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Past Recipients

2022-2023 Garnet Track First Place Tie
Rachael Erickson for “The Americans Progress Forgot? An Interdisciplinary Study of the Role of Media in Opiate Politics,” South Carolina Honors College senior research thesis
Supporting Faculty Member: Pat Sullivan

2022-2023 Garnet Track First Place Tie
Juhi Patel for “The Emergence of Ayurnutrigenomics and Evolution of the Modern Indian Diet: The History of ‘Curry’ and Chronic Disease on the Subcontinent,” SCHC 383
Supporting Faculty: James Hébert

2022-2023 Garnet Track Second Place Tie
Abby Kiesow for “Mapping Risk Factors for Dementia Across the United States,” South Carolina Honors College senior research thesis
Supporting Faculty: Jean Neils-Strunjas

2022-2023 Garnet Track Second Place Tie
Skylar Wittenborn for “Octavian as Villain in Popular Culture,” a South Carolina Honors College senior research thesis
Supporting Faculty:  Jason Osborne

2022-2023 Garnet Track Honorable Mention
Justus Depenbrock for “Gigantism During the Jurassic and Cretaceous,” GEOL 305
Supporting Faculty: Katherine Ryker

2022-2023 Black Track First Place
Sun Heslin for “‘You're All Just a Bunch of Weirdos. Like Me’: Witches as Representation for the LGBTQ+ Community,” ENGL 102
Supporting Faculty: Erica Fischer

2022-2023 Black Track Second Place
Heather Czerniawsky for “Youth Decay: Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices of Harm Reduction in Young Adults participating in Musical Subculture,” ANTH 551
Supporting Faculty: David Simmons

2022-2023 Black Track Third Place
Ada Skradski for “Public Opinion’s Impact with the Media in the U.S. Foreign Policy,”ENGL 102
Supporting Faculty: Lily Howard-Hill

2021-2022 Garnet Track First Place
Riley Sutherland for ““Portrait of a Camp Follower: Continental Army Women in the Revolutionary War and American Memory,” South Carolina Honors College senior research thesis
Supporting Faculty Member: Woody Holton

2021-2022 Garnet Track Second Place
Clio Lang for “A Tale of Two Women: Analyzing How British Biographers of Female French Revolutionaries Rationalized Activism During a Controversial Suffragette Movement,” South Carolina Honors College senior research thesis
Supporting Faculty Member: Carol Harrison

2021-2022 Black Track First Place
Amber Pospistle for “Intellectual Disabilities and Social Determinants of Health,” ENGL 102
Supporting Faculty Member: Erica Fischer

2021-2022 Black Track Second Place
Griffin Goodwyn for “The State of American Capital Punishment,” SAEL 200
Supporting Faculty Member: Jennifer Blevins

2021-2022 Black Track Third Place Tie
Eden Wellons for “Indefinite Reality: Quantum Mechanics' Role in the Science/Religion Divide,” ENGL 102
Supporting Faculty Member: Erica Fischer

2021-2022 Black Track Third Place Tie
Madison Wilber for “Hypnosis Redefined: A Comprehensive Review of the Impact of Hypnosis on Individuality and the Experience of Life,” ENGL 102
Supporting Faculty Member: Erica Fischer

2020-2021 Garnet Track Top Prize
Nicole Chandonnet for “Memorialization of J. Marion Sims in Columbia, South Carolina,” South Carolina Honors College thesis
Supporting Faculty Member: Thomas J. Brown

2020-2021 Garnet Track Top Prize
Hannah Martin for “‘I think the king is but a man’: Construction of Empire in the Chronique Anonyme Universelle,” ENGL 399: Independent Study class
Supporting Faculty Member: Scott Gwara

2020-2021 Garnet Track Top Prize
Amelia Parkes for “‘I am simply Russian’: Post-revolutionary Russian Society in the USSR and Abroad Through Zoshchenko’ Satires and Berberova’s Billancourt Tales,” South Carolina Honors College thesis
Supporting Faculty Member: Judith E. Kalb

