Graduate Student Achievements & Awards

The Department of Sociology is very proud of the achievements of our graduate students. Below you can find a list of recent national and international awards granted to our students, as well as University of Minnesota graduate student awards. Our graduate students also receive additional fellowships from the summer Graduate Research Partnership Program (GRPP) and the American Mosaic Project (AMP).

National & International Awards 

2025

Christine Delp: Outstanding Graduate Student Paper, Section: Altruism, Morality, and Social Solidarity - American Sociological Association (ASA); Library of Congress Ken Burns/Lavine Prize for Film Runner-Up; News & Documentary Emmy Award Nomination for Best Art Direction
Jillian LaBranche: Honorable Mention, Reinhard Bendix Student Paper Award, Section: Comparative and Historical Sociology, - American Sociological Association (ASA)
Mao Lee: Hawkinson Fund for Peace and Justice Scholarship 
Chris Robertson: American Bar Foundation and Law & Society Association's NSF Doctoral Fellowship in Law and Inequality; Spencer Foundation Quantitative, Computational & Mixed Methodologies (QCM) Scholar; American Sociological Association Minority Fellowship; RAND Summer 2025 Association Intern

2024

Mao Lee: Honorable Mention, Outstanding Graduate Student Research Paper, Association for Asian American Studies (AAAS) Social Science Caucus
Victoria Piehowski: Law and Society Association (LSA) Dissertation Prize Honorable Mention
Nika Sremac: United States Institute of Peace (USIP) Peace Scholar Fellowship 

2023

Mao Lee: First Place Award Winner, Caroline Rose Student Paper Competition, Sociologists of Minnesota (SOM)

2022

Anna Bokun: American Educational Research Association-National Science Foundation (AERA-NSF Dissertation Grant
Hyunjae Kwon: National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF-GRF)
Mao Lee: Hmong Studies Social Justice Research Grant, Hmong Studies Research Consortium, Univ. of Wisconsin
Victoria Piehowski: Mellon/American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Dissertation
Miray Philips: Religion, Spirituality, & Democratic Renewal Grant, Social Science Research Council.
Mi'Chael Wright: American Society of Criminology's Division of People of Color and Crime Media one Public Scholarship Fellowship (AMC DPCC MPS)

2021

Sarah Garcia: American Sociological Association Doctoral Dissertation Research Grant (ASA DDRIG)
Jillian LaBranche: American Sociological Association Doctoral Dissertation Research Grant (ASA DDRIG) and Fulbright Foreign Scholarship to Sierra Leone
Aimzhan lztayeva: American Sociological Association Doctoral Dissertation Research Grant (ASA DDRIG)
Mao Lee: Health Policy Research Scholars (HPRS) Program, Robert Wood Johnson Fellowship; Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship
Christopher Levesque: American Sociological Association Doctoral Dissertation Research Grant (ASA DDRIG)
Devika Narayan: Kauffman Foundation Award for Best Student Paper in Economic Sociology and Entrepreneurship
Miray Philips: Dissertation Fellowship, Louisville Institute. 30 Under 30, Arab American Foundation
Kobie Price: Health Policy Research Scholars (HPRS) Program, Robert Wood Johnson Fellowship
Chris Robertson: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Health Policy Research Scholar
Mi'Chael Wright: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Health Policy Research Scholar

2020

Anna Bokun: Eliason Award, Arizona Methods Workshop, University of Arizona
Morgan Brokob Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship
Christine Delp: National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF GRF)
Devika Narayan: Caroline Rose Best Graduate Student Paper Award, Sociologists of Minnesota
Amber Joy Powell: American Sociological Association American Bar Foundation Fellowship 
Caty Taborda: American Sociological Association Minority Fellowship

2019

Amy August: MSS Student Paper Competition, 3rd place
Anna Bokun: Knights of Dabrowski Scholarship
Kriti Budhiraja: Junior Research Fellowship, American Institute for Indian Studies (AIIS)
Brooke Chambers: Fulbright Research Award
Jacqui Frost: Winner, Sociology of Culture Section's Richard A. Peterson for Best Student Paper
Amber Hamilton: Institute of Advanced Study Social Science Research Council (SSRC) Interdisciplinary Dissertation Development Program Participant
Yagmur Karakaya: Honorable Mention, Sociology of Culture Section's Richard A. Peterson for Best Student Paper
Aras Koksal: Institute of Advanced Study Social Science Research Council (SSRC) Interdisciplinary Dissertation Development Program Participant
Snigdha Kumar: Institute of Advanced Study Social Science Research Council (SSRC) Interdisciplinary Dissertation Development Program Participant
Devika Narayan: Best Graduate Student Paper, Section: Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology - American Sociological Association (ASA)
Nir Rotem: Edmond de Rothschild Foundation Research Grant
Stephen Wulff: University of Chicago Ethnography Incubator Fellowship

