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Four students honored with Emory Libraries’ undergraduate research awards

Emory students (pictured clockwise from left) Naomi Tesema, Sienna Nordquist, Adesola Thomas and Anna Wachspress received undergraduate research awards from the Robert W. Woodruff Library for research they conducted either in the Emory Libraries or at another library.

Emory students Sienna Nordquist, Naomi Tesema, Adesola Thomas and Anna Wachspress received the 2020 Emory Libraries’ Elizabeth Long Atwood Undergraduate Research Award.

The Atwood Award recognizes Emory College undergraduates in all disciplines who use the Emory Libraries’ collections and research resources in their original papers, digital projects or posters and who show evidence of critical analysis in their research skills. All Atwood submissions must have been completed for a class assignment within the past year.

The 2020 award recipients and their outstanding research projects are as follows:

Sienna Nordquist,  a senior who graduated May 11 with an international studies and economics major, received an Atwood Award for “The Effects of Targeted Foreign Aid on Clientelism: The Case of the European Recovery Program in Italy,” an assignment for her Political Science 499: International Studies Honors Thesis.

The Atwood judges remarked that Nordquist “made the most of the library resources available” and was flexible when her hypothesis took her research in a new direction. 

Naomi Tesema, also a member of the Class of 2020, is an anthropology and human biology major. She received an Atwood Award for “Mobile Phone Apps for HIV Prevention Among College-aged Black Women in Atlanta: Preferences and Prototype,” an assignment for Anthropology 495BW: Honors Research II. 

Judges observed that Tesema was “passionate about her project and worked with multiple staff at the library," including staff in the Emory Center for Digital Scholarship (ECDS) and subject librarians.

Adesola Thomas, a political science and English major in the Class of 2020, received an Atwood Award for “Understanding Mariah Parker’s Victory: Progressivism in Athens-Clarke County,” an assignment for Political Science 494W: Research Topics in Political Sciences: New Black Political Leadership. She further developed her work in an independent directed study with Andra Gillespie of the Political Science Department.

The judges described Thomas’ approach to research as “ambitious.” Her research interview and data gathering were high-effort pursuits. 

Anna Wachspress, a junior majoring in anthropology and human biology, received an honorable mention for “Lori Loughlin and the College Admissions Scandal: Frame Analysis of Online Entertainment Magazines,” an assignment for Sociology 289: Crime and the Media.

The judges complimented Wachspress’ “strong research essay.” They also noticed that she “ventured into coding” and other “challenging research tasks.”


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