THESIS AWARDS
Mark and Betty Garrison Prize
Awarded for the best thesis in international relations, foreign policy analysis, or diplomatic history. The prize honors the work of Mark and Betty Garrison who helped create the Center for Foreign Policy Development (CFPD) at Brown University in 1981.
| 2019 |
Katarina Zivec "Veins of Influence: Revisiting the Impact of Energy Politics on Inter-State Relations" |
| 2018 |
Not awarded |
| 2017 |
Dolan Bortner "Compliance in Context: Extralegal Determinants of Extradition in Chile and Japan" |
| 2016 |
James Janison "Examining the International Political Economy of the Firm: The Dynamics of State Aggression in Georgian-Russian Trade 1996-2014" |
| 2015 |
Tomonobu Kumahira "Modeling Internet-based Citizen Activism and Foreign Policy: The Islands Dispute between China and Japan" |
| 2014 |
Hannah Braun "A Critical Approach to Energy Security: The Field of National Practice in Poland and Germany" |
| 2013 |
Jorge Tamames "A Crisis of Consensus: Legacies of the Spanish Transition, 1975-2013" |
| 2012 |
Sarah Wilbanks "Cherry-Picked Humanitarian Interventions: A Complexity Approach to Explaining Libya 2011" |
Samuel C. Lamport Prize
Awarded for the best thesis on international understanding with an emphasis on cooperation and tolerance.
| 2019 |
Isabel Paolini "The Tides of Rapprochement: Integrating a Social Approach to Examine the Origins of Hydropolitical Cooperation" |
| 2018 |
Not awarded |
| 2017 |
Emily Cunniffe "Humanitarianism As Border: The Governance of Migration and the Reinforcement of Exclusion in Ceuta, Spain" |
| 2016 |
Aida Patricia Palma Carpio "Chinese “Paisanos” in Guadalajara, Mexico: Rethinking South-South Migration Flows" |
| 2015 |
Emma Strother "Political Economy and Global Arts for Social Change: A Comparative Analysis of Youth Orchestras in Venezuela and Chile" |
| 2014 |
Galen Hunt "The People Business: Revisiting the Function of Networks in the Practice of Human Smuggling" |
| 2013 |
Vanes Ibric "The Selectivity and Inconsistency of Security Council-Authorized Humanitarian Intervention: Explaining Syria in Light of Libya" |
|
Ana Carolina Barry Laso "Explaining Social Inclusion Policies: Emergence Theory and the Case of Brazil (1988-2013)" |
| 2012 |
Julia Sheehy-Chan "Government Strategy Behind Religious Conflict: Explaining Violence Against Christians in Egypt and Jordan" |
Watson Institute Outstanding Thesis Award
For the best IR thesis related to the Institute’s core research areas of security, development, or governance.
| 2019 |
Sukana Roy "Transnational Linkages of Belonging: Migrant Destinations and Remittances in Burkina Faso and Senegal" |
| 2018 |
Arundhati Ponnapa "Violent Conflict, Nation-Building, and Language Policy Formation: A Comparative Study of India and Indonesia" |
| 2017 |
Paula Martinez Gutierrez "Explaining Variations in Violence: Civil Allyship and Drug War Outcomes in China and Mexico" |
| 2016 |
Not awarded |
| 2015 |
Yelena Bidé "Social Movements and Processes of Political Change: The Political Outcomes of the Chilean Student Movement, 2011-2015" |
| 2014 |
Youbin Kang "Manual Intervention: A Path-dependency Analysis of the Influence of Values in Three Private Voluntary Initiatives" |
IR Resarch and Travel Grants
Awarded to concentrators in International Relations who need to travel to conduct fieldwork for an approved senior thesis or other approved capstone project.