U of M Awards to Graduate Students

2025

Xiaowen Han:  University of Minnesota Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship
Isabella Irtifa: Humanities without Walls Fellow – College of Liberal Arts
Shania Kuo: Shelley Joseph-Kordell Scholarship – Center for Healthy Aging and Innovation (CHAI); Asian American Studies Travel Award – Asian American Studies Program; Dissertation Proposal Development Program – Center for Race, Indigeneity, Disability, Gender, and Sexuality (RIDGS)
Mahala Miller:  University of Minnesota Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship
Hannah Schwendeman:  University of Minnesota Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellowship
Engin Yolcu: Hella Mears Graduate Recruitment Fellowship – Center for German & European Studies

2024

Mao Lee: Dunn Peace Research Scholarship – Institute for Global Studies
My Nguyen: J. W. G. Dunn, Jr. Scholarship for Foreign Research on International Peace 
Victoria Piehowski: Honorable Mention Best Dissertation Award Competition 
Christopher Robertson: University of Minnesota Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship
Nika Sremac:  University of Minnesota Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship

2023

Jillian LaBranche: University of Minnesota Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship
Miray Philips: CLA Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship
Nika Sremac: CLA Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship

2022

Caity Curry: Graduate School Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship (DDF)
Aimzhan Iztayeva: Graduate School Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship (DDF)
Snigdha Kumar: Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellowship (IDF);  Joseph E. Schwartzberg Workable World Trust Fellowship - Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change (ICGC)
Nikoleta Sremac: Badzin Fellowship in Holocaust and Genocide Studies UMN. Center for Austrian Studies Summer Research Grant UMN

2021

2020

Caitlin Curry: Graduate Scholarly Excellence in Equity and Diversity (SEED) Award
Sarah Garcia: Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship (DDF)
Erik Kojola: Honorable Mention, Best Dissertation, University wide competition
Aras Koksal: Hella Mears Graduate Fellowship – Center for German & European Studies
Jillian LaBranche: Badzin Graduate Fellowship in Holocaust and Genocide Studies
Chris Levesque: Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellowship (IDF)
Devika Narayan: Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship (DDF)
Victoria Piehowski: CLA Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship (CLADDF)
Caty Taborda-Whitt: Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship (DDF)

2019

Amber Hamilton: Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellowship (IDF)
Devika Narayan: Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellowship (IDF)
Miray Philips: Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellowship (IDF)
Madison Van Oort: UMN Best Dissertation Award in Social Sciences and Education
Stephen Wulff: Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship (DDF)

Summer Graduate Research Partnership Program (GRPP) Fellowships & American Mosaic Project (AMP)

2025

Fabio Bolz (with Elizabeth Wrigley-Field) GRPP Changing Educational Gradients in Mortality
Xochitl de Anda Arellanes (with Ryan Allen) GRPP Understanding Trends in Asylum Seekers' Use of Emergency Shelter Services in Hennepin County
Nadia Fitch (with Mike Esposito) GRPP Improving Science Communication in Health Research: The Role of Journal Policies and Implementation Challenges
Isabella Irtifa (with Cawo Abdi) GRPP Who's Counted? Whose Life Matters?: Diaspora Organizing and Political Engagement
Mao Lee (with Rachmi Diyah Larasati) RIDGS GRPP Double Displacement: Hmong Women’s Negotiation for Belonging
Forrest Lovette (with Doug Hartmann) GRPP Reactionary Movements and Conservative Thought: Disentangling Politics from Theory
My Nguyen (with Michael Goldman) GRPP Local Management, Global Investment: The Friction of Industrialization in Vietnam
Eric Seligman (with Nick Graetz) GRPP The Effect of Prison Closure on the Local Economy
Nikoleta Sremac (with Joachim Savelsberg) GRPP History in Whose Hands? Women’s Collective Memory of the Yugoslav Wars in Serbia
Jordyn Wald (with Tom VanHeuvelen) GRPP The Shifting Discourse of Gender-Based Terms Online

