 2 Purchase requests
• 4 Quotations
• 2 Rare Books
• 4 Reference
• 1 Reproduction Request
• 22 Research Assistance
• 1 Safari Books Online
• 1 Scan & Deliver
• 4 Special Borrowers
• 2 Special Collections
• 5 Statistics
• 1 Study Abroad
• 3 Study spaces
• 1 Summer School
• 2 technology
• 5 Theses, Dissertations & Prize Winners
• 3 Web of Science

Start with  HOLLIS  (HarvardKey login required for some full text, including theses & dissertations)

• Those presented for graduate degrees 
• Bowdoin prize essays 
• Undergraduate honors theses

How do you know if it's available online? 

• “View Online” button links out to full text.
• If there's no "View Online" button, the work probably has not been digitized.

What Harvard theses and dissertations can you expect to find online in full text? How do you get to them?

• Follow the links in HOLLIS.
• Not a Harvard affiliate? log in through the library of your academic institution OR
• you can usually purchase directly from  ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Express.  
• undergraduates are not required to submit theses or prizewinning papers to DASH
• Harvard Extension School ALM theses 2012-2016 were not entered into DASH. 
• Under certain circumstances dissertations may be embargoed by the author; DASH may be the only place this information is given.

If the work hasn't been digitized:

You can order PDFs or photocopies of most Harvard theses and dissertations (unless they're available through the Proquest database linked above) from 1873 through November 2011 (and ALM theses to 2016) 

• See our Reproduction Requests page to register
• When you submit the online order form, Imaging Services staff will reply with cost and delivery information.
• Questions about the online ordering process or pricing? Contact Imaging Services staff directly for additional information at 617/495-3995  or [email protected] (M-F, 9-5 Eastern) ​

For Extension School ALM theses  check out our  Library Guide for Harvard Extension School theses page

Want to view a dissertation or thesis at the library? Check with the archival collection location listed in HOLLIS.

Wondering what dissertations and theses have been submitted in the recent past?  Use DASH .

For more on undergraduate theses and dissertations, see our " How can I locate a Harvard undergraduate thesis?" FAQ.

Looking for non-Harvard theses & dissertations? See our "How can I find theses and dissertations?"  FAQ.

• Ask a Librarian, including chat and email, will be suspended Thursday July 4 through Sunday, July 7, 2024, in observance of the holiday weekend. Any questions received during this period will be answered beginning Monday, July 8 .
• If If you're experiencing an ongoing technical issue when you attempt to access library materials with your HarvardKey during these times, please report it to Library Technology Services.

Monday-Thursday 9am-9pm

Friday-Saturday  9am-5pm

Sunday 12noon-7pm

Chat is intended for brief inquiries from the Harvard community.

Reach out to librarians and other reference specialists by email using our online form . We usually respond within 24 hours Monday through Friday.

Talk to a librarian for advice on defining your topic, developing your research strategy, and locating and using sources. Make an appointment now .

These services are intended primarily for Harvard University faculty, staff and students. If you are not affiliated with Harvard, please use these services only to request information about the Library and its collections.

• Email Us: [email protected]
• Call Us: 617-495-2411
• All Library Hours
• Library Guides
• Staff Login

Harvard Library Virtual Reference Policy Statement

Our chat reference and Research Appointment Request services are intended for Harvard affiliates. All others are welcome to submit questions using the form on this page.

We are happy to answer questions from all Harvard affiliates and from non-affiliates inquiring about the library's collections.

Unfortunately, we're unable to answer questions from the general public which are not directly related to Harvard Library services and collections.

Harvard University Digital Accessibility Policy

• Utility Menu

Psychology Graduate Program

• Psychology Department
• Dissertation & Defense

The doctoral dissertation is the culmination of scholarly work in graduate school. Every PhD candidate in the Harvard Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences is required to successfully complete and submit a dissertation to qualify for degree conferral. The dissertation must be submitted in one of two formats.  

• The traditional format is described in detail here .
• Three articles describing original empirical research that the dissertation committee deems “of publishable quality.”  The student must be the first author on each paper  or obtain approval from their committee to include papers for which they are not the first author . At least one of the three papers must be under review, in press, or published in a peer-reviewed journal. 
• An introductory chapter that thoroughly reviews the literature relevant to the three papers.
• A concluding chapter that describes what was learned from the three papers.

Post-prospectus changes :  If students would like to make substantive changes to the content and/or format of the dissertation after prospectus approval, they must revise their prospectus and obtain approval of the revised version from all committee members. Another meeting of the prospectus committee may be required if the changes are substantial.

If students would like to make changes to the composition of their dissertation committee after prospectus approval, they must obtain 1) approval from the primary advisor/ committee chair to make the change, 2) approval from the DGS by submitting their revised committee using this form , and 3) approval of the prospectus by any new committee member(s). If the new member doesn't approve of the prospectus as written, the prospectus may need to be revised. If the revisions are substantial, students may need to have another full prospectus meeting to ensure the revised version of the prospectus is approved by every member of the committee.  

