Seven University of Oregon students who authored outstanding research papers and theses during the 2017 calendar year have been named winners in the university's Undergraduate Research Awards competition.
Sponsored by the University of Oregon Libraries, the annual program honors UO students who produce exceptional original research and scholarship using UO Libraries collections and resources.
Read the Winning Papers on UO Libraries' Scholar's Bank
Couch, Tiffany: "WE THE PEOPLE: Populism and Party Realignment in the United States"
Dorning, Sandra: "From Voluntary to Monitored: The Development of the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna"
Dorning, Sandra: "The Ecology and Demography of the Invasive Ascidian Botrylloides violaceus in the Coos Estuary"
McLaughlin, Drew J.: "Individual Variation in the Perception of Speech in Multiple Types of Adverse Listening Conditions"
Rothman, Angela. Well-Intentioned but Ineffective: A Legislative History of the California Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, 2001
Schnell, Breanne: "Stop Comparing Nollywood to Hollywood: Reorienting Western Understanding of Nigerian Cinema"
Steinkopf-Frank, Hannah Rose: "La Sape: Tracing the History and Future of the Congos' Well-Dressed Men"
Tabor, Rowan Patrick: “The Plague Ship:” Examining the Arrival and Controversial Quarantine of the J.W. Taylor at The Port of New York in 1899"
Marine biology major Sandra Lynn Dorning, a 2017 graduate of the Clark Honors College, was recognized for both single-term and multiterm thesis projects, becoming the first student since the awards began to earn honors in both categories in the same year.
Angela Rothman, a 2017 grad in history and political science who was honored for her term paper in 2017, also doubled up by winning an award in the multiterm category this year.
Also taking home 2017 honors in the multiterm category were linguistics graduate Drew McLaughlin and Clark Honors College students Tiffany Couch and Hannah Rose Steinkopf-Frank. Both Couch and Steinkopf-Frank graduated last year, Couch in political science and Steinkopf-Frank in journalism and international studies.
Honorees in the term paper category also included Breanne Schnell, a 2017 graduate in English, journalism, and media studies, and Rowan Patrick Tabor, a 2018 history graduate.
“These students exemplify the best in academic achievement, scholarship and research,” said UO Provost Jayanth Banavar. “They have trained to be the scientists, the historians, the authors and writers of the future. We are all proud of their accomplishments.”
Winners were selected by a committee of UO librarians and members of the teaching faculty. Criteria for the awards included the quality of applicants' research papers or projects as well as their bibliographies and application essays articulating the use of library resources and services.
Each nominee for the Undergraduate Research Awards must secure the sponsorship of a faculty member, and letters of recommendation also are reviewed by the awards committee. All award winners received $1,000 and the recognition of having their work digitally archived in Scholars' Bank, the UO's institutional repository.
Barbara Jenkins, the outreach and special programs coordinator with UO Libraries and chair of the Research Award Committee, noted that 42 applications were received in 2017 — the most submitted in any year since the awards began.
"Seven schools and colleges and 23 majors and programs were represented in the pool of applicants," Jenkins said. "The papers and projects showcase the rich intellectual diversity of student research and give testament to the vital roles that librarians and library resources play in helping to ensure students' success."
The Undergraduate Research Awards are funded by the UO Libraries' Milton C. and Barbara B. Sparks and Jon and Lisa Stine endowments, as well as gifts from Walter and Gretchen Barger.