The best theses are eligible for two prizes, the Marjorie Chadwick Buchanan Prize (awarded by the Department of East Asian Studies) and the Leigh Buchanan Bienen and Henry S. Bienen Prize (awarded by the Program in East Asian Studies). These are adjudicated by committees, appointed by the department chair and program director respectively, who read the theses as well as the relevant adviser’s and reader’s reports to make their final evaluations. The Buchanan Prize is awarded to a senior in the Department of East Asian Studies with the most outstanding thesis, based on extensive and appropriate sources in Chinese, Japanese, or Korean as well as Western language sources. The Bienen Prize is awarded to a senior in any department with the most outstanding senior thesis on an East Asian topic. The thesis must be based at least in part on source materials in an East Asian language. No student can win both prizes.
Marjory Chadwick Buchanan Senior Thesis Prize Winners
Hadley Minju Kim (2024), “Joint (In)Action: Analyzing the Relationship between Coalitions of Women’s Organizations and the Government in Abortion Legislation in South Korea.”
Eric Park (2023), “Keyhole Tumuli in the Southwestern Peripheries of the Korean Peninsula.”
Edelyn Hoi Lam Lau (2022), “Shanghai’s Seasonal Fantasy: An Analysis of Select Foreign Terms in Mu Shiying’s “Shanghai de jijiemeng” via Translation.”
Zeytun West (2022, Honorable Mention), “K-Pop and Islam in Turkey: The Pious Generation and the Heathen’s Music.”
Morgan Anne McGrath (2021), “Korea’s Online Persona.”
Jacob Goldberg (2020), “Knowing Subjects and Known Objects: The Disappearance of the Individual in Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction.”
Sophie Wheeler (2019), “(Re)Constructing Tohoku: Iterations of Tabi in Post-March 11th Tohoku, Japan.”
Leigh Buchanan Bienen & Henry S. Bienen Senior Thesis Prize Winners
Elise Kim (2024, Winner), “An Investigation into the Obligatory Decomposition of Opaque Morphemes and Pseudomorphemes in Chinese.”
John Patrick (2024, Honorable Mention), “The ‘Rhetorical Toolkit’: Proposing a New Theory to Explain the Varied Implementation of Xi Jinping’s Sinicization of Religion Campaign.”
Robin Park (2023, Winner), “The Struggle for Belonging in Medieval China: Refugees in the Tang Dynasty.”
Bianca Chan (2023, Honorable Mention), “Does Money Buy Discretion? Chinese Media Investment in Belt and Road Countries.”
Katherine Gross-Whitaker (2023, Honorable Mention), “No Invitation to the Party: Limitations to Female Advancement in the Chinese Communist Party.”
Rebecca Han (2022, Co-Winner), “Crouching Censors, Hidden Scenes: What Kinds of Foreign Films are Allowed into China and Why.”
Katherine McCallum (2022, Co-Winner), “Picking Quarrels and Creating a Disturbance: An Analysis of the Survival of China’s Grassroots Feminist Movement on Social Media.”
Ange Ndayishimiye (2022, Honorable Mention), “OKKAKE-DAISEN-TSUGI: An Exploration of the Construction Process and Mechanical Behaviour of Traditional Japanese Timber Splicing Joints.”
Isabelle Chandler (2021), “‘The Spirit of Xiaotangshan.’An Investigation into the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Use of the Xiaotangshan SARS Hospital as a Tool of Propaganda, 2003-21.”
Hyejin Jang (2021, Honorable Mention), “Reassembling a Nation through Art: Korea’s Political and Institutional Approaches to Cultural Heritage, from 1945 to the Present.”
Brandon Mintzer (2020), “An Objective Identity: The Role of the National palace Museum in the ROC and Taiwanese Narratives.”
Austin Berman (2019), “Marrying State Capital: A Financial and Political Analysis Of China's Mixed Ownership Reform (2014–2019).”