National Association for the Practice of Anthropology
NAPA Student Achievement Award Archive
2023 Awardees
GRADUATE AWARD WINNER: Justin Lee Haruyama, University of British Colombia, Okanagan
Paper title: “Effects of Gender-Discriminatory and Family Maintenance Practices by Chinese State-Owned Enterprises in Zambia: Analysis and Recommendations“
GRADUATE HONORABLE MENTION: Caleb Sabatka, Georgetown University, Washington D.C.
Paper title: “Applying Anthropology to Criminal Legal Culture and Stakeholder Concerns”
UNDERGRADUATE WINNER: Sara Gace, American University, Washington D.C.
Paper title: “Archival Care: The Power of Generational Community Knowledge Building, A Case Study with the Rainbow History Project”
UNDERGRADUATE HONORABLE MENTION: Lily Cooper, Macalester College, St. Paul, MN
Paper title: “Cultural Orientation or Cultural Imperialism?”
2022 Awardees
GRADUATE AWARD WINNER: Laura Jin Sislen, American University
Paper title: “‘Meeting People Where They’re At’: Harm Reduction as Practice, Philosophy, and Movement”
GRADUATE HONORABLE MENTION: Anna Stephens, University of Sussex
Paper title: “The value of traditional ecological knowledge in a globalised world: a case study from the Peruvian Amazon”
GRADUATE CERTIFICATES: Caroline MacLean, University of South Florida
Paper title: “Connections Between Relevant Theory to Dissertation Research Regarding the MTHFR C677T Mutation”
GRADUATE CERTIFICATES: Celine Eschenbrenner, Tulane University
Paper title: “The Sound of Difference: Mobility, Alterity and Sound across the French-Italian Border”
UNDERGRADUATE WINNER: Micah Ferguson, University of Maryland
Paper title: “Mental Health Outcomes of Young Black Activists”
UNDERGRADUATE HONORABLE MENTION: Madeleine Zheng, Arizona State University
Paper title: “Health Inequities in the U.S-Mexico Border Region: An Analysis of Water and Sanitation Insecurity in Thirsty Colonias”
UNDERGRADUATE CERTIFICATES: Lucy Weyer Johnson, Knox College
Paper title: “Delivering Queer Health in Rural Central Illinois”
UNDERGRADUATE CERTIFICATES: Heather Tough, Memorial University of Newfoundland
Paper title: “How and Should Anthropologists Engage with Military Conflict? “
UNDERGRADUATE CERTIFICATES: Lilly Amechi, University of Oklahoma
Paper title: “Criminal Justice Reform Includes Ethnic Minorities: An Anthropological Perspective into Reforming the Criminal Justice System with the Cultural Defense Test“
2021 Awardees (New Award Structure)
GRADUATE AWARD WINNER: Melissa Wrapp, UC Irvine
Paper title: “Beyond Legacy Lending: Strategies for Loan Growth and Inclusion”
GRADUATE HONORABLE MENTION: Anuli Akanegbu, New York University
Paper title: “Podcasts as a Form of Scholarship”
UNDERGRADUATE AWARD WINNER: Meron Girma, Yale University
Paper title: “Loss of Hope: The Precarity of Hope and Healing in Ethiopia’s Medically Plural Health System”
UNDERGRADUATE HONORABLE MENTION: Maria Murad, University of Pennsylvania
Paper title: “Florence Shotridge: A Woman, Tlingit, and Museum Educator Guide”
2020 Awardees
1ST PLACE WINNER: Erin Young, Creighton University
Paper title: “Systemic Frustrations with Charity Care: The Case of Health Access Network in Utah”
1ST RUNNER UP: Samantha King, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Paper title: “GIS as a bridge across the digital divide: Engaging participatory methods to build capacity in research communities”
2ND RUNNER UP: Caroline Ammon, Indiana University
Paper title: “Community-Driven Language Revitalization Efforts in North America: An Analysis of Common Criticisms and the Role of Linguists”
2019 Awardees
1ST PLACE WINNER: Aberdeen McEvers, Macalester College
Paper title: “Building Our Shelter with the Master’s Tools: The Good Mother Model at a Homeless Shelter for Women-Led Families”
1ST RUNNER UP: Wyatt Bland, University of Chicago
