Advising

Choosing an Advisor for Senior Thesis

Students are required to secure a primary advisor by the beginning of the spring semester junior year. The advisor must be a faculty member who will be in residence at Brown throughout the student's senior year. You should be proactive in the search for your advisor – identify faculty members who might be interested in your thesis topic and approach them. The more interested they are in your project and the earlier you approach them, the more likely you are to benefit from their mentoring. The DS Concentration Advisor, Advisory Committee, and DEVL 1500 and DEVL 1980 instructors are available to help students identify potential advisors.

Thesis Advisor Agreement form

It is important to view the thesis as a 3-semester undertaking as you are expected to work alongside your advisor and DEVL 1500 instructor to define a viable research topic and appropriate research method before undertaking research during the summer of your junior year.

Students are also expected to engage along with their supervisor in meeting the outputs for the DEVL 1980 class.

There are at least three possible foundations on which a good working relationship may be built:

1. A faculty member you find interesting and stimulating, and someone who will engage your work and your ideas.

2. A faculty member who either has expertise in the area you are investigating (knowledge of the issue or region) or is conducting similar research.

3. A faculty member who has theoretical or methodological interests and expertise in areas that will be useful to your research topic. Such a person might actually know very little about the specific topic you are researching (e.g., access to agricultural land in Bihar, India) but may know a lot about a body of theory (gender and household dynamics) that is essential to your ability to develop the appropriate analytical framework for your research, or may have skills in a technique (statistics, ethnography) that will help you develop the appropriate investigative tools.

By early in your Senior year, you should also have secured a second reader. The second reader can be a visiting fellow or post-doc, so long as they are here for the full academic year.

If a senior capstone project requires the use of quantitative methods, by the end of the junior year students should take at least one course in statistics for social science in any of the following departments: economics, political science, sociology.

Past Thesis Advisors

Geri Augusto – Visiting Assoc. Professor Africana Studies  Mark Blyth – Professor  Political Science  Barrymore (Tony) Bogues – Professor  Africana Studies  Robert Blair – Assistant Professor Politcal Science Lundy Braun – Professor Africana Studies, Pathology &  Laboratory Medicine  Christopher Bull – Senior Lecturer Engineering Rebecca Carter – Assistant Professor Anthropology  Kenneth Chay – Professor Economics  Wendy Chun – Professor  Modern Culture and Media  Melissa Clark – Professor Public Health- Epidemiology  Linda Cook – Professor Political Science  Anani Dzidzienyo – Associate Professor Africana Studies  David Egilman – Professor Bio Med Family Medicine  Gregory Elliott – Professor Sociology  Paja Faudree – Associate  Professor Anthropology  Edward Feller – Clinical Professor Medical Science Scott Frickel – Professor Sociology Andrew Foster – Professor Economics  Lina Fruzetti – Professor Anthropology  Matthew Guttmann – Professor Anthropology Abigail Harrison – Assistant Professor Population Studies & Training Center  Barrett Hazeltine – Professor Emeritus Engineering  Patrick Heller – Professor Sociology  Paget Henry – Professor Sociology, Africana Studies Marida Hollos – Professor Anthropology  Evelyn Hu-DeHart – Professor  History Paget Henry – Professor Africana Studies, Sociology Elizabeth Hoover - Assistant Professor American Studies José Itzigsohn – Professor Sociology  Margot Jackson – Professor Sociology Nancy Jacobs – Associate Professor History  Jennifer Johnson – Assistant Professor History

Rachael Kantrowitz – Visiting Scholar Education Michael Kennedy – Professor Sociology  Dawn King – Lecturer Environment and Society Robert Lee – Associate Professor  American Studies  Adam Levine – Professor Emergency Medicine Dore Levy – Professor Comparative Literature &  East Asian Studies Patsy Lewis – Visiting Professor International and Public Affairs Richard Locke – Professor, Provost Political Science   Mark Lurie – Associate Professor  Public Health - Epidemiology  Stephen McGarvey – Professor Public Health – Epidemiology  Don Operario – Associate Professor Public Health  Josh Pacewicz – Assistant Professor Sociology Louis Putterman – Professor  Economics  William Rakowski – Professor Public Health  J. Timmons Roberts – Professor Sociology  Daniel Rodriguez – Assistant Professor History Cynthia Rosengard – Associate Professor Public Health  Dietrich Rueschemeyer – Professor Emeritus Sociology  Anja Sautmann – Assistant Professor Economics  Andrew Schrank – Professor Sociology Elena Shih – Assistant Professor American Studies William Simmons – Professor Anthropology  Bhrigu Singh – Assistant Professor Anthropology Daniel Smith – Professor Anthropology  Richard Snyder – Professor Political Science  Barbara Stallings – Professor Watson Institute  (political science, economics)  Melten Toksöz – Visiting Assoc Professor Middle East Studies Hanan Toukan – Visiting Asst Professor Middle East Studies Leah Vanwey- Professor Environment and Society, Sociology Ashutosh Varshney – Professor Political Science  Kay Warren – Professor Anthropology Rebecca Weitz-Shapiro – Assistant Professor Political Science Michael White – Professor Sociology Vazira Zamindar – Associate Professor  History