Honors and Awards

The Department of Politics recognizes exceptional undergraduate performance through a variety of prizes and awards. Information about those honors, as well as a list of recent recipients, are available below. See the honors calculation page for information regarding the determination of highest honors, high honors, and honors.

Department Prizes

Caroline M. Picard Prize in Politics

Established in 1985 by her family in memory of Caroline M. Picard, Class of 1986. It is awarded annually to the junior(s) in the Department of Politics who, in the judgment of the faculty, present the most promising senior thesis project(s) which needs summer thesis support.

Lyman H. Atwater Prize in Politics

Established by the Class of 1883 as a memorial to the Reverend Lyman H. Atwater, D.D., LL.D., Professor of Political Science, 1869-1883. It is awarded to the senior who has written the best thesis on a subject in political science.

New York Herald Prize in Politics

Established by James Gordon Bennett. It is awarded to the senior who has presented the best thesis on a subject of contemporaneous interest in the domestic or foreign policy of the United States government.

Philo Sherman Bennett Prize in Politics

Established by Philo Sherman Bennett of New Haven, Conn. It is awarded to the junior or senior who has written the best essay discussing the principles of free government.

The John G. Buchanan Prize in Politics

Established by John G. Buchanan, Class of 1909, the John G. Buchanan Prize in Politics is awarded annually to the senior who has attained, during junior and senior years, the highest standing in the Department of Politics. In the event that more than one senior has attained the highest standing, the prize will be awarded to the individual who has the highest standing in Constitutional Interpretation.

Related Prize

The Stephen Whelan ’68 Senior Thesis Prize

Awarded by The James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions for the best senior thesis on a topic relating to the study of public or constitutional law.

Recent Recipients, Department Honors

Summa Cum Laude
Highest Honors, 2026

Wade Thomas Bednar

Joshua Cigoianu

Grace Coller

Charles Zacharias Gardner Jr.

Emma Jean Hermacinski

Henry Hsiao

Pariyakorn Kasemsawade

Mia Anne Sampson

Jocelyne Rachelle Wijaya

Olin D. Zimmet

Magna Cum Laude
High Honors, 2026

James Bement

Cole Basas Crosby

James Gunnar Fraley

Luis Xaiver Guaman

Hadi Kamara

Petra Anastasia Knupp

Abigail Margaux Lee

Michelle Miao

Chana Lee Mitty

Jamison Patrick Moore

Jonathan Michael Silverman

Kabir Ercolani Singh

Diego Enrique Uribe-Corao

Cum Laude
Honors, 2026

Minna Abdella

Kyara Elisa Arteaga

Nana Adwoa Barwuah

Mia Gwen Brown

Zavier Jonathan Foster

Zachary Jamison Friedman

George Bekton Lathrop

Abigail Sapir Leibowitz

Makenna Grace Marshall

Valentina Moreno

Allison Estefan Rodrigues

James Charles Wells

Haotian Yang

Hayk Yengibaryan

Recent Recipients, Senior Thesis Prizes

Below is a list of recent Alumni (Politics Classes of 2016 and beyond) who were awarded departmental prizes for distinction in their senior theses. To view these prize-winning senior theses by primary field, click on the linked titles which will take you to the Mudd Library Archives for the given document.

American Politics

Charles Zacharias Gardner Jr. ‘26
"The Presidential Pardon Power: A Portrait in Paradox" - Whelan Prize, Co-Winner

Luis Xaiver Guaman '26
"Citizenship Social Control: How Immigration Status Reorganizes Public Evaluations of Police Encounters" - Herald Prize, Winner

Abigail Margaux Lee '26
"From Disclosure to Scandal: Partisan Moral Framing and Political Accountability" - Sherman Bennett Prize, Co-Winner

Isaac Maxwell Cape '25
"The Evolution of Precedent and Partisanship on the Roberts Court" - Atwater Prize, Winner

Thomas James Emens '25
"The Jersey Tax Hustle: How Mayoral Elections Influence Municipal Tax Levies in the State of New Jersey" - Sherman Bennett Prize, Winner

Isabel Sternberg-Schoeman '24
"Can Money Buy 'Justice'? A New Approach to Studying the Influence of Campaign Contributions on Judicial Decision Making" - Herald Prize, Winner

Rishi Sethi Khanna '24
"Redefining Rights: Reconstruction-Era Black Perspectives on the Fourteenth Amendment" - Sherman Bennett Prize, Winner

Madeleine Offutt Polubinski '23
"One Person, How Many Votes? Race and Representation in Ranked-Choice Elections" - Herald Prize, Winner

Kennedy Elizabeth Mattes '23
"Objection, Faulty Assumption: A Partial Identification Approach to the Causal Study of Incarceration" - Atwater Prize, Co-Winner

Alexandra Metcalf Buzzini '22
"The Lost Liberal Ethic: Love and Toleration in the Political Thought of the New England Puritans" - Atwater Prize, Co-Winner / Whelan Prize, Winner

