2025 Research Prize Winners and Summer Faculty Fellows
HRI is excited to announce this year's Research Prize winners and Summer Faculty Fellows. Congratulations to all!
2024–25 Humanities Research Prize Recipients
Each year, the Humanities Research Institute recognizes excellence in humanities scholarship with awards given at the undergraduate, graduate, and faculty levels. We are excited to announce this year's recipients! You are invited to join us to celebrate at the Prizes for Research Ceremony and Year-End Reception on Thursday, May 8, 4:00–6:00 p.m. at the Spurlock Museum Atrium. Prizes will be awarded at 4:00 p.m. with reception to follow.
Faculty Prizes
WINNER
Anna Torres-Cacoullos (Spanish and Portuguese), “A Digital Archaeology of Early Hispanic Film Culture: Film Magazines and the Male Fan Reader,” with Elizaveta Senatarova (Slavic MA, 2023). Journal of Cultural Analytics, 9.4 (July 18, 2024).
HONORABLE MENTION
Deena Rymhs (American Indian Studies), “Putting Back Together: Restitching Relations in annie ross’s Pots and Other Living Beings,” Social Text (2024) 42.3 (160): 27–52.
Graduate Prizes
WINNER
Yoonsuh Kim (English), “Beyond Regions: Iron, Mobility, and the Toxic Imaginary in Life in the Iron Mills,” submitted for ENGL 599: Thesis Preparation, directed by Professor Justine Murison.
HONORABLE MENTION
Alexis Schmidt (English), “The Plot of Depletion in Edith Summers Kelley’s Novel Weeds,” submitted for ENGL 599: Thesis Preparation, directed by Professor Justine Murison.
Undergraduate Prize
WINNER
Colten Hallem (English), “‘What is this flesh?’: Ecological Interiority and Decay in The Duchess of Malfi,” nominated by Professor Andrea Stevens and submitted for ENGL 396: Honors Class on Revenge Tragedy, taught by Professor Stevens.
Summer Faculty Fellows
Summer Faculty Fellowships are designed to help faculty maximize the summer in service of their ongoing professional development. They provide an infusion of resources to jumpstart or fuel an ongoing research project, undertake course development, or pursue a professional training opportunity over the summer months.
RESEARCH
Mukhtar H. Ali (Religion), “The Compendium of Mysteries: A Study of Sayyid Ḥaydar Āmulī’s Jāmiʿ al-Asrār”
Nikolai A. Alvarado (Geography & GIS), “Counter-Cartographies of Migration and Urban Informality: Nicaraguan Rap as Living Archive of Radical Place-Making in Costa Rica"
Victoria Austen (Classics), “Landscaped Commemorabilia : The Mausoleum of Augustus as a Gardened Monument”
Deepasri Baul (History), “An Aversion to Progress: the cultural habitus of north Indian caste-histories”
Eduardo Ledesma (Spanish and Portuguese), “The Uses and Effects of Artificial Intelligence in Latin American Cinema”
Kim McKean (Theatre), “Creating New Plays: Conversations on New Play Development with Directors, Playwrights, Dramaturgs and other Theatre Makers”
Leonard Cornell McKinnis II (African American Studies and Religion), “Everyday Muslim: An Ethnographic Study on the Nation of Islam”
James Pilgrim (Art History, Art and Design), “Art and Environmentalism in Renaissance Venice”
Emily Tarconish (Special Education),“The lived experiences of disabled students in postsecondary education classrooms”
COURSE DEVELOPMENT
Wei (Windy) Zhao (Architecture), ARCH 572: Place Making in Rural China.
Pilar Martínez-Quiroga (Spanish and Portuguese), SPAN 320, Cultural Studies, II: Facing Diversity: 50 Years of Democracy, Spain 1975-2025.