Theses Award Winners
2022 Winners
Oswald Werner Prize for Distinguished Honors Thesis in Anthropology
Madelyn Moy "Long term effects of hepatitis-B infection on the gut microbiome of captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)"
Friends of Anthropology Award for Distinguished Honors Thesis in Public Health
Ellie Thompson "Armed with syringes: martial metaphors and the militarization of COVID-19 interventions"
Elizabeth M. Brumfiel Award for Distinguished Honors Thesis in Archaeology
Chloe Ponzio "Bringing home spot: domestication and human-dog relationships across the ancient Americas"
2021 Winners
Oswald Werner Prize for Distinguished Honors Thesis in Anthropology
Anna Yang, “Intersectional Traumas: Resilience and Mental Health in Post-Apartheid South Africa during the COVID-19 Pandemic"
Friends of Anthropology Award for Distinguished Honors Thesis in Public Health
Allison Mo, “Traditional Chinese Medicine in Western Contexts: Translation, Trust, and Efficacy”
Elizabeth M. Brumfiel Award for Distinguished Honors Thesis in Environmental Anthropology Myles Kobe Bowen, "Perpetual Violence and Livable Resistance: Historicizing Lousiana's Toxically Fertile "Cancer Alley"
2020 Winners
Oswald Werner Prize for Distinguished Honors Thesis in Anthropology
Zoe Miller, “Hungry Thirsty Roots: Imagining and Constructing Ethnic Otherness in 1800s England"
Friends of Anthropology Award for Distinguished Honors Thesis in Public Health
Norah Fanning, “Doubly Burdened, Dually Strained: The Strategic Utilization of Chicago’s Community Health Workers in Task-Shifting Interventions”
Elizabeth M. Brumfiel Award for Distinguished Honors Thesis in Archaeology
Simone Laszuk, “Swimming Upstream: Decreasing Salmon Populations in the Columbia River Basin Through Infrastructure and its Impacts on Indigenous Welfare”
2019 Winners
Oswald Werner Prize for Distinguished Honors Thesis in Anthropology:
Julia Shenkman, "Redefining the Borders of Medical Tourism: Navigating Healthcare in an Evolving Local Knowledge System"
Friends of Anthropology Award for Distinguished Honors Thesis in Public Anthropology
Talia Waxman, "Processing Resilience: Teen Girls, Agency, and Transformative Research"
Elizabeth M. Brumfiel Award for Distinguished Honors Thesis in Archaeology
Aleksandra Grabowski, "Decolonizing Digging? Critical Approaches for Contempor ary Archaeologies"
2018 Winners
Oswald Werner Prize for Distinguished Honors Thesis in Anthropology
Lucia Evaline Procopio, “Curating Racism: Understanding Field Museum Physical Anthropology from 1893 to 1969."
Friends of Anthropology (FAN) Award for Distinguished Honors Thesis in Public Anthropology
Emma Grace Zblewski, “Safe Enough? Constructing Accessible Spaces at the Intersection of Queer Identity and Trauma.”
Elizabeth M. Brumfiel Award for Distinguished Honors Thesis in Archaeology
Anna Rae Tolley, “A Salty Survival: An Exploration of Resilience and the Maya Marketplace."
