harvard thesis

While Sandel argues that pursuing perfection through genetic engineering would decrease our sense of humility, he claims that the sense of solidarity we would lose is also important.

This thesis summarizes several points in Sandel’s argument, but it does not make a claim about how we should understand his argument. A reader who read Sandel’s argument would not also need to read an essay based on this descriptive thesis.  

Broad thesis (arguable, but difficult to support with evidence) 

Michael Sandel’s arguments about genetic engineering do not take into consideration all the relevant issues.

This is an arguable claim because it would be possible to argue against it by saying that Michael Sandel’s arguments do take all of the relevant issues into consideration. But the claim is too broad. Because the thesis does not specify which “issues” it is focused on—or why it matters if they are considered—readers won’t know what the rest of the essay will argue, and the writer won’t know what to focus on. If there is a particular issue that Sandel does not address, then a more specific version of the thesis would include that issue—hand an explanation of why it is important.  

Arguable thesis with analytical claim 

While Sandel argues persuasively that our instinct to “remake” (54) ourselves into something ever more perfect is a problem, his belief that we can always draw a line between what is medically necessary and what makes us simply “better than well” (51) is less convincing.

This is an arguable analytical claim. To argue for this claim, the essay writer will need to show how evidence from the article itself points to this interpretation. It’s also a reasonable scope for a thesis because it can be supported with evidence available in the text and is neither too broad nor too narrow.  

Arguable thesis with normative claim 

Given Sandel’s argument against genetic enhancement, we should not allow parents to decide on using Human Growth Hormone for their children.

This thesis tells us what we should do about a particular issue discussed in Sandel’s article, but it does not tell us how we should understand Sandel’s argument.  

Questions to ask about your thesis 

• Is the thesis truly arguable? Does it speak to a genuine dilemma in the source, or would most readers automatically agree with it?  
• Is the thesis too obvious? Again, would most or all readers agree with it without needing to see your argument?  
• Is the thesis complex enough to require a whole essay's worth of argument?  
• Is the thesis supportable with evidence from the text rather than with generalizations or outside research?  
• Would anyone want to read a paper in which this thesis was developed? That is, can you explain what this paper is adding to our understanding of a problem, question, or topic?
• picture_as_pdf Thesis

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Start with  HOLLIS  (HarvardKey login required for some full text, including theses & dissertations)

• Those presented for graduate degrees 
• Bowdoin prize essays 
• Undergraduate honors theses

How do you know if it's available online? 

• “View Online” button links out to full text.
• If there's no "View Online" button, the work probably has not been digitized.

What Harvard theses and dissertations can you expect to find online in full text? How do you get to them?

• Follow the links in HOLLIS.
• Not a Harvard affiliate? log in through the library of your academic institution OR
• you can usually purchase directly from  ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Express.  
• undergraduates are not required to submit theses or prizewinning papers to DASH
• Harvard Extension School ALM theses 2012-2016 were not entered into DASH. 
• Under certain circumstances dissertations may be embargoed by the author; DASH may be the only place this information is given.

If the work hasn't been digitized:

You can order PDFs or photocopies of most Harvard theses and dissertations (unless they're available through the Proquest database linked above) from 1873 through November 2011 (and ALM theses to 2016) 

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For Extension School ALM theses  check out our  Library Guide for Harvard Extension School theses page

Want to view a dissertation or thesis at the library? Check with the archival collection location listed in HOLLIS.

Wondering what dissertations and theses have been submitted in the recent past?  Use DASH .

For more on undergraduate theses and dissertations, see our " How can I locate a Harvard undergraduate thesis?" FAQ.

Looking for non-Harvard theses & dissertations? See our "How can I find theses and dissertations?"  FAQ.

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Dissertations

Most Harvard PhD dissertations from 2012 forward are available online in DASH , Harvard’s central open-access repository and are linked below. Many older dissertations can be found on ProQuest Dissertation and Theses Search which many university libraries subscribe to.

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The senior thesis is typically the most challenging writing project undertaken by undergraduate students. The writing guides below aim to introduce students both to the specific methods and conventions of writing original research in their area of concentration and to effective writing process.

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How to search for Harvard dissertations

• DASH , Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard, is the university's central, open-access repository for the scholarly output of faculty and the broader research community at Harvard.  Most Ph.D. dissertations submitted from  March 2012 forward  are available online in DASH.
• Check HOLLIS, the Library Catalog, and refine your results by using the   Advanced Search   and limiting Resource  Type   to Dissertations
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How to search for Non-Harvard dissertations

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Honors & Theses

The Honors Thesis: An opportunity to do innovative and in-depth research.  

