College of Arts and Letters students made a strong showing at Notre Dame’s 4th annual Undergraduate Scholars Conference, which showcased nearly 270 research, scholarship, and creative projects from across the University.
At the May 6, 2011, event, senior history major and gender studies minor Robyn Grant won first prize in the Undergraduate Library Research Awards sponsored by Hesburgh Libraries and the Center for Undergraduate Scholarly Engagement.
Grant’s winning senior thesis, “But Who Will Do the Dishes? Negotiating Socialism with Femininity in Mujeres Magazine,” was advised by Jaime Pensado, an assistant professor in the Department of History. The project was also awarded the Gender Studies Program Genevieve D. Willis Thesis Prize.
The Undergraduate Library Research Award recognizes undergraduates who “demonstrate excellent research skills” and “incorporate library resources, collections, and services into their scholarly and creative projects.”
Erin Bolte, a junior majoring in biochemistry and Arabic, and Brigid Mangano, a senior French and art history major, each received honorable mentions. Both students are participants in the University’s Glynn Family Honors Program.
Bolte’s paper, “Review of Outcomes and Measurement Tools for Improvement in Behavior for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder,” was advised by Joshua Diehl, an associate professor in the Department of Psychology.
Mangano’s honorable mention was for “Guillaume Bodinier and the Meaning(s) of ‘Italianness’ in Nineteenth Century France.” Her advisor was Kathleen Pyne, a professor in the Department of Art, Art History, and Design.
The award for best paper submitted from a 10000- or 20000-level class went to Hannah Lin. She wrote “Leveling the Field: Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon” for a course in the Department of Film, Television, and Theatre, where her faculty advisor was Assistant Professor Aaron Han Joon Magnon-Park.
Entries were evaluated by a cross-disciplinary group of faculty members and representatives from the Hesburgh Libraries. They selected the winners based on the following criteria:
- intellectual merit
- demonstration that the work meets the highest standards of its field,
- understanding and application of principles of information literacy,
- extensive and creative use of Notre Dame Library resources,
- clarity of writing,
- persuasiveness of argumentation,
- depth of inquiry, and
- organization of project material.
