Student Awards and Publications

Each year, students present their research at the Midwest Sociological Society’s annual meeting.

Tradition of Excellence

Since 2006, Macalester sociology students have won 78 regional and national awards for the quality of their research projects, all of which were developed in Sociology coursework.

Awards for Research

2025

Alpha Kappa Delta Undergraduate Paper Competition
Senior, Kendall Coney ‘25- Third place. “Death and Inheritance: How Meanings of Money are Drawn from Everyday Life.”

Marianna McJimsey Student Essay Award at the ASIANetwork annual meeting
Junior, Xinyi Zheng ’26- First place. “Managing Fertility: A Historical Comparative Study on Population Policy in Singapore and China.”

Midwest Sociological Society Paper Competition
Audrey Hartmann, ’25 – Third place. “Navigating Care: Tensions between Rational and Relational Agency in Caregiver Interactions with Individuals with Dementia.”

Sociologists of Minnesota, Caroline Rose Student Paper Competition
Xinyi Zheng ’26 -First place. “”Broken Skyscraper Dreams: Disillusionment and Urban Exit among Young Adults in China.”
Amanda Tu ’27 – Second place. “From Empire to Nation-State: The Shifting Dynamics of Symbolic Power in Modern China.”

2024

Midwest Sociological Society Paper Competition
Senior, Francesca Bernardino – First place. “’Eating the Other’: Negotiations of Authenticity within Culinary Cosmopolitanism.”
Senior, Daisy Alcantar – Third place. “Ni de aquí, Ni de allá”: How the Mexican-American student is seen as the perpetual foreigner in the U.S. and in Latin America.”

Sociologists of Minnesota, Caroline Rose Student Paper Competition
Sophomore, Emery Teague – Second place. “Christianity as Deviance: Flipping the Script at a Religiously Affiliated Liberal Arts College.”

2023

Alpha Kappa Delta Undergraduate Paper Competition
Senior, Ethan Hyslop – Second Place. “Who Gets the Job? Social Reproduction through Student Employment Hiring.”

Midwest Sociological Society Paper Competition
Senior, Tommy Navarre – First place. “No Longer Invisible”: Contesting the Purpose of Public Parks and the Production of Houselessness in Minneapolis, Minnesota.”
Senior, Sophia Kaufmann – Second place. “Un-Scene: How Responses to Sexual Violence Reproduce Legal Hegemony in the Bay Area’s Punk and DIY Community.”
Senior, Stella Kirszner – Third place. “Hiding and Hoarding: How the New York City Public School Application Process Reinforces Privilege and Inequality.”

Sociologists of Minnesota, Caroline Rose Student Paper Competition
Senior, Josh Groven – First place. “‘Cool People’ vs. ‘Food Goodness’: Capitalist Grammar and Social Distinction at a St. Paul Restaurant and Salon.”
Junior, Haoxuan Gao – Second place. “Work Above and Beyond: How Peer Tutors Navigate Their Role and Manage Emotional Labor.”

2022

Midwest Sociological Society Paper Competition
Senior, Greer Lichtenberg – First place. “Looking Up and Playing Down: The Paradoxes of Performing Wealth at a Liberal Arts College.”
Senior, Aidan Williams – Third place. “Plague! Public Health, Community Memory, and HIV/AIDS.”

Midwest Sociological Society, Three Minute Thesis Competition
Senior, Inge Pham-Swann, First place. “Beyond Vegan: Producer and Restaurant Involvement in the Mainstreaming of Plant-Based Meat.”
Senior, Xunwen (Aarron) Zou, Second place. “Ambassadors, Idols or Trash? Interpreting Foreignness and Race in the Chinese National-Building Project.”

Recent Publications from Sociology Alumni

Taylor Laemmli, alum ’11. 2024. “Class Experience Mobility through Consumption, Work, and Relationships.” Sociological Theory, 0(0).

Aaron (Xunwen) Zou, alum ’22. 2024. “Examining the Information Needs of Chinese Migrants Crossing the Darien Gap.” Center for Disaster Philanthropy and Internews.

Shantee Rosado, alum ’09. 2025. Co-authored by Aaryn L. Green, Maretta Darnell McDonald, Veronica A. Newton, Candice C. Robinson. The Sociology of Cardi B: A Trap Feminist Approach. Routledge: New York City.

Kai P.Blake-Leibowitz. 2021. “Being Able to Breathe Publicly”: Trans and Gender Nonconforming People Healing through Embodied Activity. Advances in Trans Studies: Moving Toward Gender Expansion and Trans Hope (Advances in Gender Research, Vol. 32), Emerald Publishing Limited, Bingley, pp. 177-192.