An honors thesis gives students the opportunity to conduct in-depth research into the areas of government that inspire them the most. Although, it’s not a requirement in the Department of Government, the honors thesis is both an academic challenge and a crowning achievement at Harvard. The faculty strongly encourages students to write an honors thesis and makes itself available as a resource to those students who do. Students work closely with the thesis advisor of their choice throughout the writing process. Approximately 30% of Government concentrators each year choose to write a thesis.

Guide to Writing a Senior Thesis in Government  

You undoubtedly have many questions about what writing a thesis entails. We have answers for you. Please read  A Guide to Writing a Senior Thesis in Government , which you can download as a PDF below. If you still have questions or concerns after you have read through this document, we encourage you to reach out to the Director of Undergraduate Studies, Dr. Nara Dillon ( [email protected] ), the Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies, Dr. Gabriel Katsh ( [email protected] ), or the Undergraduate Program Manager, Karen Kaletka ( [email protected] ).  

Harvard Radcliffe Institute Awards 2024 Fay Prizes for Outstanding Theses

Topics include an in-depth exploration of the human complexities of getting bailed out of jail, a unified treatment of an essential mathematical theorem, and a close study of how one school in Martinique contributed to the island’s anticolonial, literary, and cultural heritage.

CAMBRIDGE, MA (May 16, 2024)—Harvard Radcliffe Institute today honored Charlotte Skye Baker, Dhruv Goel, and Justin Hu with the prestigious Captain Jonathan Fay Prize, the annual award for the top theses of Harvard College’s graduating class.

This year’s Fay Prize recipients are recognized for their exceptional undergraduate work in the social sciences, natural sciences, and humanities, respectively. Their work was selected from among that of 73 Harvard College seniors, each of whom received the Thomas Temple Hoopes Prize in recognition of outstanding scholarly research from undergraduate students. The Hoopes Prize is funded by the estate of Thomas T. Hoopes, Class of 1919, for the purpose of “promoting, improving, and enhancing the quality of education.”

The Fay Prize was established in 1907 by Joseph Storey Fay in memory of his great-grandfather, Captain Jonathan Fay (1724–1800), to be awarded to a graduating Radcliffe College student most deserving due to academic and personal merit.

First bestowed in 1909 to Evelyn Spring, the prize was administered by Radcliffe College for 90 years. Harvard Radcliffe Institute has continued the tradition since 2001, expanding the candidate pool to all Harvard graduating seniors and honoring “the most outstanding imaginative work or piece of original research in any field.”

The honor reflects the mission of the Institute to foster advanced work across a wide range of disciplines.

“We carry this history with us, and we’re proud of it,” said Tomiko Brown-Nagin, dean of Harvard Radcliffe Institute. “The legacy of Radcliffe College, as we often say, isn’t merely coeducation at Harvard. It’s the recognition that universities will always be greater when they draw wisdom and talent from the widest possible pool of individuals.”

Charlotte Skye Baker, “Judges, Loved Ones, and Bondsmen: An Ethnography of Cash Bail in a Southern US City”

While most existing academic work on the judiciary’s cash bail system focuses on judicial decision-making alone, Baker’s thesis examines the human side of the process, which she spent two months researching through deep fieldwork.

One of her findings is that defendants are “subject to a complex system of enhanced social control wielded not only by judges but also by loved ones and bondsmen.”

Baker writes: “Indigent defendants…ability to get out of jail is dictated not by legally prescribed bail factors (their likelihood of returning to court, or the risk they pose to public safety) but by their courtroom behavior, their mother’s opinion of them, or their accent.”

“Throughout, you enhance our understanding of the cash bail process through the actors (not only judges, but family members and bondsmen) and processes (not only bond amounts, but a complex set of decisions by these actors),” one of her readers wrote in his comments to Baker. “At times, this felt much like I was reading an excerpt of an academic book on cash bail in an outlet like the New Yorker . I hope you are considering a career post-graduation that will have you write in some capacity.”

Another reader wrote: “Baker’s rich anecdotal account also shows what happens to communities plagued by the twin crises of mass incarceration and a hollowed-out social safety net, in which defendants have had … to rely on their mothers, grandmothers, and lovers to bail them, all of whom themselves have very limited resources.”

