Prizes

“Making Subjects of Subjects: The Transnational Project of U.S. Education, English, and Epistemic Colonialism in the Philippines.”

Upon entering Harvard in Fall 2020, I found myself captivated by a seemingly simple question: Why was Tagalog—the dominant vernacular in the Philippines, the native tongue of my mother’s family, and the fourth-most spoken primary language in the U.S.—not taught at Harvard? Since then, I’ve worked to uncover Harvard’s historical role in the U.S. colonial education system in the Philippines and to explore the transnational legacy of U.S. colonialism in our contemporary systems of knowledge. My thesis research took me to six archival collections across two continents, allowing me to gain a greater understanding of the intertwined, yet often obscured, histories of the U.S. and the Philippines. Writing my thesis was an intense experience because of my personal connection to the topic, and I am extremely grateful for the support of friends, family, and communities at Harvard and beyond who supported and nourished me through the process. –EVW.

Eleanor Villafranca Wikstrom is a student, writer, and advocate from Oakland, California. She is a senior at Harvard concentrating in Social Studies with a secondary in Mind, Brain, Behavior, where she has been named a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Junior 24. Her undergraduate thesis, for which she was awarded four research fellowships and three thesis prizes, analyzes the 20th-century U.S. system of English-only education in the Philippines as a transnational project of epistemic colonialism. As the former Editorial Chair of The Harvard Crimson student newspaper and co-president of the Harvard Philippine Forum, she authored a series of op-eds on Harvard’s role in U.S. colonialism in the Philippines which helped to secure funding for a Filipino language instructor at Harvard and were featured in national news outlets across Asia. She looks forward to continuing her studies of U.S. colonial history and advocacy for postcolonial education reform as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford next year.

“Studying with Césaire: Caribbean Counter-Pedagogies of the Lycée Victor Schoelcher during the Third Republic, 1870-1945.”

I owe my academic passions to my high school mentors, who fostered my love for literature and history, and who helped me discover my curiosity in the institutions and experiences that shaped the thought of celebrated anticolonial writers such as Aimé Césaire, Édouard Glissant, and Frantz Fanon. I set out to uncover what studying at ycée Victor Schoelcher was like and the factors that influenced these thinkers’ political and poetic visions. Through archive research in France and Martinique, I concluded that it channeled into its students not only the radical traditions of Haitian revolution, but also historical structures of colonial double consciousness. My research could not have been possible without the support of the EMR grant as well as my dedicated EMR mentor, Huey Hewitt. –JH.

Justin Hu concentrated in History and Romance Languages, with the goal of understanding the intellectual history of francophone postcolonial thought. During college, he was most active in Asian American advocacy (TAPAS), the fight for Ethnic Studies (HESC), and the classical music department of Harvard Radio Broadcasting (WHRB). After graduation, Justin will pursue a master’s in history at Sciences Po, then study at Harvard Law School.

“Wade in the Water: The Black Aquatic as Agency, Identity, and Belonging During the Civil Rights Era, 1940–1968.”

I chose to conduct this research project to strengthen Black American senses of belonging, identity, and agency that could be anchored during a pivotal moment of Black American history. Through archival research and theoretical analysis, I was able to look to water as a new lens through which Black Americans could make sense of their history and place in the world. I am eternally grateful to the support system provided to me by my department, friends, and fellow thesis-writers. I would also like to acknowledge the pivotal role that EMR courses played in shaping my academic trajectory and my thesis project. –KAT.

Kari Traylor is a recent graduate from Dallas, Texas who studied Social Studies and Ethnicity, Migration, and Rights. Her thesis interrogated the role of water in organizing, identity formation, and Black suppression during the Civil Rights Era. After graduation, Kari will pursue an MPhil in World History at the University of Cambridge. 

The EMR Senior Thesis Prize application cycle will reopen in Spring, 2025.

Apply by 11:59 PM 4/16/2024!

Apply on the CARAT website.

Contact: Fatimah Mateen

The Senior Thesis Prize recognizes projects that contribute to current scholarly discourses about ethnicity, migration, indigeneity, race, and/or rights. There is no restriction on field, methodology, or the form of the theses to be considered for this prize. Creative projects are eligible.

Projects will be evaluated based on their depth and breadth of research, originality of topic, clarity of expression, and strength of argument. The winning thesis or theses will define, explore, and expand its area of knowledge in ethnicity, migration, indigeneity, race, or rights. Projects can have a US/domestic, international, or transnational focus.

Individual professors, departments, or concentrations may nominate candidates, or candidates may nominate their own paper.

This competition is only open to Harvard students in their senior year who have been involved in EMR (secondary fielders, working groups, multiple individual EMR classes, etc.). Individual professors, departments, or concentrations may nominate candidates, or candidates may nominate their own paper.

Required supplemental documents

• Candidate CV/Resume
• Candidate Thesis
• Readers’ Comments (Not Required)
• Additional Supplemental Document (Not Required)

Additional Instructions

One original letter of recommendation is now OPTIONAL. If you would like to submit a letter to support your application, submitting letters through CARAT is the preferred method for submission. However, letters may also be sent via email from the recommender to fatimah_mateen@fas.harvard.edu. Emailed letters should be sent as a PDF document, on letterhead, and include a signature.

Reader comments are REQUIRED. Please either submit them with your application materials, or send them via email to fatimah_mateen@fas.harvard.edu as soon as they are available to you.

Harvard Centers, Departments, and Programs

• Asia Center
• Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, Harvard Kennedy School of Government
• Center for Middle Eastern Studies
• Committee on Degrees in History & Literature
• David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies (DRCLAS)
• Department of African and African American Studies
• Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health (FXB Center)
• Harvard University Native American Program (HUNAP)
• Human Rights at Harvard
• Human Rights Program, Harvard Law School
• Instituto Cervantes, Observatory of the Spanish Language and Hispanic Cultures in the United States
• Weatherhead Center for International Affairs
• W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research

Other Affiliates

• Harvard College Human Rights Review
• Health and Human Rights Journal
• Harvard Humanitarian Initiative