2026 Social Justice Research Paper and Multimedia Award Winners

Congratulations to our 2026 Anne Braden Institute Student Research Paper and Multimedia award winners! Our sets of faculty judges for each award were so impressed with both the caliber and the scale of submissions this year that they all selected several honorable mentions in addition to our excellent award winners. Congratulations to all!

Multimedia Prize

Winner: “Typeface Injustice: How TOEFL Typeface in Reading Section Troubles Readability” - Yuan Zhao, PhD in Rhetoric and Composition, English, A&S

Honorable Mentions

“Queering the past: Queer Identity and Necroviolence in Present and Future Archaeology” - Veronica Pulley, Anthropology major, A&S

“Am I still an ism?” - Garth Gray Noble, Communications major with minors in Political Science and History, A&S

“Lady Justice and the Seeds She Sows” - Izzy Hoffman, Fine Arts major, A&S

Graduate Research Paper Prize

Winner: “When Work Gets Under the Skin: Racialized Labor and Cumulative Health Risk in Higher Education” by D’Neika Lopez, Ph. D. student in Educational Leadership & Organizational Development, CEHD 

Honorable Mentions

“The mental violence of silence: Legislative hostility, deliberate indifference, and the duty to mitigate race-based traumatic stress for Black womxn educators and girls” – Shauna Evans, PhD student, CEHD

“Gender, Food, and Flooding in Appalachia” - Chloe Hale, MA student in Anthropology, A&S

“Welfare Queen: The Intersection of Welfare Narratives and Mental Health” - Avantika Kapadia, Clinical Psychology PhD student, A&S

“Detransition as Counterstory: Trans-Affirming Narratives on TikTok” - Jamieson Oakley, PhD Student in Rhetoric and Composition, A&S

Undergraduate Research Paper Prize

Winner: “Community and Identity” - Bridget Kelley, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and History major, A&S

Honorable Mentions

“Applying Nussbaum’s Capabilities Approach to a Critical Analysis of U.S. Welfare Systems” - Kaitlin Renaud, Psychology and Philosophy major, A&S

“Moral Status and a Community of Care: Why Kentucky Must Extend State-Sponsored Insurance to Its Undocumented Population” - Connor Becker, Philosophy major, A&S

“Victim or Villain: The Reevaluation of La Llorona in an Evolving Culture” - Clara Heberling, Spanish and Political Science major, A&S