2020-2021 Garnet Track Honorable Mention
Jill Boggs for “An Anonymous and Peripheral Hero: Race and Politics in William Ranney’s Battle of Cowpens,” ARTH 501
Supporting Faculty Member: Susan Felleman

2020-2021 Garnet Track Honorable Mention
Lilian Hutchens for “Opportunities for Improved Landscape-Level Conservation Planning in the Congaree Biosphere Region,” South Carolina Honors College thesis
Supporting Faculty Member: John Kupfer

2020-2021 Black Track Top Prize
Weston Watts for “Tolkien and his Muses: An Analysis of the Influences on the Author’s Work,” English 102 Honors class.
Supporting Faculty Member: Erica K. Fischer

2019-2020 Garnet Track First Place
Kylee Yturralde for “Dr. Julius Hallervorden's Role in Nazi ‘Euthanasia’,” South Carolina Honors College thesis
Supporting Faculty Member: Saskia Coenen Snyder

2019-2020 Garnet Track Second Place
Azalfa Lateef for “Startle Response in Women with the FMR1 Premutation and Risk for Anxiety Disorders,” Magellan research project and South Carolina Honors College thesis
Supporting Faculty Member: Jessica Klusek

2019-2020 Garnet Track Third Place
Savannah Bagwellfor “Hilde Bruch: Life, Contributions, and Legacy,” HIST 300, Introduction to the History Major: the Historian’s Craft
Supporting Faculty Member: Jessica Elfenbein

2019-2020 Garnet Track Honorable Mention  
Michael Christia for “Viking Economies and Capitalism: From Fifty AD to the End of the Viking Age,” HIST 369, History of Capitalism 1: Ancient and Medieval World
Supporting Faculty Member: Adam Schor

2019-2020 Black Track Top Prize
Taylor Dorsey for “Incarcerated,” ENGL 102, Rhetoric and Composition
Supporting Faculty Member: Florencia Cornet

2018-2019 Garnet Track First Place
Eric Friendly, Entering the Studio- Raphael Soyer (c. 1935), Art History 501: Methodologies of Art History
Supporting Faculty Member: Susan Felleman

2018-2019 Garnet Track Second Place Tie
Allie Anderson, WTD: What the Dada? The Resurfacing of Dadaism in 21st Century Meme Entertainment, Theatre 562, History of the Theatre II
Supporting Faculty Member: Amy Lehman

2018-2019 Garnet Track Second Place Tie
Mitchell Johansson, John Paul II’s Theology of the Body: The Human Person, Self-Gift, and The Sacramental Dimension of Human Love, South Carolina Honors College thesis
Supporting Faculty Member: Christopher Tollefsen

2017-2018 Garnet Track First Place
Carina Leaman, Designing an Assistive Edition for First-Time Readers of William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, Honors College Senior Thesis
Supporting Faculty Member: Greg Forter

2017-2018 Garnet Track Second Place
Rose Steptoe, Entries for The Lone Woman and Last Indians Digital Archive, Honors College Exploration Grant
Supporting Faculty Member: Sara Schwebel

2017-2018 Garnet Track Third Place
Elizabeth Gearhart, The East in the Perspective of the West: Richard L. Walker’s Efforts to Reconstruct Notions of the Eastern Hemisphere, HIST 466, American Diplomatic History
Supporting Faculty Member: David Snyder

2017-2018 Black Track Top Prize
Sophie Kahler, A Neighborhood Transformed: Urban Renewal and University Expansion in Wheeler Hill, SCHC 337, Proseminar in Geography
Supporting Faculty Member: Conor Harrison 

2017-2018 Black Track Runner-Up
Darren Burton, Real People Laugh, ENGL 102, Rhetoric and Composition
Supporting Faculty Member: Joy Priest

