The seniors in the Anthropology Class of 2025 have achieved something remarkable this year: they have demonstrated a level of complexity, social significance, and creativity that is truly noteworthy.

During Class Day on May 26, 2025, we honored our majors for their Independent Work excellence and acknowledged the multiple recognitions they received across the University. 

While continuing to honor the Department’s overall finest thesis, this year we also awarded prizes in all three tracks: Medical Anthropology; Law, Politics, and Economics; and Sociocultural Anthropology.

Prizes in Anthropology

Best Senior Thesis in Anthropology

Amaya Dressler | Narrating Homelessness: The Construction, Interpretation, and Reframing of Unhoused Experience in Bureaucracies of Care (advised by J. Kēhaulani Kauanui).

Co-winner, University Center for Human Values Senior Thesis Prize

AND

Abigail Poten | Competing Imaginaries: Socialist Narratives in Contemporary New York City (advised by Laurence Ralph).

Best Senior Thesis in Medical Anthropology

Asa Santos | I Who Did Not Die: The Gift of Grief & What Happens After Death (advised by Jeffrey Himpele).

Co-winner, Kenneth Maxwell Senior Thesis Prize in Brazilian Studies

Honorable Mention Best Senior Thesis in Medical Anthropology

Tina Karimaghaie | Managing the Unmanageable: Identity Craftwork and Collective Healing in the Aftermath of Breast Cancer (advised by Carolyn Rouse).

Best Senior Thesis in Law, Politics, Economics

 Tope Alowonle | The Art of Grief: Preserving Black Lives Against Systemic Violence–Police Brutality (advised by Jeffrey Himpele).

Honorable Mention Best Senior Thesis in Law, Politics, Economics

Alaa Omer | Civilian Rule. Freedom. Peace. Storytelling as War Resistance in Sudan (advised by Jeffrey Himpele).

Best Senior Thesis in Sociocultural Anthropology

 Wasif Sami | Allah Defies Gender, Why Can’t I? Religion, Queerness, and Performance (advised by Amelia Frank-Vitale).

Honorable Mention Best Senior Thesis in Sociocultural Anthropology

Athena Jamurta | Add Tip? American Tipping Culture and Digital Suggested Gratuity in Counter Service (advised by Glenn Shepard).

Prizes in Other Departments & Honors

Program in Community Engaged Scholarship’s (ProCES) Dean Hank Dobin Prize in Community-Engaged Independent Work, Second Prize

Mia James | Planting Seeds of Change in Urban Spaces: Reflections on Urban Agriculture through Community, Sustainability and Food Insecurity in Newark, New Jersey (advised by Glenn Shepard). 

Environmental Studies Book Prize in Social Sciences

Kat McLaughlin | Old Growth and New Roots: The Shifting Landscape of Forest Defense in Oregon (advised by Jerry Zee). 

Global India Senior Thesis Prize in the Humanities, Co-Winner

Tara DSilva | At the Limits of Welfare: Waiting, Stigma, and the Quiet Labor of Care (advised by Thalia Gigerenzer). 

South Asian Studies Thesis Prize, Co-Winner

Tara DSilva | At the Limits of Welfare: Waiting, Stigma, and the Quiet Labor of Care (advised by Thalia Gigerenzer). 

Department of Anthropology Honors List

Highest Honors: Amaya Dressler, Tara DSilva, Natalia Eichmann, Tina Karimaghaie, Emmie Pickerill, Abigail Poten, Paige Ryan, Wasif Sami, Asa Santos

 High Honors: Evan Burkert, Brenden Garza, Venezia Garza, Athena Jamurta, Youngju Noelle Kim

Honors: Chinyere Aguwa, Beatriz Alcala-Ascencion, Tope Alowonle, Garen Dafe, Jodie De Jesus, Fatima Diallo, Miral Disi, Khamari Hadaway, Parker Hill, Amelia Koblentz, Katharine McLaughlin, Issa Mudashiru, Julia Nees, Sasha Rivera, Louisa Sarofim, José Virgen Ortiz, April Yoo

Phi Beta Kappa

Amaya Dressler and Emmie Pickerill

Schwarzman Scholar 2025

Issa Mudashiru

Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow

Wasif Sami

Athletic Honors                      

Issa Mudashiru

The Art Lane ’34 Award is presented annually to undergraduate student-athletes in recognition of selfless contribution to sport and society.

Allen Macy Dulles ’51 Spirit of Princeton Award

Venezia Garza and Issa Mudashiru

The award recognizes students who have demonstrated a strong commitment to the undergraduate experience through dedicated efforts in student organizations, athletics, community service, religious life, residential life and the arts.

Priscilla Glickman ’92 Memorial Prize

Emmie Pickerill

This Prize is awarded to a Princeton senior who has demonstrated independence and imagination in the area of community service, seeks knowledge and purposeful adventure in unfamiliar cultures, and maintains strong academic work.

Click here to view the Class Day 2025 Program