Tulane University

On Thursday, May 1, the Stone Center for Latin American Studies celebrated its 13th annual Awards Ceremony to recognize the accomplishments of outstanding staff, faculty, and students. The award ceremony celebrates the interdisciplinary work produced by Stone Center affiliates over the course of the past year. In addition to undergraduate and graduate paper prizes, awards were presented on behalf of the Latin American Graduate Organization and the Tulane Undergraduate Latin American Studies Organization (TULASO).

The ceremony was presided over by James Huck, Stone Center Assistant Director for Graduate Programs. Individual awards were presented by the nominating faculty member. This year’s award recipients were nominated by seven faculty members. For information on past awardees and to read award-winning papers, visit the Stone Center Awards and Prizes page.

Awards and Presenters

LAGO Outstanding Faculty Member Service Award
Recipient: Rosanne Adderley
Presented by: Latin American Graduate Organization (LAGO)
For excellence in teaching and for promoting selflessly the interests and careers of Latin American Studies graduate students.

LAGO Outstanding Staff Member Service Award
Recipient: Sue Inglés
Presented by: Latin American Graduate Organization (LAGO)
For selflessly promoting the interests and careers of Latin American graduate students.

LAGO Outstanding Graduate Student Service Award
Recipient: Laura Mellem
Presented by: Latin American Graduate Organization (LAGO)
For generously promoting the interests of Latin American Studies graduate students as a whole.

Stephen P. Jacobs Prize for Best Graduate Paper Presented at the LAGO Conference
Recipient: Edward Brudney (Indiana University), “Remaking Argentina: Labor and Citizenship during the Proceso de Reorganización Nacional”
Presented by: Jimmy Huck, Stone Center for Latin American Studies
For the best paper presented at the Latin American Graduate Organization’s annual conference. Named for Stephen P. Jacobs, Professor Emeritus of the Tulane School of Architecture, who, after retiring from teaching, became a doctoral student in Latin American Studies and was respected by his peers on the faculty and by his fellow students in Latin American Studies.

Simón Rodríguez Award for Best Undergraduate Teacher
Recipient: I. Carolina Caballero
Presented by: Tulane’s Undergraduate Latin American Studies Organization (TULASO)
For genuine interest in promoting undergraduate scholarship in Latin American Studies.

William J. Griffith Award for Outstanding Teaching Assistant in Latin American Studies
Recipient: Sarah Fouts
Presented by: Jimmy Huck, Stone Center for Latin American Studies
William Griffith was a noted historian of Central America and served as director of Tulane’s Center for Latin American Studies. Griffith was the first Center Director to secure federal funding for the program and his role as Center Director influenced the development of the core introductory course in Latin American Studies, which our Teaching Assistants have since assumed primary responsibility for delivering.

Senior Scholar Award Recognition
Recipient: Robin Goode
Presented by: Edie Wolfe, Stone Center for Latin American Studies
For outstanding scholarship in Latin American Studies, achieving the standards of the Tulane Honors Program, and attaining the highest GPA as a Latin American Studies major.

Stone Center Award for Best Campus-Wide Undergraduate Paper on a Latin American Topic
Recipient: Riley S. Russell, “Frame Consistency in the Esculachos Movement in Brazil: A Call for Categorization”
Presented by: David Ortiz, Department of Sociology

Alberto Vázquez Award for Best Undergraduate Paper in the Humanities by a Latin American Studies Major/Minor
Recipient: Laura Sibert, “Who’s the Top Banana? Corporate Institutionalization of Race and Mobility in Central American Banana Enclaves of the Twentieth Century”
Presented by: Jimmy Huck, Stone Center for Latin American Studies
Alberto Vázquez was a member of the Spanish Department at Tulane who always demonstrated a firm commitment and dedication to undergraduate scholarship in the humanities. Professor Vázquez developed primary humanities course in the Latin American Studies curriculum.

M. Karen Bracken Award for Best Undergraduate Paper in the Social Sciences by a Latin American Studies Major/Minor
Recipient: Alana Neuman, “The Rebounding Populations of Brazilian Indians: An Epidemiological Study of Population Growth in the Amazon”
Presented by: Bill Balée, Department of Anthropology
M. Karen Bracken served as Assistant Director in the Center for Latin American Studies for 13 years advising undergraduate majors and helping to build the undergraduate program. Her training as a sociologist contributed to the development of the social science side of the inter-disciplinary undergraduate degree program.

Stone Center Award for Best Campus-Wide Graduate Paper on a Latin American Topic
Recipient: Laura Mellem, “The (Nation) State of the Family: Remembering the Links Between Collective Rape and the Cult of Virginity in Edwidge Danticat’s Breath, Eyes, Memory”
Presented by: Supriya Nair, Department of English

Donald Robertson Award for Best Graduate Paper in the Humanities
Recipient: Sonya Wohletz, “Through a Glass, Darkly: A Study of Mirrors in Aztec Art”
Presented by: Elizabeth Boone, Department of Art History
Donald Robertson was a professor of Art History at Tulane for more than 25 years and authored the standard Mexican Manuscript Painting of the Early Colonial Period: The Metropolitan Schools. Professor Robertson served on numerous graduate student committees and motivated a generation of budding Art Historians and Ethnohistorians.

Richard E. Greenleaf Award for Best Graduate Paper in the Social Sciences
Recipient: Miranda Stramel, “University-Community Partnerships for Social Justice: Dialogic Knowledge Production through Participatory Research in Baixo Jaguaribe, Brazil”
Presented by: Jimmy Huck, Stone Center for Latin American Studies
Richard E. Greenleaf served as the Director of the Center for Latin American Studies from the late 1960s until his retirement in 1997. Not only are his own scholarly accomplishments impressive and well-known, but he has directed more than 20 doctoral theses and has motivated the scholarly production and research of countless graduate students.

From left to right: Dr. Rosanne Adderley, Alana Neuman, Riley Russell, Robin Goode, Sarah Fouts, Laura Sibert, Sonya Wohletz, Dr. Carolina Caballero, and Miranda Stramel. Missing from photo: Laura Mellem, Sue Inglés, and Edward Brudney.

For more pictures of the event, visit the Stone Center flikr page.