2017-2018 Black Track Runner-Up
Sarah Riser, An Analysis of BMI as a Measurement of Health, ENGL 102, Rhetoric and Composition
Supporting Faculty Member: Jennifer Blevins

2017-2018 Black Track Honorable Mention
Dara Malachi, From Legalization to Decriminalization: Why Prostitution Should Be Changed, ENGL 102 Rhetoric and Composition
Supporting Faculty Member: Andreas Herzog

2016-2017 Garnet Track Top Prize
Jory Fleming, Visualizing Sea Level Rise to Examine the Nexus of Climate Change and Socio-Economic Security, NOAA Hollings Research Fellow paper
Supporting Faculty Member: Jean Taylor Ellis

2016-2017 Garnet Track Top Prize
Paige Kuester, Scope Notes for the Lone Woman Digital Archives, Magellan Grant
Supporting Faculty Member: Sara Schwebel

2016-2017 Black Track Award
Rose Needle, Cross Cultural Analysis: Birth in India and the United States, ANTH/WGST 388, Cultures, Pregnancy and Birth
Supporting Faculty Member: Kathryn Luchok

2015-2016 Garnet Track First Place
Spenser Gilchrist, Better American Speech Week: A Self-Destructive Attempt at Building American Identity Through Spoken Language During WWI and Its Aftermath, Honors College Senior Thesis
Supporting Faculty Member: Dorothy Pratt

2015-2016 Garnet Track Second Place
Ian Giocondo, A One-Man Revolution: Stravinsky’s Metamorphoses of Style, MUSC 455, History of Western Music III
Supporting Faculty Member: Julie Hubbert

2015-2016 Garnet Track Third Place
Christopher Santos, The Impact of Ideology on U.S. Supreme Court Remands and Subsequent Responses by the U.S. Court of Appeals, Magellan Grant
Supporting Faculty Member: Kirk Randazzo

2014-2015 Garnet Track Top Prize
Alex Auerbach, Du Ponceau and the Ideograph, Honors College Senior Thesis
Supporting Faculty Member: Gregory Patterson

2014-2015 Garnet Track Top Prize
Aubrey Leaman, Following the Crumbs Back From Music to Orality, SCHC 350, The Birth and Death of the Book
Supporting Faculty Member: Leon Jackson

2014-2015 Garnet Track Top Prize
Carl Garris and Aaron Sanders, Medieval Identity Theft: Using X-Ray Polarization to Read an Erased Ownership Inscription in a Thirteenth-Century English Pocket Bible, Magellan Grant
Supporting Faculty Member: Scott Gwara

2014-2015 Garnet Track Honorable Mention
Jake Tyler Smolinsky, The Role of Experiencing Psychoticism in the Relationship between Somatization and Aggressive Behavior Among Adolescents with Anxiety Problems, Independent Study, School Mental Health Lab
Supporting Faculty Member: Mark Weist

2014-2015 Black Track Top Prize
Victoria Coker, Análisis de la traducción de Harry Potter: Traducción de elementos distintos de un mundo ficticio = Analysis of the Translation of Harry Potter, SPAN 515, Introduction to Spanish Linguistics
Supporting Faculty Member: Nina Moreno

2013-2014 Garnet Track Top Prize
Kari Benson, Misuse of Stimulant Medication among College Students: A Comprehensive Review of the Literature, Exploration and Magellan Grants
Supporting Faculty Member: Kate Flory

2013-2014 Garnet Track Top Prize
Steven Vanderlip, The Euphradian Society Antebellum Debate Resolutions with Commentary, Honors College Senior Thesis
Supporting Faculty Member: Patrick Scott

2013-2014 Garnet Track Honorable Mention
Ashley Pittman, La Mujer Varonil in Spanish Golden Age Theatre, THEA class
Supporting Faculty Member: Amy Lehman

2013-2014 Black Track First Place
Jake Tyler Smolinsky, The Effects of Stigma on Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in the Military, PSYC 410, Behavioral and Mental Disorders
Supporting Faculty Member: Rhea Merck

