2020 Deparmental Thesis Awards

Adlai Stevenson Global Studies Thesis Prize
This award goes to the best BA thesis on an international or global theme.
Spring 2020 winners:

Sophia Vale – First Prize

• BA Title: The Ni Una Menos Movement in Argentina

Shelby Senger – Honorable Mention

• BA Title: Foreign in a Domestic Sense: Puerto Ricans as Liminal Citizens of the United States

James L. Hevia Global Studies Thesis Prize
This award goes to the best BA thesis on one of the following themes: Chinese, British and Asian studies, and human interactions with animals and plants.
Spring 2020 winners:

Lauren Pankin – First Prize

• BA Title: Tibetan Antelopes in the Bourdeux Vinyard

Dianne Kim – Honorable Mention

• BA Title: Kumamon and Placemaking in the Twenty-First Century

We also asked each of the award recipients to comment on what they will miss most about the University:

Sophia Vale

• In 2015, women across Argentina rose up in protest against the pervasive issue of feminicide. Hundreds of thousands of people gathered to demand state accountability, that justice be served and that women gain control over their own bodies. Thus, the Ni Una Menos movement was born. In the fall of 2018, I spent four months studying in Buenos Aires, Argentina. While there, I witnessed large, organized street protests, as well as smaller quotidian acts of support for the movement. I was struck by the passion, determination and tenacity of the womxn advocating for an end to gender-based violence and for increased bodily freedom. My research focused on the way gendered embodied protest is used as a mechanism of political agency and the sociopolitical changes that have occurred since Ni Una Menos began.

Shelby Singer

• What I will miss most about this university is the conversations. Everyone has a unique perspective, original ideas, and such deep curiosity and creativity. Everyone is passionate about something, and as different as we all are, we tend to think and approach the world in the same way, in that we are always driven to look deeper and ask more questions, even when the answer seems obvious. I have learned so much from and deeply enjoyed my conversations with my peers over the past four years. It has been a privilege to live, learn, and grow with my classmates.

Lauren Pankin

• At the University of Chicago, I learned just as much from my coursework as from my mentors, friends, and classmates. Without their well-rounded intelligence, unflinching dedication to pursuing truth, and love of sharing their passions, my experience would never have been as enriching, fulfilling, or memorable.

Dianne Kim

• I will miss running into my friends on the quad, even ones that I hadn't seen in weeks and spending way too long chatting with that I end up running late for my next class; Active Minds, through which I met so many lovely people who were as passionate about mental health education and activism as I am; professors and TAs who supported me and encouraged me even when I was doubting myself; everyone from Cathey House; knowing that every day I spend on campus is another opportunity to meet someone with entirely new passions, experiences, and opinions; and most of all, the journey I went through for five years through which I found myself and gathered the courage to pursue what I wanted, not anyone else.