Student Awards 2017-2018

Students across all Watson concentrations receive recognition for their incisive, creative, and committed scholarship. Below are students who have most recently distinguished themselves for their research, writing, service, and language learning.

International Relations:

Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs Outstanding Thesis Award
Awarded for the best thesis related to the Institute’s core research areas of security, development, or governance.

• Arundhati Ponnapa, "Violent Conflict, Nation-Building, and Language Policy Formation: A Comparative Study of India and Indonesia"

International Relations Program Academic Excellence Awards
Given to students with all A’s in their IR concentration courses taken at Brown, including language study.

• Katherine Chin 
• Helen Gerstenfeld Abreu
• Michelle Schein

Anthony Riccio Prize
Awarded for commitment to the rigorous learning of a foreign language, an intrepid pursuit of study abroad, and a pride in the university and country. The award is given in memory of Anthony Brian Riccio, Brown Class of 1996, who lost his life in Moscow on September 20, 1994.

• Michelle Schein

Magna Cum Laude

• Felix Biver
• Katherine Chin
• Eleonora Lekaviciute
• Daniela Paternina
• Michelle Schein
• Yu Tanifuji

Honors in International Relations
Awarded for outstanding performance in the IR concentration, including a mandatory thesis preparation seminar, and completion of a thesis with distinction.

• Ginevra Maria Sole Bruno, "The Effects of Terrorism on State Governance: Armed Struggle in Italy, 1968-1988"  
• Vaughn Campbell, "Diplomatic Approaches to International Watercourses: Analyzing Chinese Policy on the Mekong and Brahmaputra Rivers, 1997-2018" 
• Margot Cohen, "The Language of Violence: Gender, Murder, and the Patriarchal State--A Feminist Case Study of Femicide in Chile, 2007-2017" 
• Helen Gerstenfeld Abreu, "Shifting from an Extractive Growth Model to an Innovative Growth Model: A Comparison of Israel and Chile " 
• Arundhati Ponnapa, "Violent Conflict, Nation-Building, and Language Policy Formation: A Comparative Study of India and Indonesia"  
• Tamara Upfal, "The Influence of Societal Dynamics on Impeachment: The Interrelated Forces of the Brazilian Upper-Middle Class on the Removal of Dilma Roussef"

Development Studies:

Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs Outstanding Thesis Award
Awarded for the best thesis related to the Institute’s core research areas of security, development, or governance.

• Leah Hardenberg, "Breastfeeding Trends across Socioeconomic Status in Mexico and Implications for Current Promotion Efforts"

Magna Cum Laude

• Akira Camargo
• Jake Gogats
• Emma Laura Kurihara
• Aarish Rojiani (also received Dean's Award for Academic Excellence)

Honors in Development Studies
Awarded for outstanding performance in the DS concentration, including a mandatory thesis preparation seminar, and completion of a thesis with distinction. 

• Leah Hardenberg
• Liliana Hertling
• Zachary Witkin

Development Studies Academic Excellence Award
Given to students with all A’s in their DS concentration courses taken at Brown.

• Aarish Rojiani

Public Policy:

Noah Krieger Prize for Academic Excellence 

• Mili Mitra, "From Persecutors' Offices to Prosecutors' Offices: The Effects of Racial and Gender Diversity in U.S. Attorney's offices"

Service to Public Policy

• Alina Joharjian

Lippitt Prize for Public Service

• Benjamin Miller-Gootnick

Best Research or Policy Memo Capstone 

• Susannah Howe, "Short-Term Rental Subsidies & Family Homelessness in New York City"

Best Internship Reflection Capstone

• Michelle Petersen, "Summer Interning at the Providence Office of Sustainability"

Magna Cum Laude

• Jacob Binder
• Lacy Cano
• Shelby Heitner
• Susannah Virginia Howw
• Mili Mitra
• Marjorie Pang
• Nicholas Pennington
• Adam Viera
• Suzanne Warshell
• Elena Wasserman

Honors in Public Policy

• Paul Butler
• Sarah Cronin
• Mili Mitra
• Marjorie Pang
• Abigale Sanft

Latin American and Caribbean Studies:

CLACS Undergraduate Essay Prize

• Dylan Morrissey

CLACS Dissertation Prize

• Andre Pagliarini

Middle East Studies:

Fulbright Student Fellowship (Israel), Middle East Studies Research Travel Award

• Benjamin Gladstone

Middle East Studies Undergraduate Fellowship

• Oona Cahill (also received the Brown University Distinguished Senior Thesis Prize)
• Alexander Abuaita (also awarded a cash prize for academic and outreach contributions to Middle East studies)

Cash prize for academic and outreach contributions to Middle East studies

• Isabella Creatura

Stan Swinton Fellowship, Overseas Press Club Foundation and Preston Gurney Prize, Fiction (2nd Place)

• Isabel DeBré