Like all Wooster students, International Relations (IR) majors, guided by faculty mentors, complete three semesters of independent research. Each student's home department supervises these ndependent Study research projects. After completing the quantitative methods course required by the home department, and, in most cases, IR Overseas Term, each student researches and then writes a thesis on a topic of particular interest.

Below is a list of Independent Study Thesis titles by IR Majors from the Class of 2006 (student name and home department in parentheses). Note that you can view a sample IS project by clicking on Margaux Day's IS title:

* “What to Trade With Whom”: The Pattern of Trade in East Asia and Income Levels. (Ji-Hyun Ahn, Economics)

* Put Your Money Where Your Patients Are: A Study of International Funding for AIDS Treatment. (Margaux Day, Political Science)

* “Legal Internationalization of International Norms: Norm Diffusion and the Role of Domestic Political Structures. Comparative Responses to the Norm Against Whaling. (Reneta Dimitrova, Political Science)

* A Measure of Humanity or Feeding the Guilty? Neutrality’s Effect on the Humanitarianism of the International Committee of the Red Cross. (Katherine Dunham, History)

* Catalunya y Euskadi: Modernization and the Expression of Subnationalism in Spain. (James Fisher, Political Science)

* Bills World: An Analytical Assessment of Irving Janis’ Groupthink Theory as it Applies to the Foreign Policy Decision Making Process in the First and Second Clinton Administrations During the Crises in Somalia and Kosovo. (Olivia Gordon, Political Science)

* Media Coverage and Foreign Policy: A Comparative Case Study Analysis of Humanitarian Crises in Africa. (Lois Ribich, Political Science)

* Foreign Influence in the Third Wave of Democratization: A Comparative Study of United States Hard and Soft Power Influence. (Elizabeth Steiner, Political Science)

* Spreading the Word: The Promise and Disappointment of the Nicaraguan Literacy Crusade. (Angela Winningham, History)

Some students have engaged in original data collection in the process of developing and testing their ideas. Click HERE to access data collected by IS students doing IR-related projects.