Dissertation Advisory Committee:   The Dissertation Advisory Committee (DAC) is comprised of the three members of the prospectus committee. Students also have the option to add one or more committee members who were not a member of the prospectus committee. The GSAS DAC guidelines can be found here . DACs must be approved by the DGS. If there are post-prospectus changes or additions to the DAC, students should submit your new committee for review using this form at least two weeks before submitting the dissertation to your committee. Students will need to submit a CV for any requested non-Harvard committee members.   

Dissertation Approval:   The dissertation must be approved by the student’s advisor before it is submitted to the dissertation advisory committee. After the student sends the dissertation to the committee, they will have three weeks to read and assess the work. Each committee member should complete a  Dissertation Approval Form  and return it to the student and Graduate Office within three weeks. 

The committee members will receive an evaluation form, where they select among these options:

• Not acceptable in current form and cannot be corrected without major revisions and consultation of committee.
• Needs considerable revision, to be seen by me again. Needs committee consultation: [yes/no]
• Is acceptable with a few minor revisions, to be seen by me again.
• Is acceptable with voluntary minor revisions.
• Is acceptable as is.

If substantive revisions are required, the student will need to respond to these revisions, distribute a revised version to the committee, and the committee will have two more weeks to read and assess the revised version. All committee members must approve "as is" or "with voluntary minor revisions" before the defense can proceed.  

Dissertation Defense Date: Students are responsible for coordinating the schedule for their dissertation defense date. Due to the difficulty of coordinating schedules for several faculty, students are encouraged to find a mutually agreeable tentative date and time (we recommend a 2-hour duration) for the defense and ask committee members to pencil it in. However, it is crucial to recognize that this date will be confirmed only when the student has received approval from all members of their committee. In addition, the department must advertise the defense for two weeks before the date it can be held. Therefore, we strongly recommend the dissertation be submitted to the committee ten weeks before tentative defense date to accommodate time for rounds of revisions. The date will be pushed back if the student has not received approval from all members. 

Defenses can take place at any point in the year, as long as the committee agrees to convene. However, note there are deadlines to complete the defense in time for November, February, and May degree conferrals. The Department recommends that the defense be held at least 1-2 weeks prior to the dissertation submission deadline for that degree period. Deadlines for the current year can be found online on the  Harvard Griffin GSAS Degree Calendar .

To submit: Email your dissertation as a single Word Doc or PDF file (or both) to your committee, cc’ing the Graduate Program. The Graduate Program will follow up on this email by distributing the Dissertation Approval Form .  

Oral Defense:   Once the dissertation committee has approved the written dissertation, the student should book a room for the defense and send an abstract to the Graduate Office, which will announce the defense to the Department. WJH 1550 and 105, and NW 243 are the most common choices for a room. Students should submit a room request through FAS RoomBook . Committee members may participate remotely via Zoom, if necessary.  The Department does not have a budget to fly in committee members from other institutions, although students should consult with their individual advisors to determine whether they would cover travel costs. A parking pass can be provided for committee members at nearby institutions.

The oral examination is moderated by the student's advisor, who is the DAC Chair. The advisor will introduce the student. The student gives a formal presentation summarizing their dissertation work. The duration of this presentation varies by area; please check in with your advisor to confirm. Next, each committee member will take turns asking questions (this is what is referred to as the ‘defense’). If there is time, the advisor may invite questions from the audience. At the conclusion of the questions, the candidate and audience are dismissed, and the committee meets to make a final evaluation of the student’s candidacy for a Ph.D. In cases of a positive evaluation, the committee members sign the Thesis Acceptance Certificate . 

Thesis Acceptance Certificate (TAC):   Students must complete a thesis acceptance certificate (TAC), which includes the title of the dissertation and signatures of all committee members. Prior to the oral defense, the Graduate Office will prepare a TAC, which includes the title of the dissertation, student name, and signature lines for each committee member The title on the TAC must read exactly as it does on the title page of the dissertation. A copy of the signed TAC should appear before the title page of the online dissertation submission; no page number should be assigned to the TAC. The TAC will be included in all copies of the dissertation.  

Final Dissertation Submission to GSAS:   Following the successful oral defense, students must submit their dissertation in PDF format to the FAS Registrar’s Office through  ProQuest ETD by the deadline established for each degree conferral date (see the Harvard Griffin GSAS  Degree Calendar  or the  Registrar’s Office website ). Please carefully review the  dissertation formatting  before submitting online. Formatting errors may prevent students from receiving their degree. The TAC must additionally be uploaded as a separate "Administrative Document" when submitting the electronic dissertation. The Registrar’s Office will review the dissertation for compliance and will contact the student to confirm acceptance or to request alterations. More details on the dissertation submission process can be found here .