2017 Winners
Oswald Werner Prize for Distinguished Honors Thesis in Anthropology
De'Sean Anthony Weber, “Trauma-Informed Care: Re-contextualizing, Politicizing and De-pathologizing the Traumatic Black Experience”
Friends of Anthropology (FAN) Award for Distinguished Honors Thesis in Public Anthropology
Miriam Annette Perez, “The Value of Stories: Understanding the Social Determinates of Health for the Latinx Community of Pilsen”
2016 Winners
Oswald Werner Prize for Distinguished Honor Thesis in Anthropology
Chia-Ping Chin, “Are You What You Eat? Investigating Dietary Acculturation among East Asian International College Students in the United States”
Friends of Anthropology (FAN) Distinguished Honors Thesis in Public Anthropology
Elizabeth Nicole Fillion, “An Examination of Potential Bone Weathering Agents at Swartkrans Cave
Elizabeth M. Brumfiel Prize for Distinguished Honors Thesis in Archaeology
Neha Guddeti Reddy, “The Politics of “Community Engagement “Community Health Workers and Instrumentalization of “the Community” in Global Health”
2015 Winners
Oswald Werner Prize for Distinguished Honor Thesis in Anthropology
Nicholas Francis Wang, “Sexual Function and Masculinity: How Prostate Cancer Treatment Side Effects Create Gender Identity Crises among Men in America”
Friends of Anthropology (FAN) Distinguished Honors Thesis in Public Anthropology
Anna Christine Cassell, “Something is Really Wrong’: Evaluating Concussions and Early Retirement in Women’s Collegiate Soccer”
Elizabeth M. Brumfiel Prize for Distinguished Honors Thesis in Archaeology
Samuel Noel Howes, “Topography, Memory and Power: Class and Ethnicity in Post-Roman Italy”
2014 Winners
Oswald Werner Prize for Distinguished Honor Thesis in Anthropology
Catherine Marie Althaus, “Displaying the Dead: Scientific Specimens or Human Beings? A Global Perspective on Human Remains in Museums”
Friends of Anthropology (FAN) Distinguished Honors Thesis in Public Anthropology
Sofia Victoria Porter-Castro, “Flavors of Childhood: Understanding Wellness through the Foodways of Mexican Immigrants in the Upper Midwest”
Kathryn Makela Vogt, “Cattle Call: Communicating Authenticity of Locally Sourced Food within Mediated Points of Consumption”
Elizabeth M. Brumfiel Prize for Distinguished Honors Thesis in Archaeology
Ivan Yeh, “Plates and Places: The Function and Trade of European Ceramics at Colonial Caribbean Plantations during the 18th and 19th Centuries”
2013 Winners
Oswald Werner Prize for Distinguished Honor Thesis in Anthropology
Meghan Elizabeth White, "A New 'Multicultural Nationalism:' How One Muslim Women's Organization in Britain Negotiates Neoliberal Ideas of Self and Citizenship through an Islamic Lens"
Friends of Anthropology Prize (FAN) Distinguished Honors Thesis in Public Anthropology
Leah Nicole North, "Moonlit Cruises with Co-Eds: Men, Women, and the Masculinity of the Victorian Middle Class at the Northwestern Lifesaving Station"
Melissa Lynn Sobin, "Behind the Paint: Gentrification, Commodified Culture, and Public Art in Pilsen"
Elizabeth M. Brumfiel Prize for Distinguished Honors Thesis in Archaeology
Eric Daniel Johnson, "A Moated Order: Space, Movement, and the Production of Authority in the Medieval Landscape"
2012 Winners
Oswald Werner Prize for Distinguished Honor Thesis in Anthropology
Frances Rosen McGill, “The ‘Death of the Street’: Social Networks and Reimagined Space in Sidi Momen”
Friends of Anthropology Prize (FAN) Distinguished Honors Thesis in Public Anthropology
Sheila Rose Kredit, “’Everybody, They Have Their Own Reasons’: Breastfeeding Cessation Among WIC-Enrolled Immigrant, Hispanic, and African-American Women in Chicago”
Elizabeth M. Brumfiel Prize for Distinguished Honors Thesis in Archaeology
Sophia Theodossiou, “A Shifting Society: Creolization and Dominica’s 19th Century Slave Population”
2011 Winners
Oswald Werner Prize for Distinguished Honor Thesis in Anthropology
Rachel Sunmi Koh, “Who is Authorized to Define a Woman? How Narratives Influence Post-Operative Gender Identity in Chilean Hysterectomy Patients"
Junzi Shi, “Tooth Loss and CRP Positively Predict Cardiovascular Disease Risk in Adult Filipino Women”
Friends of Anthropology Prize (FAN) Distinguished Honors Thesis in Public Anthropology
Emily Caitlin Wright, “Cultivating Community: Urban Gardens in Chicago’s Humboldt Park Neighborhood”
Morgan Elizabeth Heller, “Infected and Affected: Examining the HIV/AIDS Experience of Patients and Family Members in Kampala, Uganda through Photovoice”
2010 Winners
Oswald Werner Prize for Distinguished Honor Thesis in Anthropology
Lacey Bette Carpenter, ““Household Cloth Production: A Study of Spindle Whorls in Context from the Classic Period Oaxaca Valley, Mexico”
Elena Rebecca Pinksy, “Where the Streets Have a Name: Exploring Identity Formation and the Authenticity of Popular Culture in Buenos Aires’ Carnaval”
Friends of Anthropology Prize (FAN) Distinguished Honors Thesis in Public Anthropology
Karina Ann Walker, “Help Wanted?: Exploring the Relationship between Street Youth and their Service Providers in Cochabamba, Bolivia”