2024

Desiree Alvarez McNelis (with Mike Esposito) GRPP Neighborhoods and Health at All Ages Data Analysis
Anna DalCortivo (with Chris Uggen) GRPP The Peoples’ Way” Rejecting Reform and Building Radical Space in Minneapolis
Emma Goldstein (with Teresa Swartz) GRPP Beyond Companionship: Examining the Role of Service Dogs in Enhancing Veteran Well-being, Family Dynamics, and Social Integration
Mallory Harrington (with Penny Edgell) GRPP Religion and Spirituality Paper Development (American Voice Project Data)
Hyeyun Jeong (with Tom VanHeuvelen) GRPP Stratified adulting and later-life success
Lena Kunjan (with Penny Edgell) GRPP Aligned or Incoherent? Religious And Political Behavior in People’s Everyday Lives
Christopher Robertson (with Michelle Phelps) Covenanted-Policing: How does historical spatial racism shape contemporary policing practices?

2023

Mallory Harrington (with Penny Edgell) GRPP Religion and Spirituality Interview Analysis (American Voices Project Data)
Lena Kunjan (with Penny Edgell) GRPP The Role of Religion and Spirituality in Everyday Life: A qualitative analysis
Nika Sremac (with Joachim Savelsberg) GRPP History in Whose Hands? Gendering the Collective Memory of Perpetrators in Serbia

2022

Xiaowen Han (with Tom Vanheuvelen) GRPP Cumulative Union Exposure, Employment (In)stability, and Post-Retirement Health
Chris Robertson (with Michael Walker) GRPP Policing, Emotions, & Mental Health Crisis Care
Brie Watters (with Carolyn Liebler) GRPP Mass Incarceration in Indian Country: The Role of PL280

2021

Daniel Cueto-Villalobos (with Awa Abdi) GRPP Discourses of Dissent: Challenges and possibilities of LA’s diverse anti-Olympics campaign 
Monica Jarvi (with Rachel Schurman) GRPP Low-Income Rural Food Access in Northwestern Minnesota

2020

Matthew Aguilar-Champeau (with Enid Logan)  GRPP Resisting money: how the fighting game community has succeeded, and failed, in curbing the influence of eSports
Morgan Brokob (with Kathy Hull) GRPP Queer Respectability in an Age of Polarization
Kriti Budhiraja (with Michael Goldman) GRPP Public university and the neoliberal state in India: A Study of Delhi University
Christine Delp (with Penny Edgell) GRPP Reluctance in Moral Position-taking in talking about social controversies
Aimzhan Iztayeva (with Ann Meier) GRPP Single fathers and employment discrimination: Do employers discriminate against gender or caregiving (or both)?
Jillian LaBranche (with Joachim Savelsberg) GRPP From Transitional Justice to Education about a Violent Past: Sierra Leone and Rwanda
Mahala Miller (with Teresa Swartz) GRPP Exploring Health-Related Motivations for Extracurricular Involvement
Mi'chael Wright (with Penny Edgell) GRPP You have broken us...but God is Good”: Religiosity and Spirituality in the Black Lives Matter Era

2019

Edgar Campos (with Doug Hartmann) Viva Mexico! The Cultural Politics behind the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games
Caity Curry (with Josh Page) GRPP The Grilled Cheese Connection: All Square Restaurant and Institute's Efforts to Counter the Curse of the Criminal Record
Gunercindo Espinoza (with Joyce Bell) GRPP The United States Supreme Court as an Intellectual White Space: Amicus Briefs' Influence on Bakke (1978)
Sarah Garcia (with Rob Warren) GRPP Trends in Disability among Working-Age Americans: The Role of Labor Force Status
Yagmur Karakaya (with Penny Edgell) GRPP Comparative Study of Political Rallies in the United States and Turkey: Nostalgia as a Force of State Mobilization
Jean Marie Maier (with Teresa Swartz) GRPP Activity Resumes: Extracurricular Activities in College Admissions
Devika Narayan (with Phyllis Moen) GRPP Self-Disruption as Strategy: An Analysis of New Business Practices in the Age of Digital Platforms
Mark Pharris (with Joe Gerteis) AMP Expressions of Solidarity in a Democratic Society
Neeraj Rajasekar (with Doug Hartmann) GRPP "Diversity" Discourse in Political New Media: A Quantitative Content Analysis
Michael Soto (with Joachim Savelsberg) GRPP The Mobile Phone Network: Changing Identities, Representations and Life Courses among Participants in a Peace Building Initiative