• Required Courses
• First Year Project
• Second Year Project
• Master's in Passing
• Graduating & Commencement

• Harvard University Archives
• Ask an Archivist

Q. How do I find and request dissertations?

• 1 Borrow Direct
• 1 Directions
• 4 Dissertations and theses
• 11 Harvard History
• 1 Interlibrary Loan
• 5 Online Resources
• 2 Prize papers

Answered By: Archives Reference Staff Last Updated: Nov 10, 2021     Views: 16261

All dissertations held by the Harvard University Archives are cataloged in the Harvard Library On-Line Information System (HOLLIS). To search for dissertations from 1873 to 2012, start with HOLLIS :

• Search by author, title, and/or keyword
• To improve your search results, limit the repository location to Harvard University Archives

Please note: to find dissertations submitted since 2012 please use DASH (Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard).

How to request reading room access or digital scans to dissertations:

You will need to create an online account in the HOLLIS Special Request system to submit requests for reading room use or digital scanning. After you create an account, you may submit your request as either a Reading Room Request or a Copy Request.

As you complete the HOLLIS SPECIAL REQUEST/online order form, please be sure to include the following information in the following fields to expedite the request.

• Library: Harvard University Archives
• Call number: (e.g. HU 90.5459.2 )

Please be sure to complete an individual request form for each unique title and call number.

Please note that retrievals of dissertations from off-site storage can take up to two business days. For reading room or scan requests, check your HOLLIS Special Request account to monitor the status of your request.

Imaging Services currently charges a flat rate of $135 to scan and deliver copies of Harvard theses and dissertations for reference use. If a digital version of the thesis or dissertation already exists (and scanning is not necessary to produce a copy), Imaging Services charges a $30 fee to download a copy.

When you submit the online order form, Imaging Services staff will reply with cost and delivery information.

• Share on Facebook

Was this helpful? Yes 13 No 15

Related Topics

• Dissertations and theses

Other Ways to Contact Us

Dissertations

Most Harvard PhD dissertations from 2012 forward are available online in DASH , Harvard’s central open-access repository and are linked below. Many older dissertations can be found on ProQuest Dissertation and Theses Search which many university libraries subscribe to.

Dissertation

The Graduate Student Dissertation

A student is required to demonstrate ability to perform original research in political science by writing a dissertation that makes a significant contribution to knowledge in the field. The requirement may also be fulfilled in the form of a three-article dissertation by approval of the dissertation committee.

Dissertations must be approved by three committee members, two of whom must be faculty members of the Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The chair must be a member of the Department of Government. Any member of the committee who is not a member of the department must be approved by the dissertation chair. Dissertations must be approved for defense by the committee. The final copies of the dissertation must conform to the requirements described online in  The Form of the PhD Dissertation .

Special Examination

After the dissertation has been approved, and after all other degree requirements have been met, a student will take the “special” oral examination, or defense. This examination is focused on the dissertation and on the relevant special field, which is ordinarily one of the fields that the student presented in the general examination, or an approved portion of that field.

Students who defend their dissertation later than six years after taking the general examination must re-take the focus field of the general examination. Approved parental leave extends this period by one year per child, but no other reason for leave does.

Depositing Dissertation Data

Students are required to make available to the  Harvard-MIT Data Center  all of the quantitative data they have compiled in machine-readable form (together with accompanying explanatory materials) upon which the findings in their dissertation depend. These data will be made available to other users five years after receipt of PhD or sooner, if the PhD recipient permits.

Ten-Year Enrollment Cap

An overall Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) policy has been established that students ordinarily will not be permitted to register beyond their tenth year in the Graduate School. However, exceptions to this rule may be made for students who have taken medical or parental leave or for students with other special circumstances. However, according to GSAS policy, the number of G8s and above may impact the number of offers made during admissions. Students who are administratively withdrawn are free to apply for readmission to GSAS, so as to re-register for the purpose of receiving the degree, when their dissertation is completed.

• Publishing Options
• Introduction

Harvard Griffin GSAS strives to provide students with timely, accurate, and clear information. If you need help understanding a specific policy, please contact the office that administers that policy.

• Application for Degree
• Credit for Completed Graduate Work
• Ad Hoc Degree Programs
• Acknowledging the Work of Others
• Dissertation Advisory Committee
• Formatting Your Dissertation
• Subject, Invention, and Patents
• Submitting Your Dissertation
• English Language Proficiency
• PhD Program Requirements
• Secondary Fields
• Year of Graduate Study (G-Year)
• Master's Degrees
• Grade and Examination Requirements
• Conduct and Safety
• Financial Aid
• Non-Resident Students
• Registration
• Residence Halls
• Student Groups

On this page:

• Distribution of Dissertation

Making Your Dissertation Publicly Available

Licensing agreements, distribution of the dissertation.

Students are given a variety of options regarding the distribution of their work. Upon final approval, the dissertation is distributed based on the permissions and publishing options students select during the ProQuest ETD  submission process.

PhD dissertations are made openly available as proof of the candidate’s achievement, echoing a traditional European idea that the candidate for a doctorate must make a contribution to knowledge and cannot have a degree for making a discovery that is kept secret. Because of this, restricting access to dissertations or delaying the release of the work (i.e. “embargoed”) only occurs in very exceptional cases.

