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Thesis Topic

The student is expected to complete a normal departmental program, with such emphasis upon the American field as that department permits, and a senior thesis on a topic related to American history, society, or culture. If the student’s major does not accommodate such a topic, an alternate project may be designed, subject to approval of the Program Director. 

Thesis Support Grants

The Program provides small thesis support grants for AMS program members. These grants generally range from about $200-$500, with more available in extraordinary circumstances. The deadline for 2008-2009 funding has passed. To apply for 2009-2010 funding, please submit a letter to the Program office. The letter should include:

  • A brief paragraph describing your project.
  • A budget, or list of anticipated expenses
  • The amount of your request.
  •  Information about other sources of funding to which you are applying. 
The letter may be submitted in person in 42 McCosh or by e-mail to jferszt@princeton.edu.

2009 Thesis Titles

Making Their Time Count: Improving Attendance by Older Youth in Out-of-School-Time Programs

 Righting an Environmental Wrong: Social Justice and Sharing the Domestic Burden of Climate Change Policies 
 
Commercial Surrogate Motherhood in America 

Rethinking the Classroom Society: Social and Cultural Reproduction, Discipline, and Education in a Trenton Charter School

Looking Back to Lead Us Forward: The Placement of Barack Obama in an Historical Context

Land of Commerce and Freedom: The New Nation and the Barbary Crisis, 1784-1794
Combating Crisis with Control: Understanding Mayor Bloomberg’s Education Reforms in New York City

Is a Penny Saved a Penny Earned? Stadium Finance and Franchise Value

Local Control and the Failure of Integration in New Jersey’s Public Schools, 1947-1967

Cognitive Control of Valenced Memories: Intentional Forgetting and its Clinical Implications

Cowboy Contractors: A Case for National Regulation of Private Military Companies

Education for Citizenship: Strategies to Engage University Faculties
Swimming Up This Mean Stream: An Anthropological Attempt at Solving the “Puerto Rican Problem” Through an Olympic Lens
 
Where Have They Gone, Jackie Robinson? An Analysis of the Decline of African-American Participation in Major League Baseball

We Deal in Lead: Stylized Gunplay in the American Experience

A Theory of Freedom and Its Impact on Speech

Fundamental Weighting in Industry Specific Stock Market Indexation

Switching It Up: The Presence of Superstitious Behavior Between Conflicting Athlete and Student Identities

Jorge Negrete in Spain: The First Certamen Cinematográfico Hispanoamericano, “Jalisco canta en Sevilla,” and the Discourse on Hispanidad
 
Cloaked in Tradition: Uncovering the Mask of Domesticity in Hospital Sketches and Beechenbrook
The Role of Selective Force Application in Determining Outcomes in Counterinsurgency: A Case Study of the 4th Infantry Division and the 101st Airborne Division, Iraq 2003-2004

William M. Gouge and the Politics of Hard Money in Jacksonian America

The Effects of Direct-to-Consumer Advertising of Antidepressants on Consumer Behavior

A Dynamic Analysis of the Battle for NAFTA in the U.S. House of Representatives

The Importance of Cross-Cultural Collaboration: A Comparative Examination of the Treatment of Depression in Children and Adolescents

The Sex Wars: Feminists Fighting Feminists in the Name of Sexual Freedom

A Sort of Cat-and-Dog Affair”: Arthur Krock, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Press-Government Relations in Democratic America

Mt. McKinley, Denali National Park, Alaska