ceu thesis database

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The main product of the program is the doctoral dissertation. All doctoral dissertations submitted to the Doctoral School must make a significant and original contribution to the knowledge and understanding of their subject.

Dissertations are submitted to the School after a maximum of six years, and are defended in front of a Dissertation Committee, during a public doctoral defense. 

After the defense, the doctoral dissertation becomes available at the CEU library. You can browse, read and download them here:  Central European University Library (ceu.edu) .

Below you'll find recent ones and ones that will be defended soon.

Pathways to Stringent Carbon Pricing: Configurations of Political Economy Conditions and Revenue Recycling Strategies

by Daniel Muth

Defense Committee:

Florian Weiler (supervisor, CEU) Evelyne Hübscher (CEU) Paula Mónica Castro Pareja (external voting member, Zurich University of Applied Sciences) Carsten Schneider (chair, CEU) 

Date of the Defense: March 14, 2024

The Value of Personal Autonomy

by  Perica Jovchevski

Defense Committee:   

Andres Moles (supervisor, CEU) Janos Kis (CEU)  John Christman (external member, Pennsylvania State University)  Zoltan Miklosi (chair, CEU) 

Date of the Defense:  November 14, 2023

Politics and Political Economy of Elite Defections: Exploring the Sources and Effects of Elite Defections in Autocracies

by  Azad Garibov

Defense Committee: 

Inna Melnykovska (supervisor, CEU)  Laszlo Bruszt (CEU) Kristin Makszin (external member, Leiden University)  Alexander Astrov (chair, CEU)

D ate of the Defense:  September, 2023

Re-Conceptualizing A Global Challenger: Russia In The International System

by  Jacqueline Dufalla

Defense Committee : 

Alexander Astrov (supervisor) Michael Merlingen (CEU) Petr Kratochvil (external member, Institute of International Relations, Prague)  Thomas Fetzer (chair, CEU)

Date of the Defense:  September 7, 2023

The Sovereignty Conundrum: Between Territory and Authority in Contemporary Global Politics

by Andras Radnoti

Defense Committee:  

Janos Kis (supervisor, CEU)  Zoltan Miklosi (CEU) Peter Wilson (external member, LSE)  Alex Astrov (chair, CEU)

Date of the Defense:  September 5, 2023

The Political Economy of Transfers, Public Opinion and Policy Preferences

by  Krisztina Szabó Defense Committee: 

Caitlin Brown (supervisor, University of Manchester)  Cristina Corduneanu-Huci (CEU)  Damien Bol (external member, King's College)  Michael Dorsch (chair, CEU)

D ate of the Defense:  May 30, 2023

Beyond The Rent-seeking: The Political Economy of the European Agricultural Policy (Non)Reform in the Twenty-First Century

By Ardi Priks

Michael Merlingen (chair, CEU) 

Date of the Defense:  May 24, 2023

Democracy under threat: Understanding mass appeal for undemocratic parties and practices

By Nemanja Stankov

Levente Littvay (supervisor, CEU)  Robert Sata (CEU)  Bojan Todosijevic (external member, Institute of Social Sciences, Belgrade)  Erin K. Jenne (chair, CEU)

Date of the Defense:  May 3, 2023

Patterns of Corruption - A Study of Sub-National Units in Romania

By Andrei Cosmin Macsut

Zsolt Enyedi (supervisor, CEU) Cristina Corduneanu-Huci (CEU) Clara Volintiru (external member, Bucharest University of Economic Studies ) Erin Jenne (chair, CEU)

Date of the Defense: April 19, 2023

The Receptiveness of Political Parties towards Women: Understanding the Impact of Candidate Selection Procedures

By  Burtejin Zorigt

Gabor Toka (supervisor, CEU) – voting member Eva Fodor (CEU) – voting member Ekaterina Rashkova-Gerbrands (external member, Utrecht University) – voting member Eszter Kovats (chair, Democracy Institute) – non-voting member

Date of the Defense:  March 8, 2023

Far-Right Demobilisation: Patterns and processes from demonstration campaigns in Germany, England, and Austria