Paper title: “My Spirit is What Keeps Me Going: Navigating the Body/Self Relation among Patients with Multiple Sclerosis”
2ND RUNNER UP: Ryan Logan, California State University Stanislaus
Paper title: “A Burgeoning Workforce: Assessing Issues of Incorporation and Professionalization among Community Health Workers in the Midwest”
2018 Awardees
1ST PLACE WINNER: Saira Akhtar Mehmood, Southern Methodist University
Paper title: “Synergistic Activism: Solutions to Mental Healthcare Challenges in New Orleans”
1ST RUNNER UP: Peter Lee, University of Cambridge
Paper title: “Responding to Zika: Silence and the Politics of Care in Rural Nicaragua”
2ND RUNNER UP: Betselot Wondimu, University of Maryland
Paper title: “Coping with Death Among Second Generation American Youth: An Ethnographic Review”
2017 Awardees
1ST PLACE WINNER: Zachary Houser, North Carolina State University
Paper title: “Political Leadership and Local Politics in San Lucas Tolimán”
1ST RUNNER UP: Peter Lee, Brooklyn College, CUNY
Paper title: “’Caring’ without Curing: Parasites, Medical Brigades, and Transitory Care in Rural Nicaragua”
2ND RUNNER UP: Kayla Hurd, University of Notre Dame
Paper title: “The ‘Other’ Drug: Examining the Efficiency of Schistocerca as a Treatment for Anemia”
2016 Awardees
1ST PLACE WINNER: Taapsi Ramchandani, Syracuse University
Paper title: “Narratives of Development: An Anthropological Investigation into Narratives as a Source of Inquiry in Development Planning”
1ST RUNNER UP: Marion Tanis, Kennesaw State University
Paper title: “Politically Curated: Locating Identity Construction in the Digital Sphere”
2ND RUNNER UP: Josiah Johnston, University of North Texas
Paper title: “The Environmental Anthropology of Homelessness: Toward a Theoretical Foundation”
(Note: No awards were given in 2014-2015)
2013 Awardees
1ST PLACE WINNER: Celia White, Vancouver Island University
Paper title: “Questioning Voluntourism”
1ST RUNNER UP: V. Rachel Wayne, University of Florida
Paper title: “The Social Construction of Childhood Bullying Through U.S. News Media”
2ND RUNNER UP: Katharine Khanna, Brown University
Paper title: “What’s up, Girl?” Gendered Language Use Among Adolescents”
2012 Awardees
1ST PLACE WINNER: Naheed Ahmed, University of South FloridaPaper title: “Most At-Risk Populations: Contextualizing HIV Prevention Programs Targeting Marginalized Groups in Zanzibar, Tanzania”
1ST RUNNER UP: Carla Pezzia, University of Texas at San Antonio
Paper title: “Engaging Mental Health Care in a Disengaged System”
2ND RUNNER UP: Michael Brydge, Colorado State UniversityPaper title: “The Theory of Participation: Construction Work and Building Up Youth on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota”
2011 Awardees
1ST PLACE WINNER: Cheryl Case, Georgia State University
Paper title: “Praxis with Faith”
1ST RUNNER UP: Dan Jordan, University of Maryland
Paper title: “English ‘Not as an End in Itself’: Diversity, Context, and Capital in an Adult ESOL Classroom”
2ND RUNNER UP: Mark Flanagan, Georgia State University
Paper title: “Service Provision at a Minimally Funded Homeless Shelter in Downtown Atlanta”
2010 Awardees
1ST PLACE WINNER: Nathaniel Dickey, University of South Florida
Paper title: “Human Trafficking in Florida: The Role of Applied Anthropology in Addressing the Problem and Response”
1ST RUNNER UP: Lesley Jo Weaver, Emory University
Paper title: “Preliminary Evidence of Social Pathways Linking Type 2 Diabetes and Depressive/Anxiety Symptoms in a Pilot Study of Urban Middle- and Upper-Class Indian Women”
2ND RUNNER UP: Beth Uzwiak, Temple University
Paper title: “Community Health Decision-Making in Cayo District, Belize. From Research to Advocacy: Strengthening Community Participation in Health Policy Research and Primary Health Care”
2009 Awardees
1ST PLACE WINNER: Andrew Flachs, Oberlin College