Embargoes (Delaying Open Release)

If necessary, students may request to embargo their work for six months, one year, two years, or more. Up to a two-year embargo can be chosen during submission with no additional permissions; embargo periods over two years require additional support from the student’s director of graduate studies (DGS). An embargo period can be selected in the "PQ Publishing Options" and "IR Publishing Options" sections of ProQuest ETD . If students would like to request a delayed release of their dissertation of  longer than two years , they will be prompted to upload a signed document  to the “Administrative Documents” section showing the director of graduate study's approval of this request. If students do not have a document when submitting their dissertation, they will be asked to have the DGS email the Registrar's Office , acknowledging approval of the delayed-release request.

Regardless of the length of the embargo, the full text of the dissertation is not openly accessible, however, the metadata associated with the work (general information about the dissertation recorded at the time of online submission) and the abstract will remain publicly available. Please note:

• It is  not  necessary to embargo a dissertation for patenting purposes once a patent application has been filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. At that point, any invention may be disclosed publicly without a loss of patent rights. (See the  Patents  page for more information).

When submitting work through ProQuest ETD , students are asked to agree to two distribution licenses: the Harvard Author Agreement, which grants the University a non-exclusive license to preserve, reproduce, and display the work in DASH, and the ProQuest distribution license, which grants ProQuest a non-exclusive license to preserve, reproduce, display, collect royalties against, collect data on use, and repurpose your work in text-similarity software. 

Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard

The Harvard Author Agreement, which is similar to licensing under the FAS faculty open-access policies, does not constrain your rights to subsequently publish your work. Through ProQuest ETD , dissertations are made available online through the  Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard  (DASH) portal, a central, open-access repository of research by members of the Harvard community. DASH makes your dissertation available to anyone at no cost. In the Publishing Information section of ProQuest ETD, students must review and accept the Harvard License Agreement to acknowledge distribution of their dissertation through DASH, pursuant to any  embargo  placed on the work in the submission tool.

Deposit to the Harvard Library

In addition to your work being made available in DASH, dissertations are added to the collections of the Harvard University Archives, digitally preserved within the Harvard Library and discoverable through the Harvard Library catalog. 

Students are also required to consent to the ProQuest license agreement, and dissertations are automatically added to  ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global . As part of the  license agreement , ProQuest may sell student dissertations; if authors do not want  any  sales of their dissertation, they may permanently embargo it with ProQuest either with approval from their program or by contacting ProQuest after submission. The agreement further allows ProQuest to distribute copies of the dissertation in microfilm, paper, and digital forms by way of thesis subscription, sales, and indexing services pursuant to any embargo . Finally, the ProQuest publishing agreement is non-exclusive and in no way prohibits the author from making any disposition of other manuscript copies, nor does it prohibit the author from publishing the dissertation at any time. (Please see  ProQuest license and copyright considerations .)

CONTACT INFO

Katie riggs, explore events.

• Harvard Library
• Research Guides
• Faculty of Arts & Sciences Libraries

Rinascimento

• Online Dissertations
• Villa I Tatti - The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies
• e-Dictionaries
• Citation Tools & Document Delivery
• Library Catalogs & Bibliographies
• Classical Studies
• Medieval Studies
• Renaissance Studies
• Image Databases
• Special Topics
• Sales, Museums, Exhibitions
• Databases on single arguments or authors
• Databases on literature of specific countries
• Abstracts, Indices & Bibliography
• Music & Scores online
• Specific Topics
• Asian, Islamic, Jewish and Byzantine History
• History of Science & Medicine
• History of Law
• History - divided by countries
• Christian Philosophy & Religion
• Islamic Philosophy & Religion
• Hebrew Philosophy & Religion
• Manuscripts & Incunabula - Catalogs of Specific Libraries
• Renaissance Research Centers & Societies
• Upcoming talks & conferences
• Featured publications on Renaissance Studies
• Digital Humanities journals + blogs
• DH projects in prossess