| 2019 |
Grant McFaddin "Small Nuclear Wars: Revisiting the Concept of Limited Nuclear War" (Washington, D.C.) |
|
Allison Meakem "Erdogan in Europe: Turkey's AKP, Diasporic Communities, and the Erosion of the Kemalist State" (Germany) |
|
Camila Pelsinger "Restorative Justice Responses to Sexual Violence: A Case Study of Project Restore in New Zealand" (Aukland, New Zealand) |
|
Kelsy Turner "The Effects of Social Legislation in Marginalized Communities: Violence AGainst Indigenous Women in Chile, 2006-2019" (Santiago, Chile) |
| 2018 |
Helen Gerstenfeld "Shifting from an Extractive Growth Model to an Innovative Growth Model: A Comparison of Israel and Chile" (Israel) |
|
Drashti Brahmbhatt "Detaching Conflict Resolution From the Nationa-State Paradigm: A Case Study of Mapuche Women" (Santiago, Chile) |
|
Jack Morris Residential Response to Military Action (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) |
| 2017 |
Margot Cohen "The Language of Violence: Gender, Murder, and the Patriarchal State--A Feminist Case Study of Femicide in Chile, 2007-2017" (Santiago, Chile) |
|
Michelle Schein "Green Energy Resources in Iran and the MENA Region" (Amman, Jordan) |
|
Amelie Vavrovsky "Welfare Regimes and Solidarity for Refugees and Migrants in Europe" (Sweden, Austria, France) |
| 2016 |
Paula Martinez Gutierrez "Ongoing Drug Wars in China and Mexico: Causes for Militarized Strategies" (Beijing, China) |
|
Sarah Stillman "Beyond (Physical) Borders: A Study of EU Involvement in Moroccan Nonprofits" (Rabat, Morocco) |
| 2015 |
James Janison "Examining the International Political Economy of the Firm: The Dynamics of State Aggression in Georgian-Russian Trade 1996-2014" (Tbilisi, Georgia) |
|
Aida Palma Carpio "Chinese “Paisanos” in Guadalajara, Mexico: Rethinking South-South Migration Flows" (Guadalajara, Mexico) |
| 2014 |
Yelena Bide "Social Movements and Processes of Political Change: The Political Outcomes of the Chilean Student Movement, 2011-2015" (Santiago, Chile) |
|
Guo Jin Daryl Eng "International Institutions and State Leverage: IMF Program Design and Implementation in Argentina, 1991-2002" (Buenos Aires, Argentina) |
| 2013 |
Felice Feit "Crossing Borders: The Trans-nationality of North African Human Rights Movements" (Cairo, Eqypt) |
|
Youbin Kang "Fashion, Ethics, and Nationality: Explaining Cross-border Solidarity within the Garment Industry." (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) |
|
Justin Lee "The Cross-Strait Political Implications of Trade Agreements between Taiwan and China." (Taipei, China: Department of Public Finance at National Chengchi University and the Republic of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs) |
NON-THESIS AWARDS
Academic Achievement in International Relations Prize
Given to students with all A’s in their IR concentration courses, including language study.
| 2019 |
Eli Binder, Dakota Fenn, Saanya Jain, Samantha Kiernan, Anuj Krishnamurthy, Ian Lefond, Zoe Verni |
| 2018 |
Katherine Chin, Helen Gerstenfeld Abreu, Michelle Schein |
| 2017 |
Emily Petrie, Mallika Sahaya |
| 2016 |
Stephanie Chung, Lynette Lim Xueling |
| 2015 |
Guo Jin Daryl Eng, Michael Hoffman, Yi Liu, Eli Okun, Aaron Vale |
| 2014 |
Sujaya Desai, Mehra Gayatri, Julia Murdza, Reva Dhingra, Carolina Gomes |
| 2013 |
Philip Lai, Dorothy Lutz, Tanya Nguyen, Ariel Rhoda, Andrew White, Quingliu Yang |
| 2012 |
Samantha Barney, Cheryn-Ann Chew, Jeremy Cutting, John Hammond, Brandon Kaufmann, Janine Khraishah, Andrew Leber, Emily Moore, Julia Potter, Olivia Singer, Ivan Tomic, Stefan Yordanov |
| 2011 |
Samura Atallah, Paula Armstrong, Andrew Berg, Huong Dang, Julien Gaertner, Chelsea Harris, Benjamin Hyman, Huan Ting Lee, Ambika Natesh, Michelle Ulrich, Christopher Wichmann, Janet Zong |
Anthony Riccio Prize in International Relations
Offered in memory of Anthony Brian Riccio, Brown Class of 1996, who lost his life in Moscow on September 20, 1994, is awarded to that graduating senior who has demonstrated an unquenchable curiosity about another part of the world, a commitment to the rigorous learning of a foreign language, an intrepid pursuit of study abroad, and a pride in his university and in his country. A plaque bearing the names of the recipients hangs in the IR Program suite of the Watson Institute for International Studies.
| 2019 |
Jack Morris |
| 2018 |
Michelle Schein |
| 2017 |
Emily Petrie |
| 2016 |
Bernadette Stadler |
| 2015 |
Rebecca Lullo (Latin America/Spanish) Study abroad Casa de las Americas, Havana, Cuba |
| 2014 |
Blair Cameron (Brazil/Portuguese) Study abroad Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
| 2013 |
Andrew White (Middle East/Arabic) Study abroad Tunisia |
| 2012 |
Andrew Leber (Middle East/Arabic) Study abroad Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt |
| 2011 |
Ambika Natesh (Middle East/Arabic) Study abroad University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan |
International Relations Concentration Service and Leadership Award
First presented in 2009, celebrates that graduating senior who demonstrated outstanding leadership and dedication to the IR concentration and his or her fellow concentrators.
