Outstanding Master's Thesis or Research Project Award
Overview
The College of Liberal Arts & Sciences' Committee on Graduate Studies has established two Outstanding Thesis/Research Project Awards. Each award carries a $750 stipend. One awardee is selected from among Summer and Fall graduates and a second from among Spring graduates.
Call for Nominations
Eligibility:
Students must be nominated by their thesis or research project advisor with the endorsement of either the Director of Graduate Studies or the Chair of the department.
Nomination Instructions:
Departments are strongly encouraged to select no more than one nominee for each cycle of the award. However, multiple nominees from a single department will be accepted if a department determines that more than one student truly warrants the nomination. In these cases, a separate letter is required for each nominee. Letters must be explicit about the relative merits of each.
Each nomination must include the following:
- A letter of support prepared and signed by the student's advisor and endorsed by the Director of Graduate Studies or Chair of the department. The letter should address the following award criteria:
- The overall quality of the thesis or research project (e.g., research design, organization of material, clarity of writing, interpretation of findings)
- The methodological rigor and/or innovation of the thesis or research project
- The significance and/or originality of the thesis or research project to the field: Why is the work "outstanding" by disciplinary standards? The thesis or research project should be described so that an audience outside of the field can understand the significance.
- The letter may also address the following, as appropriate:
- The trans-disciplinary/interdisciplinary nature of the research
- Resulting publications, presentations, and performances (or the promise thereof)
- Receipt of departmental honors or other awards
- An abstract of the thesis or non-thesis project
- An electronic copy of the thesis or research project document. Print copies will not be accepted.
If you have questions or need more information, please email coga@ku.edu or call 864-4201.
Current Year Winners
Marcela Paiva Veliz, Indigenous Studies (2024)
Plants as Relatives: Silphium Ethnobotany, Decolonization and Traditional Knowledge
Paiva Veliz’s thesis centers on the historical ethnobotany of Silphium, a perennial native North American plant. The study is motivated by ongoing domestication efforts of Silphium integrifolium (rosinweed or silflower) as a potential perennial oilseed crop in the broader agricultural transition toward sustainability. Their starting point was information from an Ethnobotanical Database supplemented by further research that complemented these findings. Written reports indicate that numerous Tribal Nations traditionally had relationships with the plant. Based on the ongoing coevolutionary relationships between Silphium and humans, Paiva Veliz proposes to set a continuous dialogue between communities and Native American Tribal Nations. Inspired by this research process and findings, broader reflections are shared regarding the use of historical materials. They explore the need and avenues for the decolonization of ethnobotany. They propose concrete practices of change that the researcher can implement to contribute to this goal by embracing a more respectful and diverse knowledge environment. In addition, because the basis of historical ethnobotany is the traditional knowledge associated with plants, Paiva Veliz reflects on the misappropriation and legal protection of the traditional knowledge of Indigenous peoples. While advocating for the return and rematriation of this knowledge, they highlight the role of Tribal Law in initiating and pursuing these healing processes of reconnection and return. Paiva Veliz concludes that they can develop new methodologies and connections with Native American Tribal Nations, which have ancient relationships with plants as relatives, like Silphium, as part of a broader effort to transition to sustainable agriculture and foster cultural restoration.
Paiva Veliz’s thesis centers on the historical ethnobotany of Silphium, a perennial native North American plant. The study is motivated by ongoing domestication efforts of Silphium integrifolium (rosinweed or silflower) as a potential perennial oilseed crop in the broader agricultural transition toward sustainability. Their starting point was information from an Ethnobotanical Database supplemented by further research that complemented these findings. Written reports indicate that numerous Tribal Nations traditionally had relationships with the plant. Based on the ongoing coevolutionary relationships between Silphium and humans, Paiva Veliz proposes to set a continuous dialogue between communities and Native American Tribal Nations. Inspired by this research process and findings, broader reflections are shared regarding the use of historical materials. They explore the need and avenues for the decolonization of ethnobotany. They propose concrete practices of change that the researcher can implement to contribute to this goal by embracing a more respectful and diverse knowledge environment. In addition, because the basis of historical ethnobotany is the traditional knowledge associated with plants, Paiva Veliz reflects on the misappropriation and legal protection of the traditional knowledge of Indigenous peoples. While advocating for the return and rematriation of this knowledge, they highlight the role of Tribal Law in initiating and pursuing these healing processes of reconnection and return. Paiva Veliz concludes that they can develop new methodologies and connections with Native American Tribal Nations, which have ancient relationships with plants as relatives, like Silphium, as part of a broader effort to transition to sustainable agriculture and foster cultural restoration.
Rachel Andreini, English (2024)
Affliction to Influence: The Negation of Nervous Sensitivity from Feminine Sensitivity in Marie Corelli's A Romance of Two Worlds
Building from recent scholarship exploring both mental illness beyond Victorian institutionalization and how Victorian women, assumed to have high sensitivity and receptivity, connected to Victorian spiritualism, Andreini considers how the gendered discourse around nervous disorders overlaps with the gendered discourse around spiritualism. To do this, Andreini explores Marie Corelli’s A Romance of Two Worlds (1886), whose unnamed disabled heroine recounts the events surrounding her discovery of the fictitious “Electric Creed.” Building from the premise that electricity is everywhere and God-given, the Electric Creed combines Christianity with Victorian science and technology to create a doctrine that informs the characters’ beliefs, values, and behaviors. Andreini places disability studies in the historical light of Victorian telecommunications, which Corelli used to conceptualize the Electric Creed, to consider the dual transgressive and normalizing forces of Victorian spiritualism in relation to the – often invisible, often gendered – Victorian discourse of nervous disorders. Andreini argues that the Electric Creed operates as a form of care for the heroine-as-woman but as a form of cure for the heroine-as-disabled, revealing that Corelli’s view of womanhood does not allow for disability within its model. Corelli’s ideal is one of womanly – but not nervous – sensitivity.
