Throughout the first three weeks of May, nineteen exceptional Quantitative Social Science majors presented their honors theses. The culmination of this year-long intensive program gave students the opportunity to showcase a wide range of innovative research projects to supportive audiences, including advisors, faculty, friends, and family.
Please visit the Honors Theses page for a slideshow of the 2026 presentations found at the bottom of the page.
This year’s QSS Honors theses are as follows:
Daniella Nichols
“Damage Inequality: A Spatial Analysis of Social Vulnerability and Hurricane Helene Infrastructure Damage in Western North Carolina”
Advisors: Peter DeWan and Colleen Fox
Anna Block
“The Impact of Social Cohesion on Urban Community Garden Ecology and Permanence”
Advisor: Theresa Ong
Ava Politis
“Should I Stay or Should I Go: Analysis of Major League Baseball's Arbitration Process”
Advisor: Michael Herron
Hiba Ali
“The Effect of Federally Elected Officials’ Health Messaging on Public Engagement and Sentiment on X”
Advisors: Peter DeWan and Steven Woloshin
Shreya Kumar
“Homophily and Community Structure of Political Deepfake Propagation”
Advisors: Peter Dewan and Nikhil Singh
Tracy Weener
“AI-Mediated Conversations for Geopolitical Persuasion: Evidence from Taiwan”
Advisors: Herbert Chang and Yusaku Horiuchi
Benjamin Shaman
“Is it Good for Farmers? Sustainable Agriculture and Northern New England Farmers’ Perceptions of Resilience”
Advisors: Herbert Chang and Mario Machado
Malachai Ah Yo
“Vox Machinae in Deserto: Gender and Artificiality Shape Trust in AI-Generated Voices”
Advisor: Herbert Chang
Diana (Zixuan) Wang
“Autocratic Genderwashing: How Gender Quotas Shape International Perceptions”
Advisors: Michael Herron and Yusaku Horiuchi
Christian Chantayan
“Abandoning the Jackpot? Public Policy Rationales, Goal Displacement, and State Lotteries”
Advisor: Jason Barabas
Sam Haskel
“How We Think: The Impact of Peer Pressure on Decision Making”
Advisor: Jeremy Manning
Miaoxuan (Hermia) Huang
“Cross-Border Diffusion of Open-Source AI Models: A Quantitative Approach towards the Political Economy of AI”
Advisor: Herbert Chang
Daniel Hernandez
“The Effect of Margin Financing on Volatility in China’s Equity Markets”
Advisor: Keng-Chi Chang
Sarnika Ali
“The Unspoken and the Unseen: An Analysis of Victim Gender and Linguistic Framing of Sexual Assault in Judicial Discourse”
Advisor: Luke Chang
William Zheng
“Mandates, Markets, and Megawatts: An Empirical Analysis of the Causal Effects of Energy Storage Targets on Utility-Scale Battery Storage Deployment”
Advisor: Herbert Chang
Niccolo Campolo
“The Effect of Wait Time at the U.S.-Mexico Border on the Retail Price of Fresh Tomatoes in the United States”
Advisor: Michael Herron
Lily Levick
“Transit Infrastructure and Neighborhood Change: The Impact of the Q Train Expansion on Commercial Space Use in New York City's Upper East Side”
Advisor: Luis Alvarez Leon
Alexa Strauss
“Interfaith Marriage and Religious Identity Formation: Disentangling Selection and Institutional Effects”
Advisors: Randall Balmer and Robert Cooper
Mary Ford
“Homes of Interest: An Analysis of the Housing Markets of Oranienburg, Dachau, and the Four Villages”
Advisors: Michael Herron and Susannah Heschel