Student Awards and Publications
Tradition of Excellence
Since 2006, Macalester sociology students have won 73 regional and national awards for the quality of their research projects, all of which were developed in Sociology coursework.
Awards for Research
2024
Midwest Sociological Society Paper Competition
Senior, Francesca Bernardino – First place. “’Eating the Other’: Negotiations of Authenticity within Culinary Cosmopolitanism.”
Senior, Daisy Alcantar – Third place. “Ni de aquí, Ni de allá”: How the Mexican-American student is seen as the perpetual foreigner in the U.S. and in Latin America.”
Sociologists of Minnesota, Caroline Rose Student Paper Competition
Sophomore, Emery Teague – Second place. “Christianity as Deviance: Flipping the Script at a Religiously Affiliated Liberal Arts College.”
2023
Alpha Kappa Delta Undergraduate Paper Competition
Senior, Ethan Hyslop – Second Place. “Who Gets the Job? Social Reproduction through Student Employment Hiring.”
Midwest Sociological Society Paper Competition
Senior, Tommy Navarre – First place. “No Longer Invisible”: Contesting the Purpose of Public Parks and the Production of Houselessness in Minneapolis, Minnesota.”
Senior, Sophia Kaufmann – Second place. “Un-Scene: How Responses to Sexual Violence Reproduce Legal Hegemony in the Bay Area’s Punk and DIY Community.”
Senior, Stella Kirszner – Third place. “Hiding and Hoarding: How the New York City Public School Application Process Reinforces Privilege and Inequality.”
Sociologists of Minnesota, Caroline Rose Student Paper Competition
Senior, Josh Groven – First place. “‘Cool People’ vs. ‘Food Goodness’: Capitalist Grammar and Social Distinction at a St. Paul Restaurant and Salon.”
Junior, Haoxuan Gao – Second place. “Work Above and Beyond: How Peer Tutors Navigate Their Role and Manage Emotional Labor.”
2022
Midwest Sociological Society Paper Competition
Senior, Greer Lichtenberg – First place. “Looking Up and Playing Down: The Paradoxes of Performing Wealth at a Liberal Arts College.”
Senior, Aidan Williams – Third place. “Plague! Public Health, Community Memory, and HIV/AIDS.”
Midwest Sociological Society, Three Minute Thesis Competition
Senior, Inge Pham-Swann, First place. “Beyond Vegan: Producer and Restaurant Involvement in the Mainstreaming of Plant-Based Meat.”
Senior, Xunwen (Aarron) Zou, Second place. “Ambassadors, Idols or Trash? Interpreting Foreignness and Race in the Chinese National-Building Project.”
2021
Sociologists of Minnesota, Caroline Rose Student Paper Competition
Sophmore, Josh Groven – First Place. “Native Futures, Complex Pasts: South Africa’s Griqua at the Boundaries of Colonialism and Indigeneity.”
Sophomore, Sophia Kaufmann – Second Place. “Dual Advocacy: The Garifuna’s Fight for Indigenous and Afro-Descendant’s Rights.”
Senior, Inge Pham-Swann – Honorable Mention. “Constructing the ‘New Normal’: An Analysis of Student Interaction with Covid-19 Policies on North Star College’s Campus.”
Midwest Sociological Society Paper Competition
Senior, Maria Arrealoa – Second place. “Collective Action in Times of Organizational Crisis: A Case Study of a Hybrid Nonprofit Organization.”
Recent Publications from Sociology Alumni
Taylor Laemmli, alum ’11. 2024. “Class Experience Mobility through Consumption, Work, and Relationships.” Sociological Theory, 0(0).
Aaron (Xunwen) Zou, alum ’22. 2024. “Examining the Information Needs of Chinese Migrants Crossing the Darien Gap.” Center for Disaster Philanthropy and Internews.
Kai P.Blake-Leibowitz. 2021. “Being Able to Breathe Publicly”: Trans and Gender Nonconforming People Healing through Embodied Activity. Advances in Trans Studies: Moving Toward Gender Expansion and Trans Hope (Advances in Gender Research, Vol. 32), Emerald Publishing Limited, Bingley, pp. 177-192.