| 2019 |
Drashti Brahmbhatt, Isabela Karibjanian |
| 2018 |
Not awarded |
| 2017 |
Not awarded |
| 2016 |
Alexandra Garcia, Lauren Toy |
| 2015 |
Shelby Centofanti |
| 2013 |
Andrew White, Amina Saigol |
| 2011 |
Ambika Natesh, Emily Atwood, Eric Shu |
The Michael Bhatia Fund for Peace-Keeping and Conflict Studies
Established in memory of Michael Vinay Bhatia '99, who died in May 2008 in Afghanistan, where he was working as a social scientist in consultation with the U.S. military. The Fund underwrites field work, study abroad, or thesis research by IR concentrators working on peace-keeping and conflict studies. It is awarded to a student who, like Michael Bhatia '99, hopes to deepen his/her understanding of a region or culture by traveling and studying there, with the ultimate goal of helping to promote cross-cultural understanding that might end or avert violence or military conflict. Student must be an IR concentrator doing work for IR concentration credit.
| 2019 |
Not awarded |
| 2018 |
Not awarded |
| 2017 |
Not awarded |
| 2016 |
Emily Cunniffe |
| 2015 |
Kevin Dhali |
| 2014 |
Emma Strother |
OTHER AWARDS
Student Conference on United States Affairs (SCUSA)
| 2018-19 |
Maya Gros, Oliver Hermann delegates |
| 2017-18 |
Madeleine Thompson, Sean Arreita-Kenna delegates |
| 2016-17 |
Michelle Schein delegate |
| 2015-16 |
Weiwei Liu, Bruno Zuccolo delegates |
| 2014-15 |
Bridget Corrigan delegate |
| 2013 |
Emma Moore delegate |
Naval Academy Foreign Affairs Conference (NAFAC)
| 2019 |
Benjamin Guggenheim, Vanessa Zhang delegates |
| 2018 |
Dakota Fenn delegate |
| 2017 |
Qiheng Chen delegate |
| 2016 |
Bernadette Stadler delegate |
| 2015 |
William Conway, Aida Palma Carpio, Alisa Yuasa delegates |
| 2014 |
Lauren Suiter delegate |
| 2013 |
Jacob Comer, Tomonobu Kumahira delegates |
Watson Internship Awards
| 2018-19 |
Gabrielle Hsi International Crisis Group UN Advocacy Internship, New York, NY |
|
Miranda McDermott Intern for the Inspection Panel at the World Bank, Washington, D.C. |
|
Noor Sarwar Teaching Fellow, Morocco |
| 2017-18 |
Eli Binder Political Section Intern with US Embassy, Sri Lanka and Maldives |
|
Eugenie Boury Political-Economic Affairs Section at US Consulate, Frankfurt, Germany |
|
Heather Davis Joseph and Susan Edelman Intersnhip at International Crisis Group, New York, NY |
|
Isabel Guarini R & D intern at Ubuntu Pathways, New York, NY |
|
Anna Kramer BBC World News America, Washington, D.C. |
|
Sarah Leser Noujaim Films, New York, NY |
|
Isabel Paolini The American Bar Association: Justice Defenders Program, Washington, D.C. |
|
Katarina Zivec National Council of the Republic of Slovenia, Slovenia |
| 2016-17 |
Eli Binder Public Policy Intern with Ofc of Brooklyn Borough President, Brooklyn, NY |
|
Heather Davis State Dept Internship, Osaka, Japan |
|
Mara Dolan Congressional internship with Ofc of David Cicilline Internship, Washington, DC |
|
Isabela Karibjanian Legislative Affairs Intern, USAID Bureau of Legislative and Public Affairs Internship, Washington, DC |
|
Isabel Paolini Policy Internship, Project on Middle East Democracy Internship, Washington, DC |
|
Roxana Sanchez CA Immigration Services Internship Internship, San Jose, CA |
| 2015-16 |
Nicolas Montano Washington Office on Latin America |
|
Muhammad Nasir Pakistan Mission to US |
|
Tamara Upfal US Dept of State |
| 2014-15 |
Robyn Sundlee Office of the US Trade Representative, Washington, D.C. |
Watson UTRAs (Undergraduate Teaching and Research Awards)
| 2016 |
Divya Mehta Plantation Closures and Starvation Deaths in the Duars of India |
| 2015 |
Paula Martinez Gutierrez Justice in Mexico: Challenges and Opportunities |
