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Khari Franklin'24, AAS Spirit Award Winner
The Department of African American Studies recognizes exceptional undergraduate performance through a variety of prizes and awards. Information about those honors, as well as a list of recent recipients, are available below.
Academic Honors
Recipients
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Class of 2024
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Highest Honors
- Avanequé Pennant
High Honors
- Elise Hogan
- Myla Wailoo
- Brooklyn Northcross
Honors
- Collin Riggins
- Storm Stokes
- Sara Ryave
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Class of 2023
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Highest Honors
- Payton Elyse Croskey
- Anecia Henry
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Class of 2022
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Highest Honors
- Brooke Johnson
- Priya Vulchi
High Honors
- Daisy Torres
Honors
- MiKayla Green
- Fedjine Victora
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Class of 2021
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Highest Honors
- Masha Miura
High Honors
- Amanda Eisenhour
- Kiara "KiKi" Gilbert
- Ashley N. Hodges
- Sydney N. Maple
Honors
- Runako Campbell
- Lauren Johnson
- Arianne Rowe
- Leila Ullmann
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Class of 2020
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Highest Honors
- Nathan Polan
- Katherine Powell
High Honors
- Ozichi Okorom
- Matthew Oakland
Honors
- Destiny Salter
- Irene Ross
- Kadence Mitchell
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Class of 2019
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Highest Honors
- Micah Herskind
- Sarah Van Vranken
- Cierra Robson
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Class of 2018
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Highest Honors
- Nicky Steidel
High Honors
- Imani Ford
- Amina Anna Simon
Honors
- Wilglory Tanjong
- Rosed Serrano
AAS Spirit Award
This award is selected by AAS staff and is given to a senior for their positive contributions to the Department. It recognizes students who formally or informally assist the faculty, students, and staff.
Award Winners
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Class of 2024
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Khari Franklin'24
Kris Grant'24
Brooklyn Northcross'24
Sara Ryave'24
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Class of 2021
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Faith E. Iloka ‘21
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Class of 2020
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Nathan Poland ‘20
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Class of 2019
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Cierra Belize Robson ‘19
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Class of 2018
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Wilglory Tanjong '18
The Badi Foster Distinguished Senior Prize in African American Studies
This prize was named in honor of Badi G. Foster, an accomplished educator and non-profit director dedicated to promoting educational opportunities and social change. This prize is awarded annually to the senior major who has distinguished themselves academically and beyond the classroom, reflecting a commitment to African American Studies' intellectual, political, and artistic traditions.
Award Winners
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Class of 2024
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Khari Franklin'24
Storm Stokes'24
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Class of 2023
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Aneci Henry'23
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Class of 2022
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Fedjine Mitchelle Victor '22
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Class of 2021
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Kiara “KiKi” Gilbert ‘21
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Class of 2020
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Nathan Poland ‘20
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Class of 2019
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Micah Richard Herskind ‘19
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Class of 2018
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Imani Ford '18
Nicky Steidel '18
Outstanding Junior Paper in African American Studies Prize
This prize is awarded to the senior who submitted the most outstanding Junior Paper.
Award Winner
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Class of 2024
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Avanequé Pennant'24
“Healing in the Periphery of the State: Lessons from Jamaican Gully Queens’ Re-Articulation of Marginal Space as a Site of Resistance”
Adviser: Naomi Murakawa
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Class of 2023
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Payton Croskey'23
"The Augmented Undercommons and The Path to The Sun: An Exploration of Liberatory Technology and other Revolutionary Tools"
Adviser: Ruha Benjamin
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Class of 2022
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Brooke Johnson '22
"Encountering Oluwatoyin Salau: Black Women’s Grief as Radical Interruption and Redefinition of Violence"
Adviser: Professor Imani Perry
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Class of 2021
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Lauren Johnson ‘21
“Tied by Trauma: Navigating a Black Mother and Daughter’s Bond during Enslavement and Reconstruction"
Adviser: Kinohi Nishikawa
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Class of 2020
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Katherine Marie Powell ‘20
“Speaking the Truth of Fiction: Literary Disruptions of the Dominican State Myth, post-1937 Massacre”
Adviser: Reena Goldthree
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Class of 2019
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Cierra Belize Robson ‘19
"THE “PLANTATION FANTASY:” Kara Walker’s Gallery as a site of Manipulated Surveillance"
Adviser: Kinohi Nishikawa
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Class of 2018
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Rosed Nicole Serrano '18
"Wounded Maternity: Black Women’s Labor in the making of Racial Democracy"
Adviser: Nijah Cunningham
Ruth J. Simmons Thesis Prize
This prize is awarded to the African American Studies major whose senior thesis best exhibits excellence in research and writing within the field of African American Studies. Ruth J. Simmons, Prairie View A&M University President, President Emerita of Brown University, and an honorary member of the Department of African American Studies Advisory Council, generously endowed the prize.