Access information

Reference - Index

• Reference General
• Information Tools & Citation Indices

Dissertations online

• Dissertation Abstracts - SEE: Dissertations and Theses Full Text (ProQuest) Proquest database with North American PhD thesis, mostly full-text.
• Amicus (Canada) Canadian Meta-catalog, containing theses as well.
• Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) is an international organization dedicated to promoting the adoption, creation, use, dissemination, and preservation of electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs). NDLTD is the biggest consortium worldwide for online dissertations.
• Australasian Digital Theses Program (Australia + New Zealand)
• DART-Europe The DART-Europe partners help to provide researchers with a single European Portal for the discovery of Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs), and they participate in advocacy to influence future European e-theses developments. more... less... DART-Europe is a partnership of research libraries and library consortia who are working together to improve global access to European research theses. DART-Europe is endorsed by LIBER (Ligue des Bibliothèques Européennes de Recherche), and it is the European Working Group of the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD).
• BNF: Thèses et écrits académiques (France)
• Index to Theses (1970-) The Index to Theses describes theses accepted for higher degrees by universities in Great Britain and Ireland and the Council for National Academic Awards from 1716 to date. From 1716 through 1985, the database provides citations only. For the period 1970-1985, abstracts are to some extent searchable. Abstracts are available online from 1986 on. more... less... What's New
• EThOS (UK) UK theses online
• Theses Canada
• DissOnline (Germany) German dissertations. The www.dissonline.de information system provides a wide range of information on the electronic publishing of dissertations and post-doctoral theses. Information is held which is of relevance for authors, libraries, scientific institutions and publishing houses.
• TesiOnline (Italy) Born in 2000, Tesionline already published in Italy more than 20,000 among theses and dissertations, creating the largest web community made of students, teachers, scholars and young graduated looking for their first job. Tesionline is a non academic website where you can publish your theses and dissertations for free.
• theses.fr (France)
• Tesis doctorales: TESEO (Spain) Spanish PhD dissertations online.
• DISSERTATIONS.SE (Sweden)
• EBSCO Open Dissertations
• Biblioteca Digital Brasileira de Teses e Dissertacoes (Brasil)
• Biblioteca Digital FCE (Argentina)
• Repertorio italiano delle tesi di dottorato di interesse storico-scientifico (Italy)
• Ethos-UCL (Britain)
• << Previous: e-Dictionaries
• Next: Citation Tools & Document Delivery >>
• Last Updated: Sep 6, 2024 10:38 AM
• URL: https://guides.library.harvard.edu/rinascimento

Harvard University Digital Accessibility Policy

Pardon Our Interruption

As you were browsing something about your browser made us think you were a bot. There are a few reasons this might happen:

• You've disabled JavaScript in your web browser.
• You're a power user moving through this website with super-human speed.
• You've disabled cookies in your web browser.
• A third-party browser plugin, such as Ghostery or NoScript, is preventing JavaScript from running. Additional information is available in this support article .

To regain access, please make sure that cookies and JavaScript are enabled before reloading the page.

Student Work

SILVERLINE: A New Model for Data Centers in the Age of AI: Verticalities at the Edge of the Cloud

by Ben Parker (MAUD ’24), Christopher Oh (MAUD ’24), Ziyang Dong (MArch ’25), Jasmine Ibrahim…

Thomas Oslund and Catherine Murray, Instructors

Spring 2024

by Yeonho Lee (MArch II ’24)…

Grace La and James Dallman, Faculty Advisors

Learning from Quartzsite, AZ: Emerging Nomadic Spatial Practices in America

by Mojtaba Nabavi (MAUD ’24) Quartzsite, in Arizona, is a popular winter home base…

Rahul Mehrotra and Eve Blau , Faculty Advisors

How to (Un)build a House? A Reinvention of Wood Framing

by Clara Mu He (MArch I…

Toshiko Mori , Faculty Advisor

Seeding Grounds: Working Beyond Arcadia in The Pyrocene

by Stewart Crane Sarris (MLA I ’24) From drought, to fire, Australia’s landscapes face multiple existential…

Craig Douglas , Faculty Advisor

Reforesting Fort Ord

by Slide Kelly (MLA I AP, MDes ’24) This thesis examines the potential for…

Amy Whitesides , Faculty Advisor

Project Kin

by Priyanka Pillai (MDE ’24) and Julius Stein (MDE ’24) When conflict arises from humanitarian crises, families…

Kathleen Brandenburg and Karen Reuther , Faculty Advisors

INSURGENT GEOLOGY: Mineral Matters in the Arctic

by Melanie Louterbach (MLA I ’24) “Insurgent Geology” is about oil, fossils, power, and people.

KEUR FÀTTALIKU — The House of Recollection

by Mariama Muhammadou Modou Kah (MArch II…

Rahul Mehrotra , Faculty Advisor

Monterrey’s Urban [River] Forest: Improving Microclimatic Conditions through Public-Private Partnership Vertical Development

by Miguel Lantigua Inoa (MArch II + MLA AP ‘24), Jaime Espinoza (MRE ‘25), Chris…

Vallerani Micro Water Harvesting

The Badia Region covers more than 80% of Jordan and receives less than 8 inches…

Amy Whitesides and Kira Clingen , Faculty Advisors

Public Sediment for Alameda Creek

Resilient by Design was the Bay Area’s year-long collaborative design challenge for resilience to sea…

Ashland Forest Resiliency Project

The Ashland Forest Resiliency Stewardship Project is an ongoing collaboration since 2010 between the Lomakatsi…

TransMilenio and Bikeways

Enrique Peñalosa, was a two-term mayor of Bogotá. He served from 1998 to 2001 and…

Chagga Homegardens

Homegardens are subsistence gardens that provide a supplemental source of food and nutritional security in…

Pleistocene Park

At the end of the Pleistocene, the steppe ecosystem was dominant across the planet, with…

Copenhagen Cloudburst Plan

In 2011, Copenhagen was struck by a 1,000-year storm event, a Cloudburst, that flooded the…

Delhi Stepwell Restoration

Baolis, or stepwells, are underground reservoirs where water can be stored close to the groundwater…

