Awards & Recognition

Awards + Recognition

Our department was awarded a $533,000 Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN) Award from U.S. Department of Education.

As evidence of our strengths, our faculty and students have won numerous external awards and significant internal awards within the last 7-8 years. The following is a representative selection:

Awards to faculty

  • President’s Teaching Award – Israel Herrera
  • Humboldt Foundation Distinguished Leave – Anke Birkenmaier
  • North American Catalan Society Prize – Edgar Illas
  • NEH Challenge Grant – Kathleen Myers
  • MLA’s John K. Walsh Award – Ryan Giles
  • Mellon Innovating International Research Award (Deborah Cohn, Jonathan Risner, Estela Vieira)
  • Spain’s Ministry of Culture, Education and Sports (Manuel Díaz-Campos, Kimberly Geeslin, Myers, Steven Wagschal, Ryan Giles)

Awards to graduate students

  • NSF dissertation enhancement award – Steven Fafulas
  • ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation finalist – Cara Kinnally
  • Future Faculty Teaching Fellow – Amina Shabani

Awards to undergraduate students

  • Fulbright Fellowship – Rachel Geissler, Joseph Bradley, Mary Grace Gramelspacher, Megan Kelly, Craig Skillman
  • 2018 Palmer-Brandon Scholarship in the Humanities

Five Spanish Majors have been awarded a prestigious Palmer-Brandon Scholarship in the Humanities, which recognizes students who are in the top 1 percent of undergraduates in their fields in terms of academic achievement, intellectual ability, and demonstrated commitment to the humanities:

  • Zoe King – B.A. Hispanic Studies, Sociology, and Political Science, Minor in Psychology
  • Mark Bond – B.A. Hispanic Literature and International Studies
  • Mary Lechner – B.A. Hispanic Studies and Sociology, Minor in Political Science
  • Kaitlynn Milvert – B.A. in Hispanic Literature and English, Minor in Portuguese
  • Sophia Muston – B.A. in Hispanic Studies and Journalism, Minor in German
  • Provost’s Award for Undergraduate Research – Gabrielle Malina, Political Science and Spanish
  • Stahr Award – Christine White, Political Science, Economics and Spanish; Molly Zweig, International Studies and Spanish and Portuguese.
  • Truman Scholar – Christine White
  • Herman B Wells Senior Award – Madeline Danforth