By Michael C. Zeller

András Bozóki (supervisor, CEU) – voting member Carsten Schneider (CEU) – voting member Swen Hutter (external member, Freie Universität Berlin and Center for Civil Society Research WZB Berlin Social Science Center) – voting member Dorit Geva (chair, CEU) – non-voting member

Date of the Defense: February 24, 2023

Post-Neoliberalism and the Politics of Capital Mobility

By  Pedro Perfeito Da Silva

Evelyne Huebscher (supervisor, CEU) – voting member Cristina Corduneanu-Huci (CEU) – voting member Cornel Ban (external member, Copenhagen Business School) – voting member Anil Duman (chair) – non-voting member

Date of the Defense:  February 17, 2023

Your Assembly is Abolished: Civil-Military Relations and Public Policies in Putin's Russia

By  Kirill Shamiev

Christopher LaRoche (supervisor, CEU)  Cristina Corduneanu-Huci (CEU)  Risa Brooks (external member, Marquette University)  Carsten Schneider (chair) 

Date of the Defense:  January 13, 2023

You can see the information on dissertations defended in previous years by clicking in the years below:

2022 /   2021 / 2020 / 2019 / 2018 / 2017 / 2016 / 2015 / 2014 / 2013 / 2012 / 2011 / 2010 / 2009

These dissertations are availabe at CEU's  Electronic Theses & Dissertations  site, where you can search the catalogue using keywords.

Dissertations submitted before 2009 can be accessed in hard copy in the  CEU Library .

• Introduction

Preparing your thesis

• Electronic theses & disserations at CEU
• Finding theses & disserations at other universities

The requirements regarding the formatting and structure (including table of contents and layout of a thesis) are regulated in the Thesis Writing and ETD Submission Guidelines (login required) on a CEU level, and for some departments in separate program-specific thesis guides. A practical guide to the general requirements is available on SharePoint .

• Instructions for for applying proper formatting such as page numbering, creating a table of contents, list of figures/tables, and other required sections .  
• Requirements for figures/tables, images, and other sections .  
• Converting your thesis to a bookmarked PDF. Submitting the thesis in a bookmarked PDF format is a technical requirement. PDF bookmarks enhance the navigation within the document (the file contains a side-navigation toolbar).  
• The maximum size of the PDF file can be 80 MB. The file size of the thesis might be increased by including figures/tables or images. In case the pdf file is larger, CEU’s Thesis Submission SharePoint page describes various methods for reducing the file size .

To simplify the process of writing the thesis, downloadable templates are available after logging in to SharePoint.

Citation management

To simplify the process of writing your thesis, it's a good idea to use citation management software.

• Citing Sources and Academic Integrity
• Using Zotero to Manage Your Research Sources

For information on citing datasets, see:

• University of Michigan Library’s guide about citing data
• MIT Libraries’ guide to citing data

Copyright laws and rules need to be respected. As stated in the CEU thesis submission guidelines , "Some programs require a … copyright notice (section 1.3.2 Declaration of Authorship/ Copyright)."

• A Declaration of Authorship template is available on the Sharepoint site.
• Information about copyright at CEU
• Using images in your academic work
• How to include datasets: Re-using and repurposing other people's data

Use a Creative Commons license CEU Doctoral Regulations require that the submitted dissertation shall include a standardized Creative Commons copyright statement that facilitates publishing to an Open Access repository.

Use the license chooser from Creative Commons to decide which CC license to use.

Policies and additional information

The official version of all CEU policies can be found at https://documents.ceu.edu .

The full copy of the thesis-related policies or their thesis and dissertation related excerpts are available on SharePoint :

• THESIS WRITING AND ELECTRONIC THESIS AND DISSERTATION (ETD) SUBMISSION GUIDELINES - Copy of the official document
• THESIS AND DISSERTATION SUBMISSION - Excerpt From the Student Rights policy
• DISSERTATION FORMAT AND SUBMISSION - Excerpt from Doctoral Regulations
• RESTRICTING PUBLIC ACCESS TO THE THESIS - Excerpt from Student Rights and Doctoral Regulations
• POLICY ON STUDENT PLAGIARISM - Copy of the official document

Submission Process

• Technical requirements and a description of the upload process - SharePoint.
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) - SharePoint

Additional Resources and Support

• Theses formatting requirements and video tutorials - SharePoint
• Sessions for theses formatting classes - SharePoint.
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• Last Updated: Oct 23, 2023 6:17 PM
• URL: https://ceu.libguides.com/theses

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MA Theses Submitted at the Department

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To upload your thesis log into the CEU Electronic Thesis Database here .