Swansea Bay Lagoon

Swansea Bay was once home to a thriving oyster industry that employed 600 residents in…

Connecting Gilman Square: A New Housing and Green Space Development

by Chandler Caserta (MArch ’25), Austin Sun (MLA/MArch 24), Kei Takanami (MArch ‘25), Amber Zeng…

Weijia Song , Instructor

2023 Peter Rice Prize: Sujie Park’s “Material Alchemy”

by Sujie Park (MArch I ’23) — Recipient of the Peter Rice Prize. The history…

Andrew Witt and Martin Bechthold , Faculty Advisors

Spring 2023

2023 Digital Design Prize: Amelia Gan’s “Place-Time: From Waste to 3D CAD, or, Framework for geographical and temporally conscious design”

by Amelia Gan (MDes ’23) — Recipient of the Digital Design Prize. The dominance of…

Andrew Witt and Allen Sayegh , Faculty Advisors

2023 Clifford Wong Prize in Housing Design: Randy Crandon and Maddie Farrer

Sidewalk Stuff: Adaptive Reuse Cohousing by Randy Crandon (MArch I ’25) and Maddie Farrer (MArch…

Jenny French , Instructor

2023 Urban Planning Thesis Prize: Michael Zajakowski Uhll’s “Our History is our Resource:” Historic Narrative as Urban Planning Strategy in Chicago’s Pullman Neighborhood

by Michael Zajakowski Uhll (MUP ’23) — Recipient of the Urban Planning Thesis Prize. How…

Rachel Meltzer , Faculty Advisor

2023 James Templeton Kelley Prize: Jacqueline Wong’s “An Intrinsic Model for a Non-Neutral Plural National School”

by Jacqueline Wong (MArch I ’23) — Recipient of the James Templeton Kelley Prize, Master…

Sergio Lopez-Pineiro, Faculty Advisor

2023 Urban Design Thesis Prize: Saad Boujane’s “Dwellings, Paths, Places: Configurative Habitat in Casablanca, Morocco “

by Saad Boujane (MAUD ’23) — Recipient of the Urban Design Thesis Prize. The Modernist…

Peter Rowe , Faculty Advisor

2023 Landscape Architecture AP Thesis Prize and 2023 Digital Design Prize: Sonia Sobrino Ralston’s “Uncommon Knowledge: Practices and Protocols for Environmental Information”

by Sonia Sobrino Ralston (MLA I AP ’23) — Recipient of the Landscape Architecture AP…

Rosalea Monacella , Faculty Advisor

2023 Design Studies Thesis Prize: Alaa Suliman Eltayeb Mohamed Hamid’s Ghostopia: Interrogating Colonial Legacies and A Manifesto for The Modernized Nile

by Alaa Suliman Eltayeb Mohamed Hamid (MDes ’23) — Recipient of the Design Studies Thesis…

Montserrat Bonvehi Rosich, Faculty Advisor

2023 Landscape Architecture Thesis Prize: Kevin Robishaw’s Manatees and Margaritas: Toward a Strange New Paradise

by Kevin Robishaw (MLA I ’23) — Recipient of the Landscape Architecture Thesis Prize.

2023 Outstanding Design Engineering Project Award: Rebecca Brand and Caroline Fong’s Jua: Cultivating Digital Knowledge Networks for Smallholder Farmers

by Rebecca Brand (MDE ’23) and…

Jock Herron , Faculty Advisor

2023 James Templeton Kelley Prize: Deok Kyu Chung’s “Boundaries of Everyday: walls to voids, voids to solids, solids to walls”

by Deok Kyu Chung (MArch II ’23) — Recipient of the James Templeton Kelley Prize,…

Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu, Faculty Advisors

2023 Landscape Architecture AP Thesis Prize: Celina Abba and Enrique Cavelier’s Plantation Futures: Foregrounding Lost Narratives

by Celina Abba (MLA I AP ’23) and Enrique…

2023 Plimpton-Poorvu Design Prize, Honorable Mention: “Truly, Oregon! Empower Lloyd Center, Portland, OR”

by Heejin Park (MAUD ’23), Terry Kim (MUP ’23), Aelin Shaoyu Li (MDes ’24), Claire…

Richard Peiser , Instructor

2023 Plimpton-Poorvu Design Prize, First Prize: “The Gansevoort: Design for Longevity”

by Xinxin Cheryl Lin (MArch II ’24), Vivian Cheng (MAUD ’23), and Pinyang Paul Chen…

Ben van Berkel and Dana Behrman, Instructors

2023 Plimpton-Poorvu Design Prize, Second Prize: “Boyd Street Gateway”

by Maddie Farrer (MArch I ‘25), Madeleine Levin (MUP ‘23), and Arielle Rawlings (MUP ‘23)…

Edward Marchant, Instructor

Spring 2022

2022 Landscape Architecture Thesis Prize: Liwei Shen’s “The Echoes of Sky River – Two Pre-modern and Modern Atmospheric Assemblages”

by Liwei Shen (MLA I ’22) — Recipient of the Landscape Architecture Thesis Prize. The…

