Watson Institute at Brown University
International Relations

Award Recipients


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 NateshEmily AtwoodEric 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