For electronic access from the campus site, log into the CEU Electronic Thesis Database  here .

To browse the list of submitted MA theses, please click the quick links below. 

MA Theses  Quicklinks 

2020/21 ,  2019/20 ,  2018/19 ,  2017/18 ,  2016/17 , 2015/16 ,  2014/15 ,    2013/14 ,  2012/13,   2011/12, 2010/11,  2009/10 ,  2008/09 ,  2007/08,   2006/07, 2005/06, 2004/05,  2003/04 ,  2002/03, 2001/02, 2000/01, 1999/00,   1998/99, 1997/98, 1996/97, 1995/96

MA Theses 2022/23

One-year MA in Political Science

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Optional Academic Thesis (For MPA 2nd Year Students)

DPP  MPA  students may undertake  a n  independent in-depth research project  in the Spring term of the second year .  This entails a  12,000 - word   thesis ,   submitted  in  June   (see below f or exact date)  and  worth 4-credits . The thesis is  an optional  component of the MPA program   and  is a major undertaking . MPA students must ,  therefore ,  meet the  requirements set out by DPP  to  proceed to thesis writing.   

In short, s tudents  must  attain  the minimum required GPA of 3.5 by the thesis title and research question submission deadline  ,  and  evidence  their  ability to pursue  autonomous , independent  research  through  submission of  a  quality  thesis proposal and  evidence of feasibility of completion  (including submission of a workplan) .   

It is important that  students  have a clear understanding of  both  why  they  are doing the thesis ,  and how it will fit it into  their  schedule. The thesis is considerable extra work and some students in the past have unfortunately underestimated this, resulting in poorer performance in the capstone APP and/or coursework (with resulting lower graduating GPA)  and/ or non-completion of the thesis.  P riority is required to be given to the APP and  students  need therefore to  give proper consideration to  the time needed for the APP in the Winter and Spring Terms  when deciding whether to take on the thesis .    

It is also important to us that  students’  work results in a good thesis that can be a basis for  their  goal of  a published academic article and/or a strong PhD application. To produce a thesis of this quality requires time and energy.   MPA students are strongly advised to read examples of MAPP and MPA theses so that they fully understand the scale of the undertaking.  

It is strongly emphasized that the Applied Policy Project ,  and not an academic thesis ,  is the capstone of the MPA ,  and priority must be given to the work required for the APP .    

Eligibility Criteria

Students must have a  minimum grade point average of 3.5  by the thesis title and research question submission deadline   (See  Appendix A ) in order to  be eligible to  submit a proposal to write a master’s thesis .   

Once they have the  minimum GPA, students must  then  get approval from the MPA Program   Director , based on her/his assessment of the proposal against the evaluation criteria

All necessary thesis proposal documentation (see  Appendix B  and  C ) must be submitted by the deadlines outlined in  Appendix  A  to the Student Affairs Coordinator   in hard and  soft-copy .    

Thesis Proposal Review Committee and Evaluation Criteria

• The  Programme  Director   will evaluate thesis proposal s   on the basis  of  the following operations:
• Quality of the proposal :  T hematic and theoretical   quality  of the undertaking ( hypothesis and  research  questions )   including  the selection and suitability of research method (s). Purpose & f easibility   of   com pletion:   This should be evidenced by way of separate written    note  to the  Programme  Director ,  in addition to the thesis proposal itself,  with the student’s name, and the thesis title,   setting out : Relevance  to the  thesis to the  Student's  future plans  (in 1-2 paragraphs, explain why you wish to do the thesis, and for what  purpose ).  
• The submission of a n outline  work -plan in table format   covering January to June. This should  set   out  the timeframe  when  the  thesis will be researched and written .  It must include the student’s other commitments: your   Winter and Spring Term courses,  as well as  any planned employment/internships, and  key dates for major stages of the student's APP ( e.g  data collection, writing up).   The aim of this  workplan  is to show that students have  sufficient  time in  their  schedule to research and write  the  thesis  and have planned when  they  will  undertake   the  research, data collection,  have a draft ready for their supervisor. etc
• The combined  assessment  of  these  two  considerations , based on the submitted  thesis proposal and separate note on relevance and the accompanying work-plan ,   will  determine whether the student is approved to write a master’s thesis.   

