2023-24 WINNERS
Undergraduate Writing Prizes
Creative Project
Elaine Vera-Aguilera
Enola Gueta
Upper Division Prize
Mia Finnigan
Lower Division Prize
Bryce Santiago
Meher Khan
2022-23 WINNERS
Undergraduate Writing Prizes
Creative Project
Dani Biala
Upper Division Prize
Esteban Meza
Lower Division Prize
Elizabeth Petrulakis
2021-22 WINNERS
Undergraduate Writing Prizes
Creative Project
Nareh Derhartounian
Upper Division Prize
Eryca Antonio
Lower Division Prize
Grace Chen
Catalina French
Vanessa Niebla
2020-21 WINNERS
Undergraduate Writing Prizes
Thesis Writing Prize
Lindsay Goddard, Upholding the Disney Utopia Through American Tragedy: A Study of The Walt Disney Company's Responses to Pearl Harbor and 9/11
Upper Division Prize
Teja Dusanapudi, Terminally Toxic: Get Out, Cottagecore, and the Political Aesthetics of the Built Environment
Lower Division Prize
Mia Reyes, Fabuloso: A Lavender Scented Call Back Home
2019-20 WINNERS
Undergraduate Writing Prizes
Thesis Writing Prize
Tania Quintana, “Wellness Makes the Citizen: Memoir of a Bad Food Baby”
Upper Division Prize
Teja Dusanapudi, "A Prison the Size of the Country: Coronavirus and Anti-Black Ecology"
Lindsay Goddard, “Shaping Nature: A Study of Masculinity and Perfectionism in Contemporary American Taxidermy"
Lower Division Writing Prize
Emily Dalmeyer, “This Neo-Colonial American Life”
2018-19 WINNERS
Undergraduate Writing Prizes
Upper Division Prize
Russell Thomas, Futures in Crisis: Neoliberal Hopelessness and Trans Futurity
Greta Gettelfinger, I Meditate to Crush it: neoliberalism and the commodification of meditation and mindfulness
Lower Division Writing Prize
Sunny Gorba, Cowboy Boots: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Lindsay Goddad, Gender, Frontier and the Emerald City: an Analysis of the Wizard of Oz
Undergraduate International Travel Prizes:
Moa Smith
2017-18 WINNERS
Undergraduate Writing Prizes
Thesis Writing Prize
Brennan Baraban, Look, Football and School Do Go Together. That’s Just It.: College Athletics in the Age of Neoliberalism
Upper Division Prize
Arielle Corbin, Cycles of Violence
Lower Division Writing Prize
Chloe Archambault, Reduced Guilt: A Look at Morality, Femininity, and Food
Undergraduate International Travel Prizes:
Arielle Corbin, an incoming fourth-year American Studies and Gender, Sexuality & Women's Studies double major, is heading to London this summer to study gender and communication.
Estela Tejada, an incoming third-year with an American Studies and International Relations double major, will study human rights and cultural memory in Latin America during Fall 2018. She will spend six weeks in Santiago, Chile and another six weeks in Buenos Aires, Argentina as part of a UCEAP led program.
2016-17 WINNERS
Undergraduate Writing Prizes
Thesis Writing Prizes
Angela Kim, Blepharoplasty as Domestication of the Asian: Constructing Korean Identities by White Hands
Upper Division Prizes
Charlie Anderle, Tongues Untied: Effects of Policing on Marlon Riggs’ BlaQueer Aesthetic
Paulina Golikova, Transformative Alternatives to the Criminalization of Mental Illness
Lower Division Writing Prize
Kiana Borjian, Melting Pots, Witches’ Cauldrons: the Reclamation of American Narratives
Undergraduate International Travel Prizes:
Brennan Baraban, an incoming third-year American Studies major, is heading to Cuzco, Peru this summer to study environmental history and the culture of the Andean region.
Sasha Levin-Guracar, an incoming third-year with an American Studies and Communication double major, will study fashion marketing in Paris this summer. She will then head to Italy in the Fall to learn the Italian language, fulfilling her foreign language requirements in one quarter.
2015-16 WINNERS
Undergraduate Writing Prizes
Thesis Writing Prizes
Rachel Levin, Feminist Punk Rockers and New Media Fan Communities: Patti Smith and Carrie Brownstein's Music and Memoirs Kindle a Generation of Music Rebels
Andrea Wong, Reimagining the San Francisco Waterfront: Industrial cargo hub, empty plot or thriving community? The Nature of Land Use Development
Upper Division Writing Prizes
Drucella Miranda, Screen Printing as Political Movement
Bianca Salazar, (Marital) Love is Love: Marriage Equality and Heteronormative Assimilation
Lower Division Writing Prize
Neurigo Han, Sweet Choco Pie
Undergraduate International Travel Prizes:
Zoey Wolinsky, an American Studies major, participated in the UC Davis Quarter Abroad program in London, British Culture & Internships in London, during Spring 2016.
Alondra Morales, a Community & Regional Development and Chicana/o Studies major, participated in the UC Davis Summer Abroad program in Ecuador through the Native American Studies Department.
Tia Gatihi, an African & African American Studies major, participated in the UC Davis Summer Abroad program in Ghana.
Graduate Travel Prizes:
The 2015-2016 recipients are Megan Bayles and Alexandra Fine. Megan presented her paper "The Mütter Museum, Reenactment, and the Production of Wonder" in May at the Hunterian Museum. Alex presented her paper on "Auroratone: Rehabilitation through Synesthesia" for “Gender, Bodies; Technology: (In)Visible Futures,” April 2016 at Virginia Tech.
2014-15 WINNERS
Undergraduate Writing Prizes
Reilly McFadden
Christopher Lam
Sarah Oconnor
Graduate Travel Prize
Rusty Bartels
Ami Sommariva
2013-14 WINNERS
Undergraduate Writing Prizes:
Upper Division AMS Writing Prize
Todd Parry, A Privileged Working Space
Reilly McFadden, Boots, Chaps, Glitz, and Glam: Rodeo Queens’ Identity Struggle in the Contradictory Rodeo Kingdom
Lower Divison Writing Prize
Lily Tanner, "In The WestSide" in The West Side
Photo Prize
Anna Oh, Wild Horse in Monument Valley
Graduate Travel Prize
The 2012-2013 recipient is Christina Owens. She will be presenting her paper titled "Traveling Yellow Peril: U.S. American English Teachers in Japan and the Threat of Filipino Competition" at the Transnational American Studies Conference sponsored by the Center for American Studies and Research at the American University of Beirut, scheduled for January 6-9, 2014.
2012-13 WINNERS
Undergraduate Writing Prizes:
Grand Prize
John Paul (JP) Wallis, Killers of Men
Thesis Writing Prize
Chelsea Jones, This Land is Our Land: African American Environmental History of America
Upper Division AMS Writing Prize
Caylen Garrie written for methods in AMS 100, Turning Green: American Car Culture Is Influenced by Sustainability: Case Study: The Chevy Volt-- Legacy of the Past or the Ride of the Future?
Lower Divison Writing Prize
Lindy Giacopuzzi Rotz written for AMS 55, Cooking Cuts Both Ways on Gender and Food
Graduate Travel Prize
The 2011-2012 recipient was Tristan Josephson. Tristan presented his paper titled "Disciplining racial and gender difference: trans marriage and immigration" at the American Studies Association annual conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico.