On the evening of Tuesday, May 14, RLL faculty, instructors, and students gathered in Classics 110 for the annual end-of-year reception. Both undergraduate and graduate students were honored for their recent achievements.
After a welcome address from Department Chair Alison James, the awards and recognitions were presented by various faculty members, including Maria Anna Mariani, Pauline Goul, Danielle Roper, and Agnes Lugo-Ortiz.
A comprehensive list of awardees is included below. Keep scrolling to see the three winning photos from the RLL 2023-2024 Study Abroad Photo Contest!
Congratulations to all of our amazing students for this excellent work throughout the year. Wishing the best of luck to our Class of 2024 graduates as they embark on this new chapter!
Undergraduate Fellowships and Non-Department Awards
- Daisy Maslan, Fulbright Finalist- Study Award in France (French Major)
- Sarah Muhlbaum, Fulbright Alternate- Study Award in France (French Major), Quad Undergraduate Research Scholar
- Monica Ruiz House, Projects for Peace Grantee
- FLAG (Foreign Language Acquisition Grant) Awardees:
- Lia Guerrero (Brazil)
- Natalie Earl (Peru)
- Charles Hendon (Mexico)
- Ben DeMott (Mexico)
- Aj Palacios (Mexico)
- Global Honors:
- Lucas Cortinez (Spanish Minor)
- Miller Dunbar (LAIL Major)
- Nico Emmanuel-Henderson (RLL Major)
- Gregory Garcia (Spanish Major)
- Daisy Maslan (French Major)
- Monica Ruiz (Spanish Major)
- Sarah Muhlbaum (French Major)
- Irina Stamm (RLL Minor)
- Annaliese Vorhees (RLL Major)
23/24 Undergraduates
- Italian Majors
- Themis Frigo (Winter)
- Italian Minors
- Alec Abramson
- Walker Byrd
- Nati Giustini
- Ruofan Zhao
- Multiple Languages Majors
- Nico Emmanuel-Henderson* (FREN/KREY)
- Annika Lundsgaard* (SPAN/ITAL/PORT)
- Annaliese Vorhees (SPAN/FREN)
- Multiple Languages Minors
- Basil Egli (FREN/ITAL)
- Natalia Esparza-Mendoza (SPAN/FREN)
- Quinn Rodriguez (FREN/ITAL) (Winter)
- Alex Rubio (SPAN/ITAL)
- Irina Stamm (SPAN/FREN)
- French and Francophone Studies Majors
- Gabrielle Dalton
- Christine Dongo
- Mariam Esber
- Phoebe Holz
- Daisy Maslan*
- Sarah Muhlbaum
- Jack Read
- Lauren Rooney*
- French and Francophone Studies Minors
- Angélique Alexos
- Peter Berryman
- Christian Bird
- Jordyn Bourne
- Sonny Moskowitz
- Julia Stefanska
- Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Studies Majors
- Enmanuel Acosta Aparicio (Summer)
- Alai Araujo-Elorza
- Matthew Bruges (LAIL)
- Corinne Chiles (Winter)
- Olivia Degen
- Miller Dunbar* (LAIL)
- Greg Garcia
- Marcela Madrid Serna
- Tunmise Ogungbesan
- Marissa Powe
- Erika Romero
- Monica Ruiz
- Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Studies Minors
- Alejandra Bergquist
- Isabela Cacho-Sousa
- Page Cassidy
- Gabriel Clisham
- Lucas Cortinez
- Isabella DeVine
- Lucy Groothuis (Winter)
- A’Nya Harrison
- Virginia Juarbe (Winter)
- Hannah Maidman
- Sam Marks
- Juliana Mothersbaugh
- Adesuwa Obasuyi
- Gabriel Reyes Esclasans (PORT)
- Sabine Salnave
- Steven Schmidt
*Student is graduating with departmental honors.
Undergraduate Department Awards
- Walker Byrd, Samuel T. Fleck Prize in Italian (Awarded annually to the best paper written by a student minoring or majoring in Italian; for paper entitled, "La sperimentazione di Petrarca sui dialoghi").
- Daisy Maslan, Theodore Lee Neff Prize for Excellence in the Study of French Literature and Culture (Generally awarded for the best BA honors paper; for paper entitled, "Les gens des petits métiers et la ville de Paris dans Les Français peints par eux-mêmes : L’art, le travail et la rue dans les années 1840").
- Miller Dunbar, Best Honors Thesis or Essay in Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Studies (For paper entitled, “El sólido pedestal del dinero: temas socioeconómicas en Nada de Carmen Laforet”).
Graduate Dissertations
- Eufemia Baldassarre (Italian): "Landscapes of Exile: (Self)-Portrayals of Displacement in Italian Renaissance Literature"; Director: Rocco Rubini
- Laura Colaneri (HLBS): "The Sinister Southern Cone: Mood, Affect, and Horror in the Cultural Imaginary of Argentine and Brazilian State Terror"; Director: Victoria Saramago; winner of the 2024 Dean’s Distinguished Dissertation Award
- Kirsten Lopez (French): "Words to Remember: Crafting Epitaphic Environments in Medieval and Contemporary Commemorative Art"; Director: Daisy Delogu
- Pablo Ottonello (HLBS): "Sinfonía de lo cotidiano: la pose de fracaso en los diarios de Levrero, Piglia y Pizarnik"; Director: Agnes Lugo-Ortiz
More Graduate Student Achievements
- Thomaz Amâncio, Beatrice Fazio, Peadar Kavanagh, Paulina León, Luis Madrigal, and Matías Spector: 2024-25 Teaching Fellows in the Humanities
- Vianny Anaya Amado, Enya Calibuso, Etienne Grateau, Alessandro Ludovico Minnucci, Caterina Nicodemo, Andrea Reed-Leal, and Jean Vallejo González reached candidacy.
- Loriane Lafont was awarded a 2024-25 Mellon Foundation-University of Chicago Dissertation Completion Fellowship. She was also elected as a graduate student member of the MLA Delegate Assembly for a three-year term.
- Paulina León was recognized with the Society for Renaissance and Baroque Hispanic Poetry (SRBHP) 3rd Founders' Prize for Best Graduate Student Paper.
- Lizette Arellano received a 2024-25 Vigneron Dissertation Completion Fellowship.
- Fara Taddei received a 2024-25 Franke Institute for the Humanities Non-Residential Dissertation Completion Fellowship.
RLL 2023-2024 Study Abroad Photo Contest (See winning photos in gallery below)
- 1st Place, Paul Hosemann - “Sunlight filtering into La Rambla in Barcelona” (Barcelona, Spain)
- 2nd Place, Sonia Chang - "Venetian serenity" (Venice, Italy)
- 3rd Place, Risa Akiba - “A gondolier rowing in Venice's canal" (Venice, Italy)
Sunlight filtering into La Rambla in Barcelona (1st Place, Paul Hosemann)
Venetian serenity (2nd Place, Sonia Chang)
A gondolier rowing in Venice's canal (3rd Place, Risa Akiba)