Please note:   Materials used for the APP cannot  directly   be used   in the thesis  and vice-versa. A  student who  is allowed to  pass to thesis writing must sign a disclaimer to this effect.    

Mandatory Coursework

S tudents who intend to submit a thesis proposal must enroll in the Thesis Workshop course scheduled in the Winter/Spring Term.  These  sessions   help prepare   students to  write  the thesis proposal  and  begin the initial stages of research and thesis writing preparation.   

S tudents writing the thesis  must  also  attend  the   Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD) session s  led by the CEU Computer and Statistics Center  in Spring .  Each   session is about 90  minute s   and  students will learn how to structure and format  a  thesis in MSWord and upload the final version of the thesis to the ETD database.  

Thesis Supervision

The thesis supervisor  must be from DPP faculty .   Supervisors  will be confirmed after the thesis proposal  is  approved .   The role of the thesis supervisor is to be open to students for consultations starting in the  S pring  T erm.  Sh e /he  provides feedback on the draft if the student provides sufficient time to do so. Given that the MPA optional thesis is an autonomous undertaking, students are expected to write thesis with  minimal  faculty supervision.   

Thesis Submission, Evaluation, and Grading

Students submitting theses must follow the CEU Thesis Guidelines  and students need  to  work with the Center for Academic Writing to ensure submitted theses conform to these guidelines. All students submitting the thesis must submit the Declaration of Authorship form (See Appendix F) upon submission.   

The student’s assigned thesis supervisor is responsible for reviewing and grading the student’s final thesis. The Thesis Evaluation form including the final grade and feedback will be provided within 6 weeks of the submission date. The final thesis will be graded in line with the relevant  thesis grading rubric ,   with due regard for  CEU’s Policy on Plagiarism. Those students successfully submitting and completing the thesis will be awarded four credits and  the thesis  w ill be noted on the transcript.  

Important notice:

• Students must plan their  W inter   Term  course load incorporating the Academic Writing  c ourse   and with due consideration for the workload required for the thesis research and writing .   
• Writing a thesis is not a valid reason for missing any mandatory , gateway or elective Spring  T erm  courses .   S tudents approved to write a thesis must ensure  A cademic  W riting classes do  not overlap with mandatory components of the MPA program  ( i.e   SFI) .  
• Writing a thesis must not  detract from the performance of their Applied Policy Project team. All APP faculty advisers will be informed of those students undertaking a thesis. Failure to contribute fully to individual and team work on the APP will impact the individual student’s final grade for the APP .  
• Late submission results in 0.1 point grade deduction per business day.

Thesis Funding No funding is available for students writing the optional academic thesis.

MPA Timeline including mandatory APP and SFI timeframes, Optional thesis

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Information for Leaving Students

Further information about the CEU 33rd Graduation Ceremony can be found here . Check the FAQ here .  

Before leaving CEU, graduating students must complete all the steps outlined in the Leaving Process and resolve any pending administrative matters . Non-degree students who complete their studies at various times during the academic year (e.g. exchange / visiting / Erasmus students) also need to make sure they complete the process once their study period ended. 

Please note that Graduation Certificates and Diplomas will only be available after the completion of:

1. Academic Requirements set by each Department

All CEU BA and MA theses and PhD dissertations  must be electronically submitted - in their final version - to the ETD (Electronic Theses and Dissertations) database and an  unbound  hard copy must be submitted to the department which will be then bound by and stored at the Library. (Further,  bound  hard copies might also be required by the department.) All submitted and defended documents are made publicly available through the  CEU Library's theses catalog . Restriction of public access to the electronic thesis may be requested according to the relevant regulations. PhD dissertations will be lodged with and made available through the Austrian National Library too. You can find more information about the ETD on  this Sharepoint (accessible from active student MS O365 accounts).