2022 James Templeton Kelley Prize: Remi McClain’s “There Goes the Neighborhood”

by Remi McClain (MArch II ’22) — Recipient of the James Templeton Kelley Prize, Master…

Mark Lee and Erika Naginski , Faculty Advisors

2022 James Templeton Kelley Prize: Isaac Henry Pollan’s “This Is Not A Firehouse”

by Isaac Henry Pollan (MArch I ’22) — Recipient of the James Templeton Kelley Prize,…

Sean Canty , Faculty Advisor

2022 Clifford Wong Prize in Housing Design: Brian Lee’s “People’s Park Complex: Repairing the Modern City”

by Brian Lee (MArch ’22) — Recipient of the 2021 Clifford Wong Prize in…

Grace La and Jenny French , Faculty Advisors

2022 Peter Rice Prize: Hangsoo Jeong’s “Upon Concrete: Retrofitting Architecture with Malleability”

by Hangsoo Jeong (MArch ’22) — Recipient of the Peter Rice Prize   Upon Concrete:…

Mark Lee, Faculty Advisor

Pagination Links

• Go to page 2
• Go to page 3
• Go to page 4
• Go to page 5
• Go to page 6
• Go to page 7
• Go to page 8
• Go to page 9
• Page …
• Go to page 16

2024-2025 Thesis Writers’ Schedule for Junior Year

• Attend the Thesis Writer Information Session on November 16 th , 2023, 2-3pm (WJH 950)
• Start thinking of a topic and how to refine it into a research question. Consider what additional courses you can take (methods or topical electives) that will help prepare you for research.  
• Speak to potential advisors about your topic. Potential advisors could be instructors or TFs from past Sociology courses, or Sociology faculty or graduate students with research interests that align with your thesis topic.
• A list of Sociology Graduate Students who have expressed interest in serving as a thesis advisor is available here.

Spring Term

• Secure your thesis advisor.  You should confirm your thesis advisor by the end of February . Having a confirmed thesis advisor early is crucial to writing a strong Statement of Intent and funding proposal.
• If your research involves human subjects (interviews, surveys, etc.), you will need to complete the Committee on the Use of Human Subjects (CUHS, also known as the Institutional Review Board or IRB) ethics training and submit a Decision Form via the Undergraduate Research Training Portal (URTP) to have IRB approve your project.  Note that YOU CANNOT begin your research if you have not received approval from IRB .
• See below for details.
• The most common source of funding for thesis research is through the Harvard College Research Program (HCRP) . The deadline for summer funding is late March.
• Register for the SOCIOL 99A: Senior Thesis Tutorial for Fall 2024.

Summer between Junior and Senior Year

• Meet with your advisor in the Spring to confirm your independent work schedule and tasks over the summer.
• Collect data and continue reading literature, per the plan you devised with your thesis advisor and submitted with your Statement of Intent.

Submitting Your Statement of Intent:

Tuesday, april 2nd, 2024 at 5pm – deadline to submit your statement of intent.

Submit your Statement of Intent along with your signed Statement of Intent Form . You can view a past example of an excellent Statement of Intent here.

Your statement of intent should include:   (1) a description of the thesis topic and a specific statement of your research question, (2) a brief description of the research design (what kind of research will be necessary, how it will be carried out), (3) a projected work schedule through the fall term, including summer work if it is anticipated, and (4) an acknowledgment of agreement to the process and deadlines detailed in A GUIDE TO WRITING A SENIOR THESIS IN SOCIOLOGY.

Once you’ve submitted your Statement of Intent and received approval, you will be given permission to enroll in SOCIOL 99A: Senior Thesis Tutorial in Fall 2024. You’re officially a “thesiser!”

Harvard president's resignation highlights new conservative weapon against colleges: Plagiarism

Claudine gay’s resignation tuesday followed weeks of mounting accusations that she lifted language from other scholars in her doctoral dissertation and journal articles., by collin binkley and moriah balingit | the associated press • published january 3, 2024 • updated on january 3, 2024 at 11:04 pm.

The downfall of Harvard’s president has elevated the threat of unearthing plagiarism, a cardinal sin in academia, as a possible new weapon in conservative attacks on higher education.

Claudine Gay’s resignation Tuesday followed weeks of mounting accusations that she lifted language from other scholars in her doctoral dissertation and journal articles . The allegations surfaced amid backlash over her congressional testimony about antisemitism on campus.

The plagiarism allegations came not from her academic peers but her political foes, led by conservatives who sought to oust Gay and put her career under intense scrutiny in hopes of finding a fatal flaw. Her detractors charged that Gay — who has a Ph.D. in government, was a professor at Harvard and Stanford and headed Harvard’s largest division before being promoted — got the top job in large part because she is a Black woman.

Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist who helped orchestrate the effort, celebrated her departure as a win in his campaign against elite institutions of higher education. On X, formerly Twitter, he wrote “SCALPED,” as if Gay was a trophy of violence, invoking a gruesome practice taken up by white colonists who sought to eradicate Native Americans.

