Honors

My thesis examines whether political science theories of corruption can deepen and extend the Social Psychological Model of Scientific Practices (SPMSP), a framework for understanding the institutional causes of scientific misconduct. Drawing on political science literature on incentive misalignment, weak oversight, and accountability failures, I will analyze how corruption research can clarify why scientists engage in misconduct, and whether anti-corruption reforms offer transferable solutions to structural vulnerabilities in research institutions. My interest began when I joined Professor Krosnick's Political Psychology Research Group (PPRG). In the lab, I was introduced to the replication crisis in the social sciences and began exploring in depth case studies of scientific misconduct. What struck me most was how familiar these institutional failures looked: misaligned incentives, weak oversight, and normative pressures. I started asking whether the same dynamics had been studied elsewhere. That question led me to political science literature on corruption, and I became convinced that the two fields had more to say to each other than the existing scholarship acknowledged.

My thesis explores conceptions of governance and deliberation in the Epistles of the Ikhwan al-Safa in conversation with contemporary (deliberative) democratic theory. Often political thought is considered to have started in Ancient Greece 2400 years ago; however, the history of political thought is much more entwined, involving substantial engagement with and contribution from the Global South, namely the Muslim civilizations and communities that recovered, transmitted, and translated the ancient texts to Europe, along with their own perspectives, understandings, and ideas. In contemporary discourse, the idea of democracy and deliberative democracy is sometimes dismissed as a "Western" concept; through my project, I aim to present a compelling counterargument to this claim, instead demonstrating how Global South perspectives contribute to the development of understandings of decision-making that are similar to contemporary conceptions of democracy. Ultimately, I hope to use my study of the Ikhwan al-Safa as a case study of a Muslim community/civilization that engaged closely with the Ancient Greek texts to make a meaningful contribution to political theory (specifically democratic theory).

My thesis focuses on the regulation of prediction markets. It's an especially salient topic at this time, but its prevalence may led to increased gambling addiction in our society and breakdown of insider trading norms. I hope to one day work in Congress focusing on policy.

My honors thesis focuses on The Political Economy of Development in Post-Conflict Syria. It asks how Syria’s transitional government is allocating reconstruction and services, and whether those decisions are reinforcing inequality among communities trying to rebuild after war. Political Science matters to me not as an abstract field of study, but as a means of improving the lives of ordinary people. My interest in development began in high school in Syracuse, New York, where I worked closely with Syrian refugees. Syracuse, a sanctuary city, became an important site of refugee resettlement in the years after the Syrian civil war began. Since then, I’ve wanted to understand what it would take to build societies in which security and mobility were not matters of luck.

My thesis concerns the political competition's influence on the tone, topics, and outcomes of governance. As a kid who grew up in an intensely polarized and competitive time in American politics, I'm very interested in how our hyper-competitive political atmosphere affects our democracy. According to traditional political science theory, close electoral competition should bring better accountability and more moderate policies, but modern American politics shows few of these characteristics. I'm fascinated by this contradiction and want to find answers, leading me to choose this topic for my thesis.

My thesis topic is Creating a Social Media Regulation Index. My background in technology and introduction to global democratic indices through Political Science courses here at Stanford led me to a project that would combine my interests and popular research methods. I would like to create a useful tool to contrast international social media regulation and compare trends to trade policy differences to uncover a unique pattern or the lack of one. My goal is to work in tech and attend law school to study AI and social media regulation.

My current thesis topic explores how administrative discretion in U.S. immigration enforcement varies across regions between 2005 and 2022 and whether this variation influences labor market outcomes and economic inequality among undocumented immigrants. By examining immigration enforcement as a decentralized form of policy implementation, my project will analyze how bureaucratic decision-making within federal agencies functions as a mechanism of economic governance and affects inequality across U.S. regions. I am especially motivated to research this topic because immigration enforcement remains a central issue in contemporary political debates, yet its economic consequences are often not fully understood. By analyzing how enforcement discretion affects economic outcomes, I hope to contribute to a deeper understanding of how immigration policy, law, and political institutions shape inequality, labor markets, and economic opportunity during a critical period in U.S. immigration policy.

My thesis topic is: Comparing U.S. and German carceral systems: have institutional and political coherence affected access to higher education in prison, conditioning recidivism? I conducted a research grant at my prior institution on the juvenile justice system, which led to me to audit college classes in the Oregon State Penitentiary. After transferring to Stanford, I wanted to continue research on the topic, to help change the systems I'd seen up close. I hope to attend law school after graduation, and to work somewhere in the field of criminal justice reform.