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.

Anna Salvatore, Department of History
“'To Name It Klansas': William Allen White, the Ku Klux Klan, and the 1924 Gubernatorial Election in Kansas”

Advisor: Sean Wilentz, George Henry Davis 1886 Professor of American History

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.

Andrew Jung, Department of Sociology
“Temporal Space: The Choreography of Queer Life”

Advisor: Kristopher Velasco, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology

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.

Isabel Jacobson, Department of English
“SUBURBS ON FIRE: The Outsider in Contemporary American Fiction and Film”

Advisor: Jeff Nunokawa, Professor of English

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.

Moses Abrahamson, Department of Art and Archaeology
“Contested Objects: The Role of the Law in the Erection, Politicization, and Removal of Confederate Monuments”

Advisor: AnnMarie Perl, Research Scholar and Lecturer, Department of Art and Archaeology

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.

Maida Shahid, School of Public and International Affairs
“When Will We Stop Counting? The Making of an Endless Crisis: A Study into Terrorism as a Construct, the Politicization of Fear, and the Dynamics of Counterterrorism”

Advisor: Arian Sharifi

Princeton Prize in Race Relations Senior Thesis Prize

Brooklyn Northcross, Department of African American Studies
“Through the Eyes of the Beholden: A Mosaic of Grassroots Creative Placemaking in Detroit”

Advisor: Ruha Benjamin

Willard Thorp Thesis Prize

Isabel Schoeman, Department of Politics
"Can Money Buy "Justice"? A New Approach to Studying the Influence of Campaign Contributions on Judicial Decision Making"

Advisor: John Kastellec

Asher Hinds Prize

Cathleen Weng, Department of Classics
“Fathers, Flytraps, and Fish: An Exploration of Gender, Sexuality, and Family in Asian American Classical Reception”

Advisor: Katerina Stergiopoulou

Grace May Tilton Prize in Fine Arts

Drew Pugliese, Department of Art and Archaeology 
“‘Sick Joke’: Queer Politics / Queer Humor”

David F. Bowers Prize

Sarah Pederson, Department of Computer Science 
 

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

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

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

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

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