2026 Winners
Capstone or Thesis Research Award
First Place
Gabriela Sierocka
College of Arts & Letters, Computer Science
Visions of Judgment: Reimagining Dante’s Inferno in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Art Theodore Cachey, advisor
Second Place
Kate Rafford
College of Arts & Letters, American Studies and Economics
Magic in the Sound of Her Name: Remembering the Female Faculty at Notre Dame 1970-1981 Kathleen Cummings, advisor
General Research Award
First Place
Maria Eduarda Grill da Silveira
Keough School of Global Affairs, Global Affairs and Economics
A Church Divided: A Comparative Analysis of Catholic Institutional Responses to Military Repression in Chile and Argentina, 1968–1990 Emma Murphy, advisor
Second Place
Sadie Johnston
Mendoza College of Business, Marketing and Spanish
Metrics to Mission: Strategic Engagement Analysis for the ND Poverty Initiative Jaclyn Biedronski, advisor
First Year Research Award
First Place
Ada Duru Ak
Keough School of Global Affairs, Global Affairs
Rational Motives, Flawed Execution: Causes of the Winter War Daniel Lindley, advisor
Second Place
Maggie Sheehan
College of Science, Biological Sciences and English
Translating a Memory: Cultural Loss and Landscape in Ó Direáin’s “Cuimhne an Domhnaigh” Clíona Ní Ríordáin, advisor
Emerging Scholar Award
Valeria Bautista Misakova
College of Science, Physics and American Studies
The World’s Toughest Rodeo: From Honky-Tonk to The Big City, How rodeos found a way to round up the community during the HIV/AIDS crisis Gregory Bond, advisor
Navari Family Center for Digital Scholarship Award
Yingxin (Cindy) Liu
College of Arts & Letters, Economics, Applied and Computational Mathematics and Statistics, and Japanese
How Does Driving Behavior & Road Environment Influence Risk for Commercial Vehicle Fleets in Beijing Jooyoung Cha, advisor
Leina Ulutoa
College of Arts & Letters, Political Science and Japanese
Digital Placemaking: How Cultural Immersion Through Virtual Reality Technologies Impact Personal Experience Yoko Kawamura, advisor