“Tomorrow, we get back to the fight,” he said on X, describing a “playbook” against institutions deemed too liberal by conservatives. His latest target: efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in education and business.

“We must not stop until we have abolished DEI ideology from every institution in America,” he said. In another post, he announced a new “plagiarism hunting fund,” vowing to “expose the rot in the Ivy League and restore truth, rather than racialist ideology, as the highest principle in academic life.”

Gay didn’t directly address the plagiarism accusations in a campus letter announcing her resignation, but she noted she was troubled to see doubt cast on her commitment “to upholding scholarly rigor.” She also indirectly nodded to the December congressional hearing that started the onslaught of criticism, where she did not say unequivocally that calls for the genocide of Jews would violate Harvard policy.

In a New York Times op-ed published Wednesday , Gay acknowledged making mistakes. She said her published work contained passages where “some material duplicated other scholars' language, without proper attribution." But she said she never had claimed credit for others' work, and she stands by her original research. And at the December congressional hearing that started the onslaught of criticism, she wrote, “I neglected to clearly articulate that calls for the genocide of Jewish people are abhorrent and unacceptable."

Her departure comes just six months after becoming Harvard’s first Black president.

As the figureheads of their universities, presidents often face heightened scrutiny, and numerous leaders have been felled by plagiarism scandals. Stanford University’s president resigned last year amid findings that he manipulated scientific data in his research. A president of the University of South Carolina resigned in 2021 after he lifted parts of his speech at a graduation ceremony.

In Gay’s case, many academics were troubled with how the plagiarism came to light: as part of a coordinated campaign to discredit Gay and force her from office, in part because of her involvement in efforts for racial justice on campus. Her resignation came after calls for her ouster from prominent conservatives including Rep. Elise Stefanik, a Harvard alumna, and Bill Ackman, a billionaire hedge fund manager who has donated millions to Harvard.

The campaign against Gay and other Ivy League presidents has become part of a broader right-wing effort to remake higher education, which has often been seen as a bastion of liberalism. Republican detractors have sought to gut funding for public universities, roll back tenure and banish initiatives that make colleges more welcoming to students of color, disabled students and the LGBTQ+ community. They also have aimed to limit how race and gender are discussed in classrooms.

Walter M. Kimbrough, the former president of the historically Black Dillard University, said what unfolded at Harvard reminded him of an adage from his mother, a Black graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, in the 1950s. As a Black person in academia, “you always have to be twice, three times as good,” he said.

“There are going to be people, particularly if they have any inkling that the person of color is not the most qualified, who will label them a ‘DEI hire,’ like they tried to label her," Kimbrough said. “If you want to lead an institution like (Harvard) … there are going to be people who are looking to disqualify you.”

Reviews by conservative activists and then by a Harvard committee did find multiple shortcomings in Gay’s academic citations. In dozens of instances first published by The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative website, Gay’s work includes long stretches of prose that mirror language from other published works. A review ordered by Harvard acknowledged “duplicative language” and missing quotation marks, but it concluded the errors “were not considered intentional or reckless” and didn’t rise to misconduct.

Harvard previously said Gay updated her dissertation and requested corrections from journals.

Among her critics in conservative circles and academia, the findings are clear evidence that Gay, as the top academic at the pinnacle of U.S. higher education, is unfit to serve. Her defenders say it isn’t so clear-cut.

In highly specialized fields, scholars often use similar language to describe the same concepts, said Davarian Baldwin, a historian at Trinity College who writes about race and higher education. Gay clearly made mistakes, he said, but with the spread of software designed to detect plagiarism, it wouldn’t be hard to find similar overlap in works by other presidents and professors.

The tool becomes dangerous, he added, when it “falls into the hands of those who argue that academia in general is a cesspool of incompetence and bad actors.”

John Pelissero, a former interim college president who now works for the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, said instances of plagiarism deserve to be evaluated individually and that it’s not always so cut and dried.

“You’re looking for whether there was intentionality to mislead or inappropriately borrow other people’s ideas in your work,” Pelissero said. “Or was there an honest mistake?”

Without commenting on the merits of the allegations against Gay, President Irene Mulvey of the American Association of University Professors said she fears plagiarism investigations could be “weaponized” to pursue a political agenda.

“There is a right-wing political attack on higher education right now, which feels like an existential threat to the academic freedom that has made American higher education the envy of the world,” Mulvey said.

She worries Gay’s departure will put a new strain on college presidents. In addition to their work courting donors, policymakers and alumni, presidents are supposed to protect faculty from interference so they can research unimpeded.

“For presidents to be taken down like this, it does not bode well for academic freedom,” she said. “I think it’ll chill the climate for academic freedom. And it may make university presidents less likely to speak out against this inappropriate interference for fear of losing their jobs or being targeted.”

More on the Harvard controversy

Harvard President Claudine Gay resigning amid scandals

Harvard finds more ‘inadequate citation' from president's work, reports say

Hundreds of faculty members sign letter in support of embattled harvard president, this article tagged under:.