2023
Princeton Prize in Race Relations Senior Thesis Prize
The Princeton Prize in Race Relations Senior Thesis Prize, endowed by the Princeton University Class of 1966, is awarded annually to a member of the senior class, irrespective of academic concentration, whose senior thesis adds significantly to our understanding of issues of race and race relations in the United States, broadly defined. While a prize-winning thesis may rely on conventional research methodologies (in libraries and archives, using the research methodologies of the humanities and the social sciences), the Effron Center for the Study of America will look with favor on theses that also manage to draw this scholarship into practical and experiential engagement.
Payton Croskey, Department of African American Studies
“Fashioning New Worlds: Weaving Alternate Futures through Fashion Technology and Black Ingenuity”
Advisor: Ruha Benjamin
Willard Thorp Thesis Prize
A prize awarded to the senior in the Effron Center for the Study of America who prepared the most outstanding thesis of a clearly interdisciplinary nature. The prize honors Professor of English Willard Thorp, a founder of the American studies program and for many years its director.
Susan Lee Baek, Princeton School of Public and International Affairs
“What It Means to Be ‘Asian American’ in New York City: An Interview-Based Analysis of an Evolving Political Category”
Advisor: Tanushree Goyal
Asher Hinds Prize
This prize was established in memory of Asher Hinds, professor of English and one of the leaders of the Special Program in the Humanities, which later became the programs in American studies and European cultural studies. Hinds was remembered with particular affection by his students and colleagues, who established this prize. It is awarded to the student who does the most outstanding work in the humanities.
Kaelani Burja, Department of Anthropology
“Not Your Great White Way: An Ethnography of New York City and New Jersey’s Latiné and New Theatrical Works Rehearsal Room Processes”
Advisor: Elizabeth Davis
Grace May Tilton Prize in Fine Arts
The prize is awarded for an outstanding thesis by a senior in any of the departments collaborating in the Effron Center for the Study of America. The thesis must deal wholly or principally with some aspect of the fine arts or crafts, past or present, within the territory now embraced by the United States, or elsewhere in the Americas. The prize is a gift of Robert Schirmer of the Class of 1921 in memory of his mother.
Alison Hirsch, Department of Art and Archaeology
“Monsanto as Image Maker: Feeding the World Lies”
Advisor: Rachael Z. DeLue
David F. Bowers Prize
A prize awarded to the student in the Effron Center for the Study of America who does the best work in center seminars. Established in 1951 in memory of Professor of Philosophy David F. Bowers, one of the faculty group that drew up the plan for the American studies program, the prize was endowed in 1955 by Willard and Margaret Thorp.
Gianni Pacheco, Department of Sociology
2022
Princeton Prize in Race Relations Senior Thesis Prize
Lehman Montgomery, Department of Politics
“Navigating Masculinity Through Race and Sexuality: American Voters’ Candidate Evaluations of Black Men”
Asher Hinds Prize
Cameron Lee, Department of English
“The Entropy of Smell: Theorizing a Logic of Olfaction Through the Art and Literature of Asian Women”
Grace May Tilton Prize in Fine Arts
Elizabeth Brooke Baxter, Department of History
“Severed Threads: Benjamin Franklin, Pennsylvania Silk Production, and the Fight for American Independence”
Honorable Mention
Noel Peng, Department of History
“DIÓJUÀ (or Mai travels through Nepantla...and not back)”
Willard Thorp Thesis Prize
Marissa Michaels, Department of Sociology
“Theaters of Accountability: A Performance Studies Analysis of Discipline in Newark Youth Court”
David F. Bowers Prize
Emily Sánchez, Department of History
Full article: Effron Center Class Day celebrates seniors across disciplines
2021
Princeton Prize in Race Relations Senior Thesis Prize
Jacy Duan, Department of Sociology
“Asian American Actors and Representation in Hollywood”
Ashley Nurse, Department of Anthropology
“The Veil: The Silent Lynching of the Black Woman”
Asher Hinds Prize
Lindsay Emi, Department of English
“Rare Trips to America”
Grace May Tilton Prize in Fine Arts
Phoebe Warren, Department of Art and Archaeology
“From Cholera to COVID-19: A Framework for Analyzing the Visual Media of Communicable Disease Outbreaks.”
Willard Thorp Thesis Prize
Glenna Jane Galarion, Department of Anthropology
“‘Honor’: Rapping and Representing Asian America”
David F. Bowers Prize
Christian Flores, Department of Politics
Full article: Members of the Class of 2021 honored for interdisciplinary achievement
2020
Princeton Prize in Race Relations Senior Thesis Prize
Vayne Ong, Department of History
“Springwood Avenue Rising: Race, Leisure, and Decline in the 1970 Asbury Park Uprising”
Asher Hinds Prize
Grace Koh, Department of History
“The Origins of a Nation: Constructing a ‘Korean Nation’ from the Three Kingdoms of Korea”
Grace May Tilton Prize in Fine Arts
Allegra E. Martshenko, School of Architecture
“Between the One and the Other, Textual Imagination as Architectural Method”
Willard Thorp Thesis Prize
Tabitha Belshee, Department of Politics
“Doing Right by Our Children: Understanding and Redressing President Trump’s ‘Zero-Tolerance Policy’”
David F. Bowers Prize
Tessa Albertson, Department of English
Full article: Seniors recognized for thesis, seminar work
2019
Princeton Prize in Race Relations Senior Thesis Prize
Natalya Linglingay Rañeses Ritter, Department of Politics
“‘Stuck in the Middle with You’: The Role of Law in the Racial and Political Classification of Filipinos in America”
Asher Hinds Prize
Katherine E. Duggan, Department of English
“Ghost Melodramas and the Staging of American History”
Grace May Tilton Prize in Fine Arts
Alicia Brooke Hammarskjold, Department of Art and Archaeology
“Landscape Painting, Urbanization, and the California Imaginary”
Willard Thorp Thesis Prize
Sarah Spergel, Department of History
“Spilling the Tea: an Exploration of Tea Pads in 1930s Harlem”
David F. Bowers Prize
Alis Yoo, Department of History
2018
Princeton Prize in Race Relations Senior Thesis Prize
Anthony M. Sgro, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs
“Litness Test: An Argument for Hip-Hop Music in Public Education”
Asher Hinds Prize
Katherine Elisabeth Shifke, Department of Art and Archaeology
“A Phenomenal Presence that is Unequivocally Black and Beautiful: Redefining Beauty Through the Art of Kerry James Marshall”
Grace May Tilton Prize in Fine Arts
Katherine Elisabeth Shifke, Department of Art and Archaeology
“A Phenomenal Presence that is Unequivocally Black and Beautiful: Redefining Beauty Through the Art of Kerry James Marshall”
Zoë Anne Toledo, School of Architecture
“The Invention of Navajo Nature: Building, Heritage, and Land in the 1930s”
Willard Thorp Thesis Prize
Mark Adi Goldstein, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs
“Climate Change in American National Parks: Impacts, Management, Communication, and Public Perception”
David F. Bowers Prize
Nicholas Alexander Fernández, Department of Politics
Isabel Jane Hetherington, Department of History
Full article: AMS honors seniors at 2018 Class Day