2. Submission of the Graduation Form (in eVision, submission deadline: May 21, 2024 )

To access the Graduation Form, please log in to SITS after consulting the  manual . Please note that filling out the graduation form is a precondition for your graduation, and failure to submit the form will result in the withholding of your diploma!

3. Completion of the Leaving Form (in eVision)

All graduating students must complete the online leaving procedure before their departure from CEU. The Leaving Form is part of this process and it is open for all graduating students. The Leaving Procedure will be open 30 days before the enrollment end date – when an automatic email notification will be sent from SITS. Please do not wait until the last moment and allow at least five (5) working days for administrative units to review the form. To access the Leaving Form, please log in to SITS after  consulting the manual.

General Deposits (paid at the start of your studies) will only be reimbursed after the Leaving Form has been completed.

Leaving Process

The Leaving Process generally starts 30 days before the student’s enrollment end date. An email notification will be sent to the students, and this triggers a notice to all relevant CEU units to update their part.

PLEASE NOTE: Due to the large number of graduating students, please allow administrators a few working days to review the Leaving form.

Students in the meantime should settle any potential outstanding issues, such as:

• paying tuition/enrollment fees to the Finance Office, 
• returning any borrowed items to the Library , t o the Community Engagement Office , to the Student Center or to IT ,  
• submitting travel/research grant reports to the Grants Office,
• completing the de-registration process in Austria,  
• submitting a Hungarian degree authorization form (if eligible for Hungarian diploma) to the Student Records Office  
• submitting the Austrian E xit S urvey .  

How to return borrowed items to the Library?

Books can be returned to the Libraries both in Vienna and in Budapest through the self-service machines.

How to return Austrian locker keys and other equipment borrowed from the Student Center ?  

Students are advised to return their locker key as well as other equipment borrowed by the Student Center (such as bikes, ping pong bats, etc.) to the Student Center (B601, 1100 Vienna, Quellenstrasse 51) . Please visit us during our opening hours from Mo- Fr 1pm – 4 pm .  

Students planning to stay further in Austria  at the same address do not have to de- or re-register their address. But you should still confirm in eVision that you have read and understood the information.

To confirm that you have understood the de-registration process please in eVision - go to the 'My student page - Administrative'/ 'My Details' section, and look for the ‘Austrian Address De-registration' tile - that you have understood the Austrian de-registration process and will report your change of address to the municipal office accordingly.

Students should consult this manual .

Green and Grey colors mean that you are not required to do anything. A Red color indicates that you may need to settle an outstanding issue.

Following Austrian higher education law, university graduates are required to complete a survey related to their study. Non-degree students do not need to fill out the survey.

You can expect a notification email about it 30 days before your enrollment end date. 

Use the graduation date, month and the EKZ ('Ersatzkennzeichen') number or Austrian valid e-card ('Austrian Sozialversicherungsnummer') to fill out  this survey . 

If the relevant line of the Leaving form does not change automatically from red to green after completion, please, send the following information to  [email protected] - with the title: 'Austrian exit survey': 

• the confirmation PDF you received from Statistics Austria  
• your Austrian Sozialversicherungsnummer too, you might have not reported it previously.

A Leaving Form is considered complete only if Deposit Reimbursement stays red.

Once your Leaving Form is complete, the deposit refund - similarly to monthly stipend - is transferred to your bank account stored in SITS. Students have the time until June 7, 2024  to register or modify their IBAN (International Bank account number) from any of the countries taking part in the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA). Deposit repayments are being processed continuously after June 7, 2024, upon the completion of the leaving form and registering a new IBAN or modifying the existing one in SITS.

IMPORTANT! If you did not pay a general deposit in the beginning of your studies, the Deposit Reimbursement and the IBAN registration are not applicable for you.

In case you have any questions about the status of your Leaving Form, please contact our colleagues at the relevant offices indicated below.

For questions or consultation, please contact the Student Center at  [email protected]

It's not over!

This website is your gateway to great alumni benefits and services, as well as means to reconnect with your fellow alumni around the world.

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New publication by our PhD student

The Philosophical Quarterly  has just published our current PhD student, Denis Kazankov's, co-authored article 'Linguistic imposters'. You can read the article here .