Ten students from the Class of 2020 earned Honors in the Department of Government and Legal Studies.  When the College moved to remote instruction during Spring Break in March, these students had to shift gears and complete their projects from home. This meant doing their final data collection and writing without the in-person feedback of their advisors and classmates. The cohort of Honors students, though, finished strong and defended their projects in early May via Zoom with their faculty committees.

Normally, the Honors group would present their work to friends and family on the Thursday before Commencment. This year, we instead asked these impressive students to film short videos that outline their projects and review their evidence and findings. The project abstracts are linked with the titles. Congrats to these incredible students!

Becky Berman – Strange Progress: Politics of Sexual Violence in Supreme Court Confirmation Hearings from 1991-2018

 

Grace Cawdrey – Rehab, Restitution, or Reform? Drug Policy, Race, and Swing Voters in Ohio Politics 1983-2015

 

Olivia Giles – Torture under the Regime of Bashar al-Assad: Two Decades of Failed Human Rights Campaigns and Foreign Interference in Syria

 

Laura Howells – Digital Authoritarianism in China and Russia: A Comparative Study

 

Nichole Irving – An Analysis of Hezbollah’s Media Platforms, Focusing on Themes, Narratives and Strategy 

 

Sasa Jovanovic – Governing the Internet: The Extraterritorial Effects of the General Data Protection Regulation  

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Artur Kalandarov – The Soviet and American Wars in Afghanistan: Applying Clausewitzian Concepts to Modern Military Failure

 

Rohini Kurup – Enemy Combatants and Unitary Executives: Presidential Power in Theory and Practice During the War on Terror

 

Emma Redington Lawry – Democracy Promotion in U.S. Counterinsurgency: Tracing Post-War Security Sector Reconstruction in El Salvador and Iraq

 

John Sweeney – Chambers of Reflection: Rousseau, Tocqueville, and Self-Government in the Digital Age