Graduate Student Good News

Nathalie Devine Howe Award for Teaching Excellence
This award recognizes a graduate instructor’s skill and dedication to teaching, and it is based on review of a full teaching portfolio, including a teaching statement, course syllabi, course evaluations, and evidence of teaching innovations.

Winners: Kathleen D’Alfonso and Rita Yu
 

Michele M. Thompson Award for Dissertation Research
This award is a now-annual award given to support promising work by a PhD student. Dr. Michele M. Thompson, a PhD graduate of ours, established this award with the goal of helping doctoral students pursue their research with more financial stability.

Winner: Shiyue Cui. “Mixed-Methods Research on Refugee Resettlement and Integration in the United States: Employment, Family Dynamics, and Gender Roles”
 

Nathalie Devine Howe Award for Outstanding Scholarship
This award is given annually to recognize outstanding work by Masters- or Doctoral-level Sociology graduate students. Judge Barbara Howe, PhD, adjunct Associate Professor, and former Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at UB, established this award in 2009 in honor of her mother.

1st place: Anupriya Pandey. “Toward a Critical Caste Ecology: How Does Agrochemical Harm Interact with Caste Relations in Rural India"

2^nd place: Jonas Adams. "Becoming Uniquely Urban: A Small City's Socio-Environmental Development Since 1945."

3^rd place: Gabriela Ceja Morales. "The Production of ‘Eco-chic’ Tourism: Exclusion and Environmental Inequality in Tulum, Mexico"
 

Reyes Award for Departmental Engagement
This award recognizes graduate students who have made significant contributions to the Department through their service, engagement, and/or formal support of their peers. They often jump at the chance to help with job candidate visits and recruitment (including shuttling people around), attend departmental workshops, job talks, and colloquia, even when not directly tied to their area of interest, and offer their support at their peers’ dissertation defenses, practice job talks, or in other nerve-wracking situations. 

Makaela Brass
Gabriela Ceja Morales
Kathleen D'Alfonso
Sophia Olsinski
 

Other Awards
Sirat Kaur was awarded the Catalyst for Change Scholarship by the American Association for University Women. 

Anupriya Pandey received both the UB Gender Institute's Advanced Dissertation Fellowship and the Humanity Institute's Advanced PhD Fellowship. 

Logan Phlox Williams receieved the UB Excellence in Teaching Award. This award is given in recognition of exceptional ability in teaching by UB graduate students. Students are selected based on superb and creative performance in the classroom or laboratory, engagement with mentoring and advisement, a commitment to high academic standards in teaching, and a commitment to inclusive teaching.
 

Grace Sementilli was accepted into the Graduate Editorial Assistants Program for City & Community, the official journal of the ASA Urban Sociology section. 
 

Collectively, our students gave 29 conference presentations this academic year and represented the Department at the following conferences:

American Sociological Association
American Society of Criminology
Population Association of America
Work and Family Researchers Network
Conference on Korean Diaspora
New York Conference on Asian Studies
Law and Society Association
Gerontological Society of America

Michele M. Thompson Award for Dissertation Research
This award is given each semester to support promising work by doctoral-level Sociology graduate students. Dr. Michele M. Thompson, a PhD graduate of ours, established this award with the goal of helping doctoral graduate students pursue their research with more financial stability.

Fall Winner: Anupriya Pandey “Critical Caste Ecologies: De-centering Renewable Solutions and Agrarian Transitions Through Caste Difference in India.”

Spring Winners:

1^st place: Rachel Zhang. “Neighborhoods and Wellbeing: A life-course approach”

2^nd place: Gabriela Ceja Morales. “The Production of ‘Eco-Chic’ and ‘Ethno-Chic’ Tourism: Interregional Migrant Workers’ Perspectives of Work and Environmental Inequality in Tulum, Mexico.”
 

Nathalie Devine Howe Award for Outstanding Scholarship
This award is given annually to recognize outstanding work by Masters- or Doctoral-level Sociology graduate students. Judge Barbara Howe, PhD, adjunct Associate Professor, and former Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at UB, established this award in 2009 in honor of her mother.

1st place: Tucker Reyes, "'A Double Waste of Talent and Space': A Historical Analysis of the News Media’s Role in Reproducing Educational Inequalities."

2nd place: Byung Soo Lee, "Korean Immigrant Parents’ Attitude toward Intermarriage of Their Children."

3^rd place: Hannah Nario-Lopez, "Emotional Labor Routes to State Embodiment: Recalibrating Dynamic Security."

4^th place: Shiyue Cui, "Gender Dynamics in US Refugee Integration: Exploring Disparities in Employment and Household Labor Division."

Sociology Good Citizen Awards
These awards recognize graduate students who have made significant contributions to the Department through their service, engagement, and/or formal support of their peers. They often jump at the chance to help with job candidate visits and recruitment (including shuttling people around), attend departmental workshops, job talks, and colloquia, even when not directly tied to their area of interest, and offer their support at their peers’ dissertation defenses, practice job talks, or in other nerve-wracking situations. 

Jonas Adams
Gabriela Ceja Morales
Kathleen D'Alfonso
Hannah Nario-Lopez
Tucker Reyes
Grace Sementilli
Laura Sills
Rachel Zhang
 

Makaela Brass was accepted into the Social Impact Fellowship program for summer 2024.