Building from recent scholarship exploring both mental illness beyond Victorian institutionalization and how Victorian women, assumed to have high sensitivity and receptivity, connected to Victorian spiritualism, Andreini considers how the gendered discourse around nervous disorders overlaps with the gendered discourse around spiritualism. To do this, Andreini explores Marie Corelli’s A Romance of Two Worlds (1886), whose unnamed disabled heroine recounts the events surrounding her discovery of the fictitious “Electric Creed.” Building from the premise that electricity is everywhere and God-given, the Electric Creed combines Christianity with Victorian science and technology to create a doctrine that informs the characters’ beliefs, values, and behaviors. Andreini places disability studies in the historical light of Victorian telecommunications, which Corelli used to conceptualize the Electric Creed, to consider the dual transgressive and normalizing forces of Victorian spiritualism in relation to the – often invisible, often gendered – Victorian discourse of nervous disorders. Andreini argues that the Electric Creed operates as a form of care for the heroine-as-woman but as a form of cure for the heroine-as-disabled, revealing that Corelli’s view of womanhood does not allow for disability within its model. Corelli’s ideal is one of womanly – but not nervous – sensitivity.
Past Recipients
- Jordan Cortesi, Psychology (2024)
- (Mis)perceptions of Racial Wealth Inequality: The Role of Colorblind Racism and Implications for Public Policy
- Qixin Pan, Sociology (2024)
- A Psychological Contract or a Golden Chain? Revisiting a Case Study of Kansas Power & Light Workers, 1956-1958
- Kim Conger, Physics & Astronomy (2023)
- Investigating Environmental Processing of Galaxies in the Virgo Cluster
- Jenna Williams, Chemistry (2023)
- Chondroitin Sulfate Glycosaminoglycans Inhibit CNS Myelination with Molecular Specificity
- Jacob Z. Tindan, Atmospheric Science (2023)
- Day-night Differences and Long-term Trends in Dust Activities Over the Dust Belt of North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia in the Early 21st Century.
- Laura Muñetón, Sociology (2023)
- Whose Work is Essential? Rethinking Class in a Time of Crisis
- Sharon Mugg, English (2022)
- Rethinking Art and Virtue in Shakespeare's As You Like It
- Keana Koun Tang, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (2022)
- Uncovering the early diversification of core eudicots in western North America: structurally preserved fruits from Late Cretaceous deposits of Sucia Island
- Jennifer Babitzke, Sociology (2022)
- The Cumulative Cost of Care: Caregiving Over the Life Course and Severity of Depression
- Rebecca Woolbert, Applied Behavioral Science (2021)
- Teaching Graphing Using Enhanced Written instruction: Does Chunk Size Matter?
- Alexis Exum, Psychology (2021)
- Culturally-Informed Theory for Disordered Eating in Black Women
- Nick Banach, English, Creative Writing (2020)
- Case Study: Becoming
- Morgan McComb, English (2020)
- "Everything is Here and Now": The Polyvocal Poetry of Naomi Long Madgett
- Erin Bojanek, Clinical Child Psychology (2019)
- Postural Control Processes During Static and Dynamic Activities in Autism Spectrum Disorder
- Austen McGuire, Clinical Child Psychology (2019)
- The Association between Dimensions of Maltreatment and Academic Outcomes for Youth in Foster Care
- Lucas McMichael, Geography & Atmospheric Science (2018)
- Assessing the Mechanisms Governing the Daytime Evolution of Marine Stratocumulus Using Large-Eddy Simulation
- Che-Ling Ho, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (2018)
- First Finding of Succulence and c4/CAM-Cycling Photosynthesis in a Grass: Ecophysiology on Spinifex littoreus in Coastal Region of Taiwan
- CJ Grady, Geography & Atmospheric Science (2018)
- Delineating Sea-Level Rise Inundation: An Exploration of Data Structure and Performance Optimization
- Carolina Bejarano, Clinical Child Psychology (2017)
- Motivation and Hedonic Hunger and Predictors of Self-Reported Food Intake in Adolescents: Disentangling Between-Person and Within-Person Processes
- Melissa Gilstrap, English (2016)
- Re-Placing the Prostitute: Ruth Hall and the Spatial Politics of the Streetwalker
- Meghan Kelly, Geography (2016)
- Mapping Syrian Refugee Border Crossings: A Critical, Feminist Perspective
- Joshua Meisel, Geography (2015)
- Historical Demographics, Student Origins, and Recruitment at Off-Reservation Indian Boarding Schools, 1900
- Elizabeth Adams, Classics (2014)
- Esse videtur: Occurrences of Heroic Clausulae in Cicero's Orations
- Laurie Gayes, Clinical Child Psychology (2014)
- A Meta-Analysis of Motivational Interviewing Interventions for Pediatric Health Behavior Change
- Gopolang Mohlabeng, Physics & Astronomy (2013)
- A Redshift Dependent Color-Luminosity Relation in Type 1a Supernovae
- Jeanne Tiehen, Theater (2013)
- Frankenstein on Stage: Galvanizing the Myth and Evolving the Creature
- Laurie Petty, Sociology (2012)
- Department Chairs and High Chairs: The importance of perceived department chair supportiveness on faculty parents' views of departmental and institutional kid-friendliness
- Steven Roels, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (2012)
- Not Easy Being Mead's: Comparative Herbivory on Three Milkweeds, Including Threatened Mead's Milkweed (Asclepias meadii), and Seedling Ecology of Mead's Milkweed