Baker is planning to turn her thesis into a full-length book project via a postgraduate fellowship, according to her faculty advisor.

Dhruv Goel, “The Joys of the Atiyah-Singer Index Theorem”

Goel’s thesis nominator called his thesis “a beautiful piece of work—one of the top five or six senior honors theses I’ve seen in 35 years at Harvard.”

He wrote that the Atiyah-Singer Index Theorem “occupies a central position in the mathematics of the 20th century; it has roots in the subjects of algebraic geometry, differential geometry, topology, analysis and partial differential equations, knitting together key ideas and constructions from each of these fields. But its very centrality has made it a difficult subject to learn and to teach…. To give a single, unified treatment of the theorem and all its appearances is truly a daunting task. What Goel has undertaken to do in his thesis is just that: he presents a comprehensive treatment of the theorem, developing a coherent logical framework in which the various manifestations and applications of the theorem can all be described.”

“It is virtually unique in the literature; it's what I would give to a graduate student who was setting out to understand the theorem,” he wrote.

Justin Hu, “Studying with Césaire: Caribbean Counter-Pedagogies of the Lycée Victor Schoelcher during the Third Republic, 1870–1945”

Called “an extraordinarily ambitious work of cultural history and literary analysis,” by one of his two nominators, Hu’s thesis focuses on Aimé Césaire, a foundational figure of Caribbean anticolonialism, and traces his revolutionary thought and literary work—which went on to influence Frantz Fanon, Léon-Gontran Damas and Édouard Glissant—back to the Lycée Victor Schoelcher, a school created by French colonizers to shape students into good French citizens that instead became a primary site for anti-Republican, dissident action and thought.

Hu carried out a huge amount of research for his study, including stints of archival work in Martinique and mainland France.

“Although his work is complex and nuanced, hard to convey in a couple of sentences, in my view its most important aspect is the attempt to reinterpret the thrust of these authors’ theories of decolonization as pertaining to specific characteristics of their intellectual milieu in the Caribbean,” wrote one of his nominators. “I think Justin Hu’s thesis is an important contribution to a variety of subjects associated with the Black experience in the Atlantic world.”

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Preparation of MUP Design Thesis

What does it take to complete a graduate thesis in the Department of Urban Planning and Design? The seminar introduces different types of theses that might be produced by students, whether textual, design-focused, or based in some other medium, such as film. It addresses topic and question identification, research methods, case selection, the craft of thesis production, managing the student-advisor relationship, and techniques for verbally defending a thesis.

Over the semester, students identify and refine their thesis topic, solidify their relationship with a thesis advisor, and produce a thesis proposal. By the end of the semester, students will have produced a solid thesis proposal and have the necessary intellectual foundation to complete their thesis by the end of the academic year.

Course meetings combine input from faculty, group discussions, progress reports by students, and reflections on next steps. The course will include a midterm and final review of students' proposals, to be attended by faculty and critics.

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Mind Brain Behavior

Interfaculty initiative, gluskho prize 2024 awarded to melissa meng.

May 20, 2024 MBB is pleased to announce that Melissa Meng ’24 is the recipient of the 2024 Robert J. Glushko Senior Thesis Prize. Ms. Meng is a neuroscience concentrator who wrote her thesis “A deep dive into distributional reinforcement learning in the mammalian brain” under the supervision of Prof. Naoshige Uchida (Molecular and Cellular Biology, FAS). The prize is awarded for the most outstanding thesis in the field of cognitive science, and includes $500 and a prize certificate. Ms. Meng will present her thesis work at the MBB Senior Recognition Ceremony on Class Day. See also: News

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• 2024 Alwaleed Bin Talal Undergraduate Thesis Prize Announcement

Afiya conducts an impressive and original historical and ethnographic study of Bengali Muslim and Black communities in London and New York. She reflects on the ways in which the Bangladeshi diaspora aligned its protest against police violence with that of Black communities in the aftermath of the murder of 20-year-old Syed Arif Faisal by police in Cambridge, MA in January 2023. Afiya explores how historical tensions within Bangladeshi identity intersect with the socioeconomic and racial landscape of Western nations, how transnational connections and the geographies of empire factor into that identity, and how these configurations lead to political consciousness and mobilization.

Congratulations Afiya and Asmer!

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