Public Policy Honors Thesis Program

Welcome to the Public Policy honors thesis page. The projects presented here are the result of a year-long process begun by our honors students in January of 2022. These students have produced 20 projects that cover topics as diverse from XXXXX to XXX. Students have done everything from interviewing policy experts, crunched databases, and analyzed Tweets. The result is an important array of studies that are both though provoking and intellectually rich. We recognize their hard work and dedication, and thank their thesis advisors for helping students complete their projects.

Nicholas Datto – A Net Negative: the Impact of Internet Access on Voter Turnout in U.S. Elections

Devan Desai – Unequal Burdens: Ethnic and Racial Differences in Low Back Pain Management and Treatment

Sabene Figueroa – The Mental Healthcare Access Crisis Among the Homeless Population

Kyle Gray – Negotiating with “Terrorists”: When is Diplomacy an Effective Way to End a Conflict?

Finn Hossfeld – Using Media to Understand Public Discourse on Carbon Capture, Storage, and Utilization Technology: A Qualitative Frame Analysis of US Media Coverage of the Petra Nova Project

Gautam Iyer – Remembering… and Forgetting: What Durham Communities Decide to Remember About Themselves, and How They Do It

Daniel King – An Undeniable Link: The Impacts of Immigration Policy on the American Agricultural Industry

Payton Little – The Health Policy Puzzle of Gender Affirming Care: Healthcare Policies In North Carolina as a Case Study

Leah Markbreiter – Social Connectedness, Altruism, and Vaccine Behavior: Improving Policy for Future Pandemics

Mary Monti – No Such Thing as a Textbook Case: Comparing Interstate Differences in High School Government Textbooks

Vaneeshe Patel – Planning for Better Communities: Exploring the Relationship Between New Urbanism in Citys’ Comprehensive Plans and Social Capital

Taalin RaoShah – Cheaper & Cleaner? A Case Study of Boston’s Community Choice Electricity

Leah Roffman – Exploring the distribution of utility-scale renewables and anti-renewable sentiments across communities in the US

Hailey Ross – The Impact of Pay-as-You-Throw Programs on Compost Contamination Rates in Colorado

Jonathan Schachter – The Cannibalization of Lottery Revenues through the Expansion of Online Sports Betting

Tri Truong – The Birth of a New China: How the U.S. – China Trade War Affected the Economy and Foreign Policies of Vietnam in 2016 – 2020