Recent Senior Theses

The senior thesis represents the culmination of the undergraduate curriculum at Princeton. For students in the Department of East Asian Studies, the thesis should be an original contribution to scholarship on East Asia, based at least in part on source materials in the student's language of specialization.

Class of 2022
Class Year	Author	Title	Advisor
2022	Felicity Audet	The Perception of Difference: Combating Cultural Consciousness of Mental Illness within Contemporary Japanese Society	James Raymo
2022	David Haemisegger	The Russian Tea Mystery: A Translation of Arisugawa Alice’s Roshia Kōcha no Nazo	Amy Borovoy & Yukari Tokumasu
2022	Edelyn Lau	“Shanghai’s Seasonal Fantasy”: An Analysis of Select Foreign Terms in Mu Shiying’s “Shanghai de jijiemeng” via Translation	Anna M. Shields
2022	Kisara Moore	“Skinships,” “Shutter Chances,” and “Speeding Down”: Janglish as a Reconceptualization of Japanese Cultural Identity Through the Lens of Entertainment Media	Steven Chung
2022	Braulio Romero Bakker	An In-Depth Analysis of The State of Cryptocurrency in China	Joshua Freeman
2022	Jaylin Spruill	Sublime Sensoria: Somaesthetic Sensations and Sensitivities in East Asian Cinema	Franz Prichard
2022	Zeytun West	Kpop and Islam in Turkey: The Pious Generation and the Heathen’s Music	Ksenia Chizhova
2022	Peter Yang	Infected and Deviant: Korean Netizen Responses to Early COVID-19 Outbreaks	Steven Chung
2022	John Zepke	Dishonor of Kings: The Monetization of Aesthetic in Contemporary Digital Media	Paize Keulemans

Class of 2021
Class Year	Author	Title	Advisor
2021	Madeline Wu	HEARD, BUT NOT SEEN: An Exploration of East Asian Representation through Music in American Musical Theater from the 1950s to the Present	Erin Huang
2021	Sergio Serna	Protecting the Little Guy: A Confucian Perspective on Conceptions of Intellectual Authorship and Exchange during Song Dynasty China	Xin Wen
2021	Louison Sall	One Belt - Many Roads: The People's Republic of China's Rhetoric Surrounding the Silk Road and the Minzu (民族) That Helped Build It	Xin Wen
2021	Samuel Choi	Juingong: Examining Reader-Character Interaction in Korean Webtoons	Steven Chung
2021	Reginald Quartey	“Where Are They Now?”: Analyzing Depictions and Perceptions of the Monstrous in Online Chinese Fantasy Novels	Federico Marcon
2021	Morgana McGrath	"Korea's Online Persona"	Steven Chung
2021	Alec Leng	Kikuchi Kan and Prewar Film	Atsuko Ueda

Class of 2020
Class Year	Author	Title	Advisor
2020	Sofie Kim	Fashion and Upheaval: Bottom-up Creations of Intimacies in East Asia	Ksenia Chizhova
2020	Leanna Nguyen	The Growth of Ed-Tech Under China's Market Education System	Chih-p'ing Chou & Jennifer Jennings
2020	Cecilia Vergara	Have you eaten?: Analyzing young Korean women’s relationship with food in K-Dramas and its intersection with K-Pop and K-Beauty	Amy Borovoy
2020	Jacob Williams	Re-Queering Utena: Localized and Global Queerness in the Anime Series Revolutionary Girl Utena	Brian Steininger
2020	Seth Paternostro	Tasting Communism: Comrade Cookery and the Politics of Eating in Mao’s China, 1949-1965	He Bian
2020	Soyeong Park	Assembling This Corean Body	Franz Prichard
2020	Brandon Mintzer	An Objective Identity: The Role of the National Palace Museum in the ROC and Taiwanese Narratives	Guangchen Chen & Anna M. Shields
2020	Natalie Nagorski	Do Women Still Hold Up Half the Sky? An Analysis of Female Representation in the Contemporary Political Landscape in China	Anna M. Shields & Joshua Freeman
2020	Coby Goldberg	Knowing Subjects and Known Objects: The Disappearance of the Individual in Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction	Paize Keulemans
2020	Eunice Kim	Those Who Have Eyes to See, Let Them See: Examining Media Representations of the “Comfort Women” Issue	Atsuko Ueda
2020	Isabella Chung	Southeast and East Asian Documentary Films: The Responsibility of Filming Violence	Erin Huang
2020	Michael Kamsky	China’s Mismanagement of Medical Supply Chains: Analyzing Inefficiencies and Identifying Solutions for the Blood and N95 Mask Supply Chains	Sheldon Garon

Class of 2019
Class Year	Author	Title	Advisor
2019	Sophie Wheeler	(Re)Constructing Tohoku: Iterations of Tabi in Post-March 11th, Tohoku Japan	Franz Prichard
2019	Kai Liu	Modeling Minorities and Model Majorities: Picturing Neoliberal Commodities in the film Crazy Rich Asians	Paul Nadal, Erin Huang, & Franz Prichard
2019	Faith Garcia	“The Blood Soaked Cry of Those Who Seek Revenge / is Ringing in The Sky Over Sinchon”: An Analysis of the Portrayal of the Sinchon Massacre in North Korean Propaganda	Steven Chung
2019	Ashley Berland	Japan’s Brand of Entrepreneurship: A Contemporary Look at its Development and Modern Manifestation	Federico Marcon

Class of 2018
Class Year	Author	Title	Advisor
2018	Alisa Fukatsu	Urban Folk Religions: A Study on Modern Manifestation of Japanese Folk Religion	Federico Marcon
2018	Julie Goldstein	The Development of Public Health in China: An Exploration of Health Education in Chinese Primary and Secondary Schools	Amy Borovoy
2018	Melanie Ho	Hip Hop as a Constructed Identity: Understanding the Social and Political Movement of Hip Hop from the US to Asia through Afro Asian Relations	Erin Huang
2018	Audrey Lee	The Struggle for Greater Autonomy: Article 23 and the Development of the Pro-Democracy movement in Hong Kong (An Examination of Post-Handover Challenges)	Anna M. Shields
2018	Elizabeth Maxey	“They are Our Fellow Countrymen:” Koryo Saram and the Korean Nation	Ksenia Chizhova
2018	Julia Selignan	“WHY HAVE THERE BEEN NO GREAT WOMEN ARTISTS?” An Analysis of the Art World, Gender Bias and Feminist Discourse in Contemporary China	Martin Kern
2018	Guoen Sheng	Atmospheric Water Generation: Disruptive Technological Solution for Addressing Chinese Potable Water Demand	Franz Prichard
2018	Mathew Troiani	Language Choice and Identity in Hong Kong	Yu Xie

Class of 2017
Class Year	Author	Title	Advisor
2017	Andrea Jenkins	“不如死一半，給一半人吃飽” “It is Better to Let Half of the People Die so that the Other Half Can Eat Their Fill”: Analyzing Consumption Patterns During China’s Great Famine (1958-1962)	Benjamin Elman
2017	Matt Wie	Yi Chong-jun’s “A Story of Us Worms” (Beolle iyagi): A Translation and Critical Reading	Ksenia Chizhova
2017	Murad Mahmudov	Will China’s debt crisis and real estate bubble implode? Determining the origins, the severity and the Chinese government’s tools in managing the debt and real estate crises.	Sheldon Garon
2017	Sophia Su	"Under the Same Blue Sky:" A Study of Media Portrayal of Children of Chinese Migrant Workers and Education Inequality	David Leheny
2017	Matt Blazejewski	Transnational Horror Cinema: Seeing with New Vision in Jian Gui and The Eye	Pieter Keulemans
2017	Jiyoon Kim	Translated Selections from Come Back by Friday: The Sewol Ferry and the Construction of Cultural Trauma through Narrativized Interviews	Steven Chung
2017	Alicia Lamb	Seeking an Oasis: Alaer City, Economic Development, and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps in Contemporary China	He Bian
2017	Sadiki Wiltshire	SECURE COMMUNICATION AND INTELLIGENCE EXCHANGES: AN ANALYSIS OF THE MOZI HAO SATELLITE AND BEIJING’S QUANTUM COMMUNICATION PROGRAM	Christopher Chyba
2017	Sheila Sisimit	The Politics of Colonial Identity: Collaboration and Development in Yun Ch’i-ho’s Diary	Ksenia Chizhova
2017	A.J. Ohiwerei	Nihon wa nandesu ka: Discerning Okinawa's Place in Modern Japan	Atsuko Ueda
2017	Charles Argon	INTER-IMPERIAL EXPERTS: ADMINISTRATION AND CONFLICT IN NINGBO, 1832-1862	He Bian

Class of 2016
Class Year	Author	Title	Advisor
2016	Zoe Zhang	Winter-Worm Summer-Grass: Caterpillar Fungus and the Invention of a Wonder Drug?	Benjamin Elman
2016	Briana Christine Teresa Freeman	Stereotypes Traverse Language: Being "Raced" in English-to-Japanese Translation	Patrick Caddeau
2016	Nicholas G. Keeley	Rhetorical Ambiguity and Its Reception Abroad: A Roadside Perspective of the "One Belt, One Road" Project	Pieter Keulemans
2016	Ross Donovan	Radical Intimacies in the Queer Public Sphere of Postsocialist China	Erin Huang
2016	Bradley Berman	Jia Pingwa's December, January: Social Status and Influence in China in the Aftermath of Post-Collectivization: An Analysis and Translation	Pieter Keulemans
2016	Joyce Da-Hyun Kim	Exploring Communication and Language Change in South Korea	Steven Chung
2016	Daniel Nicholas Taub	Dreaming in Chinese: The Politics of China's Entrepreneurship Promotion	Yu Xie
2016	Megumi Minaki	Caregiver or Laborer? Examining the Role of Japanese Women from the 'Japanese-Style Welfare Society' to the 'Social Investment' State	Amy Borovoy

Class of 2015
Class Year	Author	Title	Advisor
2015	Jameson Mitchell Creager	Vengeful Ghost: The Evolution of the Woman Ghost Antagonist from Japanese Folktales to Modern J-Horror	Federico Marcon
2015	Lucas Broïdo	Re-Imagining Identities through "Japanese" Literature	Atsuko Ueda
2015	Charles Thomas Fortin	Nurturing Life Amidst the Smog: The Air Pollution Experience in Contemporary China	Benjamin Elman
2015	Andres L. Parrado	Not Here to Stay?: Chinese Globalization and Transnationalism in Serbia	David Leheny
2015	Oliver Marsh	Music as an Instrument of Colonization in Meiji Japan	Thomas Hare
2015	Jennifer Jee Cho	Monster Movies as National Allegories: Difficulties in Defining Genre in Korean Cinema	Steven Chung
2015	Gavin Gillespie Cook	The Misery of Quicksilver: Myth, Memory, Performance, and Soil Pollution Remediation in China	David Leheny
2015	Kelsey Jennifer Henderson	"A Matter of the Greatest Urgency": An Evaluation of the Work-Life Balance of Working Women in Japan	Sheldon Garon
2015	Jessica Daryl McLemore	It Takes a Village to Feed a Child: Motives of Food Education in Japanese Elementary Schools	Amy Borovoy
2015	Julia Rose Knox Hammer	A Hungry Dog Isn't Afraid of a Wooden Stick: On Allegory, Social Critique, and the Rise of ‘Pop Avant-Garde’ Theater in Contemporary China	Pieter Keulemans
2015	Erin Kim	The Good Life in the Context of South Korea: A qualitative study on Korean college students’ perception and experience of well-being	Steven Chung
2015	Hugo Jin Yi Ou	Debunking "Copycat" Culture in China: An Examination of the Chinese Internet Landscape	David Leheny
2015	Michael Noah Katz	Bridging Zhongguancun and Silicon Valley: How the Chinese Government is Constructing a Technology Ecosystem That Conforms to Western Standards of Innovation	Janet Chen

Class of 2014
Class Year	Author	Title	Advisor
2014	Jennifer Memie Alexis Greene	“Somehow, Crystal: A Translation of Tanaka Yasuo’s Nantonaku, Kurisutaru”	Atsuko Ueda
2014	Alexandra Elizabeth Small	“Putting a Price on a Hero: Marketing Morality & Martyrdom Through Model Emulation Propaganda in Reform-Era China”	Janet Chen
2014	Emily Hannah Erickson	“The Paper Tiger of PRC Policy: Nuclear ‘No First Use’ in China’s National Defense White Papers, 1998-2013”	Thomas Conlan
2014	Cameron Langeluttig White	A New Kind of Border Town: Spatial Intersection in Tourist Fenghuang	Everett Zhang
2014	Mary Kathleen Schulman	“The King’s Speech: Language and Ritual in the ‘Great Proclamation’ of the Classic of Documents”	Martin Kern
2014	Max Batt Behar	Japanese Language Textbook Development Following WWII — The Meaning of the Japanese Textbook in the 21st Century	Steven Chung
2014	Margaret Kathy Wang	“From Essential Mandates to Forgotten Classrooms: A Framework to Examine English Education Policies in Rural Counties”	Everett Zhang
2014	Asumi Shibata	“Fan Creations, Fan Expressions: A Comparative Study of Derivative Works as Reflections of Fan Communities of Anime and Manga in Japan and the USA”	David Leheny
2014	Marianne Nichole Nell-Tascon	“Crying ‘Nanking’: The Microblog Approach to Macro-Level Sino-Japanese Relations — A Pop Cultural Analysis”	David Leheny
2014	Leila Arisa Howard	“A Comparative Visual Analysis of Graphic Design in China”	Steven Chung
2014	Ruofan Cheng	“‘Broad’ Nationalism Among the Young Turk and Chinese Revolutionaries?”	Willard Peterson
2014	Nicole Jian Min Hung	“All in the Family: A Filmic Analysis of Family Caregiving of the Mentally Ill in Contemporary China”	Brian Steininger

Class of 2013
Class Year	Author	Title	Advisor
2013	Benjamin Goldstein	Watching the "Political Show" From Afar: Chinese Media Coverage of the 2012 United States Presidential Election	Martin Kern
2013	Jonathan Cheng-Ping Lin	Uneven Rural “Development” in Contemporary China: The “Neoliberalization” of Space and Bodies in Two Chinese Villages	David Leheny
2013	Chloe Ferguson	Towards a Southern Sun: Race, Order & Empire in Japanese Micronesia	Martin Kern
2013	Thomas Merckens	Spirit Wood by Liu Qingbang: Translation and Critical Introduction by Thomas Merckens	Pieter Keulemans
2013	Daniel Velasco	Remolding Japanese Minds: Combating Low Fertility with Pronatal Policy and Social Education	Amy Borovoy
2013	Adam Chin	The Politicization of Disaster Relief: A Comparative Study of the 1999 Taiwan Earthquake and the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake	Pieter Keulemans
2013	Jackson Popkin	Party Over: Communist Party Prestige, the History of Modern China Series, and the Cultural Revolution	Benjamin Elman
2013	Anna A. Lorentz	The New Chinese Diaspora in Brazil: Changes in Overseas Chinese Policy Reflecting the PRC Agenda to Foster China-Brazil Trade Ties,1990 - 2012	Janet Chen
2013	James A. McGlone	Mobile Values and Moral Devices: The Rise of Mobile Phone Culture among Chinese College Students and the Ideological Response	David Leheny
2013	Kendra Meilin Namiko Simon	“An Impossible Art”: Early Japanese Bible Translation In the Nineteenth Century	Patrick Caddeau
2013	Connor Carreras	Examining Governmental and Non-Governmental Efforts to Improve Migrant Children’s Access to Education in China	Martin Kern

Source:

Princeton University Undergraduate Senior Theses, East Asian Studies