2012-2013 Garnet Track Top Prize
Matthew Kuhn, The Hidden Faith: Catholic Persecution in Early South Carolina, Senior Thesis
Supporting Faculty Member: Katja Vehlow

2012-2013 Garnet Track Top Prize
Hannah Miller, Turkish Youth Perceptions of Turkey’s EU Accession Negotiations and Identity: Research in Vienna, Austria and Istanbul, Turkey, Senior Thesis
Supporting Faculty Member: Amy Mills

2012-2013 Garnet Track Third Place
Theresa Krupka, Body, Mind, and Heart:  Defining Female Beauty in Heath’s Book of Beauty, Honors College seminar (English)
Supporting Faculty Member: Paula Feldman

2012-2013 Black Track First Place
Joseph DuRant, Robert Burns and Britain's First African Voter, Honors College Exploration Grant
Supporting Faculty Member: Patrick Scott

2011-2012 Garnet Track Top Prize
Rebecca Krumel, Roots of Flamenco:  An Introduction to Flamenco Music and Culture, DANC 310, Dance Analysis and Criticism
Supporting Faculty Member: Mila Parrish

2011-2012 Garnet Track Top Prize
Caroline Porter, Clothing Swap: Cross-Dressing and Gender in Nineteenth-Century American Women’s Writing, Senior Thesis
Supporting Faculty Member: Katherine Adams

2011-2012 Garnet Track Honorable Mention
Sonja Berling, Discourse Practices in Chilean Cinema: The Social and Political Functions of Language in Cinema Regarding the 1973 coup d'état in Chile, Senior Thesis
Supporting Faculty Member: Jennifer Reynolds

2010-2011 Garnet Track Top Prize
Christian Buckson, Pursuing Transatlantic Unity: NATO's Parliamentary Conference, Independent study
Supporting Faculty Member: David Snyder

2010-2011 Garnet Track Honorable Mention
Katie Parham, The Aftershock: The Effect of the NGO Influx in Haiti on the State of Reconstruction, Development Agendas, and Public Policy Discourse After the January 2010 Earthquake, Honors College Senior Thesis
Supporting Faculty Member: Dan Sabia

2010-2011 Garnet Track Honorable Mention
Nick Williamson, Traditional and Novel Materials for Overhead Transmission Structures, ECIV 490, Special Topics Independent Studies course
Supporting Faculty Member: Fabio Matta

2009-2010 Garnet Track Top Prize
Laura Musselman, Dancing with the Devil, SCHC 452K: Sex and the City: Jazz Age Literature and Gender Roles
Supporting Faculty Member: Catherine Keyser

2009-2010 Black Track Top Prize
Lauren Koch, Artaud; A Hero to the Unexplored, THEA 562: History of Theatre II
Supporting Faculty Member: Amy Lehman

2008-2009 Top Prize
Elizabeth Nyikos, Medieval Voices: The Oldest Music in South Carolina, MUSC 353 History of Music and Senior Thesis
Supporting Faculty Member: Scott Gwara

2008-2009 Outstanding Achievement
Tom Benning, Corrected Memory: A Study of South Carolina Historical Monuments and Markers, Honors College Senior Thesis
Supporting Faculty Member: Ernest L. Wiggins

2007-2008 First Place
Corinne D’Ippolito, Wilderness Perceptions and Feral Hog Management in Congaree National Park, HIST 497Q, Senior Seminar in Local Environmental History
Supporting Faculty Member: Thomas Lekan

2007-2008 Second Place
Jennifer H. Brackett, The Work Is All The Author’s: Changes to Hemingway's Garden of Eden, Honors College Senior Thesis
Supporting Faculty Member: Matthew Bruccoli

2007-2008 Third Place
Alan Clamp, Pure Science and Practical Science in the Nineteenth Century, HIST 499 Senior Thesis
Supporting Faculty Member: Ann Johnson


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