Lehman Montgomery III '22
“Navigating Masculinity Through Race and Sexuality: American Voters’ Candidate Evaluations of Black Men” - Herald Prize, Winner

Madeleine Marie Marr '21
"A Room of One's Own: Housing Activism and Intersectional Representation" - Herald Prize, Winner

Risa Lynn Gelles-Watnick '21
"Speaking Stories to Power: An Analysis of Rhetorical Style and Identity in Jury Deliberations" - Sherman Bennett Prize, Winner

Akhil Rajasekar ‘21
"Zero Cheers for Incorporation" - Whelan Prize, Co-Winner

Nicolas Harfield Wilson ‘21
"A Neo-Scholastic Perspective on New Natural Law Theory and its Conception of the Common Good" - Whelan Prize, Co-Winner

Tabitha Lynne Belshee '20
"Doing Right by Our Children: Understanding and Redressing President Trump's 'Zero-Tolerance Policy'" - Herald Prize, Winner

Thomas Andrew Koenig '20
"Forming a More Perfect Union: Past Successes, Present Failures, and Future Opportunities" - Whelan Prize, Co-Winner

Andrew Sheldon Brazer ‘19
“The Antifederalist Irony: How the Bill of Rights Opened the Door to the Nationalization of Policy-Making via the Federal Judiciary” - Whelan Prize, Co-Winner

Miriam Shana Friedman ‘19
“The Identity of Power: An Analysis of the Internal Politics of the National Rifle Association” - Herald Prize, Co-Winner

Amanda Rose Glatt ‘19
“Breaking the Silence: A Conjoint Analysis of Sexual Harassment Scandals in American Politics” - Herald Prize, Co-Winner

Natalya Linglingay Rañeses Ritter ‘19
“Stuck in the Middle with You: The Role of Law in the Racial and Political Classification of Filipinos in America” - Sherman Bennett Prize, Winner

Layla Susan Varkey ‘19
“The Park, The Bohemia, The University: A Historical and Theoretical Analysis of Displacements of African-American Communities in Manhattan” - Atwater Prize, Co-Winner

Katherine Elizabeth Cion '18
"When Women Run: A Conjoint Analysis of Gender and Political Ambition" - Sherman Bennett Prize, Co-Winner

Alexander Reid Gottlieb '18
"Private Partisan, Public Moderate: Preference Falsification on Twitter" - Herald Prize, Co-Winner

Catherine Anne McDonough ‘18
"De-Facto Disenfranchisement? Examining the Effect of Pretrial Incarceration on Voter Turnout in Philadelphia" - Atwater Prize, Winner

Alexander Joshua Costin '17
"The Lochner Era in the Lower Courts" - Sherman Bennett Prize, Winner / Whelan Prize, Co-Winner

Owen Barrett Smitherman '17
"Executor and Aide: Appellate Mischief and the Dual Responsibility Model" - Whelan Prize, Co-Winner

Mitchell Paul Kilborn '16
“Take the Money and Run? Public Campaign Financing and Representational Inequality in the United States” - Atwater Prize, Winner

Christine Casey Smith ’16
“A God By Any Other Name: Synthesizing Nondiscrimination and Substantive Liberty of the Free Exercise Clause” - Sherman Bennett Prize, Winner

Comparative Politics

Emma Jean Hermacinski '26
“Destroying Shrines to Create Japan: Early 20th-Century Shinto Shrine Consolidation as Performative State Capacity” - Atwater Prize, Co-Winner

Chana Lee Mitty '26
“Complicating the Curse: Resource Extraction and the Emergence of Rebel Governance Institutions in Civil Conflict” - Atwater Prize, Co-Winner

Rooya Ahmana Rahin '23
“The Power of Getting Perspective: A Study of Narrative Interventions and Point of View on Political Attitudes and Behavior Towards Refugees” -Atwater Prize, Co-Winner

Rebecca Jean Han '22
“Crouching Censors, Hidden Scenes: What Kinds of Foreign Films Are Allowed into China and Why?” - Atwater Prize, Co-Winner

Roopa Shree Venkatraman '22
“Oil or Islam?: Assessing Causes for Low Female Labor Force Participation in Benin and Nigeria” - Sherman Bennett Prize, Winner

Sophie Shiao Li '21
"The Gulag For My Neighbour?: Factors Affecting the Punitiveness of Chinese Public Opinion Towards Crime" - Atwater Prize, Winner

Chun Xi Eliot Chen '20
"Tell China's Story Well': Media Manipulation and Trust in Xi's China" - Atwater Prize, Winner / Sherman Bennett Prize, Winner

Alexandra Markovich '17
"Why We Can't All Get Along: Interpersonal Conflict and Social Networks in Post-Euromaidan Ukraine" - Atwater Prize, Winner