Paper title: “The Capabilities Approach: Navigating Cultural Politics in Human Rights Discourse”
1ST RUNNER UP: Amy Cooper, University of Chicago
Paper title: “The Preservation of Self in Everyday Life: Temporality and Personhood among Homeless Women in Chicago”
2ND RUNNER UP: Kathryn Bouskill, Emory University
Paper title: “Practicing Neuroanthropology: Humor as a Coping Mechanism for Breast Cancer”
2008 Awardees
1ST PLACE WINNER: Anita Carrasco, University of Arizona
Paper title: “Ideological Diversity Toward the Environment: A Mining Corporation and Atacameño Views of Nature”
1ST RUNNER UP: Guy Kuroiwa, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
Paper title: “Preparing for the Outside: Professionals and their Role in Prisoner Re-entry”
2ND RUNNER UP: Jacquelyn Garofalo, Ramapo College of New Jersey
Paper title: “Subversive Art and Culture”
2007 Awardees
1ST PLACE WINNER: Cynthia S. Hernandez and Alejandro Angee, Florida International University
Paper title: “Seed of Justice: Community Action and Social Research Working Together to Combat Wage Theft in South Florida’s Plant Nurseries”
1ST RUNNER UP: Emily Hogue, Florida International University
Paper title: “El Agua Es Vida: Water, Power, and Neoliberalism in Southern Andean Peasant Communities”
2006 Awardees
1ST PLACE WINNER: Allison Harnish, University of Kentucky
Paper title: “Conflict and Opportunity: A Qualitative Study of Community Attitudes”
1ST RUNNER UP: Noel Salazar, University of Pennsylvania
Paper title: “Public Interest Anthropology Among Tanzanian Tour Guides”
2ND RUNNER UP: Mark Schuller, University of California – Santa Barbara
Paper title: “Directing Democracy: Uses of NGOs in Haiti”
2005 Awardees
Jacob R. Hickman, University of Chicago
Paper title: “Is It the Spirit or the Body? Syncretism of Health Beliefs among Hmong Immigrants to Alaska”
Jason Jacques Paiement, McGill University
Paper title: “Anthropology and Develoment”
Emily Eisenhauer, Alejandro Angee, Brianne Barclay, and Jasney Cogua-Lopez, Florida International University
Paper title: “Community Knowledge and Attitudes toward Refugees and Asylees in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties: An Analysis for the International Rescue Committee”
2004 Awardees
Adam D. Kis, University of Florida
Paper title: “An Analysis of the Impact of AIDS on Funeral Culture in Malawi
S.J. Redman, University of California, Berkeley
Paper title: “Midwestern Museums and Classical Archaeology, 1893-1998”
Maggie Messerschmidt, University of Kentucky
Paper title: “Government and Community Relations and Efforts for Comanagement in Macizo de La Muerte, Costa Rica”
2003 Awardees
Inez F. Adams, Georgetown University
Paper title: “The Ethnographic Evaluation of Michigan’s High-Risk Hepatitis B Vaccination Program”
Michelle Albus, State University of New York at Buffalo
Paper title: “Health Change in Patients Using Alternative Medical Systems in Cuenca, Ecuador”
Karen Marie Greenough, University of Kentucky
Paper title: “Development Agents and Nomadic Agency: Four Perspectives in the Development ‘Market’”
2002 Awardees
Alexandra Kenny and Conny Camenzind, George Washington University
Paper title: “The Philani Experience: Gender Equity and Empowerment of Women in South Africa”
Wendy Hathaway and James Kuzin, University of South Florida
Paper title: “Engaging Ethnography: Student Engagement as a Means for Creating Change”
Anna Wex, University of Calgary
Paper title: “A Foreign Concern: Solid Waste Management in Panajachel, Lake Atitlan, Guatemala”
2001 Awardees
1ST PLACE WINNER: Jennifer Gilroy Hunsecker, University of South Florida, Jayne M. Hoffman, Loyola University Chicago, Elena O’Curry, lagolone80 design, and Christina Wasson, University of North Texas
Paper title: “How Visitors Experience the Edward James Olmos Americanos Exhibit: An Ethnographic Study”