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Research Topic Ideas

Astronomy; Biology; Chemistry; Computer Science; Engineering; Geography, Planning, & Environment; Mathematics; Physics

Anthropology Topics

  • Agricultural practices
  • Amphora
  • Ancestors (role of)
  • Ancient Roman culture
  • Body modification
  • Burial customs
  • Clothing/costume
  • Cultural appropriation
  • Day of the Dead
  • Easter Island statues
  • Eating utensils
  • Folklore
  • Gender roles
  • Gift giving customs
  • Human universals
  • John Frum movement
  • Kennewick Man
  • Kissing customs
  • Language/linguistics
  • Marriage
  • Melungeons
  • Nudists
  • Otherkin
  • Polyandry
  • Polygamy
  • Primate families
  • Religious beliefs/practices
  • Repatriation
  • Rhine-Danube corridor
  • Ritual masks
  • Roma (gypsy) culture
  • Social networks
  • Stonehenge
  • Subcultural groups (e.g. hippies, Hell's Angels, etc.)
  • Totem poles
  • Traditional medicine
  • Untouchability
  • Thompson Library Guides for Anthropology

Communication Topics

  • Advocacy journalism
  • Bias
  • Bot journalists
  • Cancel culture
  • Cartoons
  • Comic strips
  • Disinformation
  • Embedded journalism
  • Fake news
  • Greenwashing
  • Hobo signs and signals
  • Media ethics
  • Memes
  • Newspapers' declining revenues
  • Objectivity in journalism
  • Press embargoes
  • Privacy
  • Propaganda
  • Section 230 (Communications Decency Act)
  • Slanting
  • Social media as social justice
  • Social media influencers
  • Social media literacy
  • Social networking
  • Tabloids
  • Underground newspapers
  • Yellow journalism
  • Thompson Library Guide for Communication

Criminal Justice Topics

  • Bail reform
  • Cadaver dogs
  • Capital punishment as deterrent
  • Community policing
  • Crime statistic reporting
  • Cyber crime
  • Death penalty
  • Decarceration movement
  • Domestic violence
  • Fiber evidence
  • For-profit prisons
  • Forensic genealogy
  • Forensic geology
  • Fraud
  • Hate crime / hate groups
  • Identity theft
  • Illegal drug use
  • Innocence projects
  • International terrorism
  • Legalization of marijuana
  • Lethal injection vs. electric chair
  • Mandatory minimum sentencing
  • Plea bargaining
  • Presumptive parole
  • Prison overcrowding
  • Prostitution
  • Racial profiling
  • Rehabilitation in prison
  • Riots
  • Serial killers
  • Sodomy laws
  • Touch DNA
  • Undercover police
  • Voting rights for felons
  • Warren court
  • Witness protection program
  • Thompson Library Guide for Criminal Justice

Linguistic Topics

  • African American Vernacular English
  • American Sign Language
  • Artificial languages
  • Borrowed words
  • Creoles
  • Constructed languages
  • English language learner
  • Esperanto
  • Great Vowel Shift
  • Gullah​
  • Indo-European language history
  • Language revitalization
  • Oral history
  • Pidgins
  • Regional languages
  • Secret languages
  • Slang
  • Taboo language
  • Southern dialect
  • Whistled languages
  • Thompson Library Guides for Linguistics

Political Science Topics

  • 2016 presidential campaign
  • Alt-right
  • Arab Spring
  • Automatic voter registration
  • Campaign finance laws
  • Congressional Review Act
  • Debates
  • Democratization
  • Effect of mass media
  • Electoral College reform
  • Environmental Protection Agency
  • Executive actions
  • Executive power, limits of
  • Facebook campaigning
  • Federalism
  • Filibuster
  • Gerrymandering
  • House of Representatives expansion
  • Judicial review
  • Line item veto
  • Mutual defense alliances
  • National Popular Vote Bill
  • Open government
  • Parliamentary system
  • Pork barrel legislation
  • Populism
  • Ranked choice voting
  • Regulations
  • Bernie Sanders
  • Social democracy
  • Super PACs
  • Supreme Court powers
  • Transparency
  • Donald Trump
  • Voter turnout
  • Thompson Library Guides for Political Science

Psychology Topics

  • Addiction
  • Anger management
  • Animal assisted therapy
  • Asperger's Syndrome
  • Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)
  • Autism
  • Behaviorism
  • Bipolar disorder
  • Birth order
  • Borderline personality disorder
  • Compulsion loop
  • Cross-dressing
  • Depression
  • Dissociative Identity Disorder
  • Dreams
  • Emotional intelligence
  • Family therapy
  • Grief
  • Group therapy
  • Guilt
  • Internet addiction
  • Jealousy
  • Kleptomania
  • Mass psychogenic illness
  • Megalomania
  • Memory loss
  • Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)
  • Otherkin
  • Panic attacks
  • Pedophilia
  • Peer pressure
  • Personality types
  • Phobias
  • Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
  • Postnatal (postpartum) depression
  • Prescriptions for ADHD
  • Replication Crisis
  • Resilience
  • Self-esteem
  • Sexual assault victims
  • Sleeping disorders
  • Social anxiety disorder
  • Speech disorders
  • Theory of mind
  • Transsexual
  • Twins
  • Thompson Library Guide for Psychology

Sociology Topics

  • Aging
  • Ambient awareness
  • Anti-vaccination
  • Black Lives Matter
  • Class
  • Conflict theory
  • Consumerism
  • Counter-cultures
  • Cults
  • Cultural appropriation
  • Cultural assimilation
  • Ethnicity
  • Equal pay
  • Family issues
  • Fandom
  • Fashion trends
  • Flocking behavior
  • Gender Issues
  • Internet communities
  • Mass Media
  • Nationality
  • Occupy movement
  • Online dating
  • Patriotism
  • Police brutality
  • Poverty gap
  • Protest
  • Social media activism
  • Social stratification
  • Spirituality and religion
  • Stereotypes
  • Sub-cultures
  • Superstitions
  • Work place
  • Thompson Library Guides for Sociology