Award Winner
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Class of 2024
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Collin Riggins'24
"Cotton Stains: Popular Culture, Imagination, and Black Cotton Production"
Adviser: Autumn Womack
Brooklyn Northcross'24
"Through the Eyes of the Beholden: A Mosaic of Grassroots Creative Placemaking in Detroit"
Adviser: Ruha Benjamin
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Class of 2023
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Payton Croskey '23
“Fashioning New Worlds: Weaving Alternate Futures through Fashion Technology and Black Ingenuity”
Adviser: Ruha Benjamin
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Class of 2022
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Priya Vulchi'22
"Friendship as Liberatory Practice"
Adviser: Eddie S. Glaude, Jr.
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Class of 2021
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Arianne Rowe'21
"The Discourses of Blanqueamiento: A Multilateral Analysis of 19th Century Racial Ideologies in the Making of Modern Argentina"
Adviser: Reena Goldthree
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Class of 2020
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Nathan J. Poland ’20
"Under The Hood: The Racial Reasoning Undergirding Social Statistics In Criminal Legal Policy, 1995-2013"
Adviser: Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
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Class of 2019
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Micah Richard Herskind ‘19
"Decoding Decarceration: Race, Risk, and Reform in New Jersey, 1986-2017"
Adviser: Naomi Murakawa
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Class of 2018
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Imani Noelle Ford '18
"Playing Time/(with) Swinging Doors: A Critique of Hope and Hopelessness in theTradition of Black Male Letters"
Adviser: Imani Perry
Nicky Steidel '18
“A Race Outcast from an Outcast Class” : Black Americans and the Experience and Representation of U.S. Communism in the Interwar Period, 1919-1941"
Adviser: Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
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Class of 2017
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Destiny Crockett '17
“Sing the Song of Her Possibilities”: The Redefinition of the Black Girl During the Black Women’s Renaissance of the 1970’s and 1980’s
Aaron Robertson '17
Igiaba Scego’s ‘Beyond Babylon’: A Translation from the Italian
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Class of 2016
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Cameron Bell '16
"Georgia on My Mind: My Family and African American Experiences in Southwest Georgia, 1900-1970"
Audrey Berdahl-Baldwin '16
"Protecting the Lawful, Combatting the Lawless: Racialized Police Violence and the 1967 Newark Uprising"
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Class of 2015
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Shawon Jackson '15
“Tough Love”: How One High-Performing Charter School Implicitly Criminalizes Youth of Color
Sarah Yerima '15
Myopic Justice: A Brief Intellectual History of Colorblind Law, 1880-1896
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Class of 2014
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Dixon Li '14
"From Mold to Molt: Aesthetics and the Matter of Race"
Kellen Heniford '14
"Free Blacks, Freeborn Slaves, and Bondsmen in a Free State: African American Life and Black Political Action During New Jersey’s Emancipatory Period, c. 1820-1845"
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Class of 2013
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Molly Bagshaw '13
"The Modern Day Lynch Mob: Racism, Juries, and Capital Punishment in the United States"
Osasumwen Benjamin '13
"Transnational Angst: Black Existentialism in Contemporary Afro-Brazilian Narratives"
The Stephanie Gates Prize in African American Studies
This prize is named in honor of Stephanie Gates class of 1975. The prize is awarded annually to the senior major who has distinguished themselves academically with the highest overall GPA.
Award Winner
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Class of 2024
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Elise Victoria Hogan'24