Public Engagement and Community Service Award: Abishek Gupta
"I am an undergraduate Honors student at UConn triple majoring in Sociology, the Biological Sciences, and Spanish with plans to graduate in December 2020. Throughout my college career I have been dedicated to the cause of improving my community through social justice. As a part of my efforts I have headed the student-led UConnPIRG hunger and homelessness campaign which is dedicated to poverty-relief and awareness efforts, co-founded a study to investigate the presence of food insecurity on UConn's campus that helped prompt the state legislature mandate to study food security at all Connecticut higher education institutions, and chaired the Undergraduate Student Government Student Services committee which works to make the university a more inclusive place and improve student life in areas concerning mental health and wellness, food security, access to hygiene products, transportation and recreation, and sustainable environmental practices. Currently, I serve as an undergraduate student representative on the President's Student Mental Health and Well-being task force working to improve the mental health culture on UConn's campus. "
Outstanding Sociology Undergraduate Award: Julianne Harris
This paper analyzed archived UConn yearbooks and alternative media across the 20th century, documenting post WWII, the Vietnam War, and the social movements of the 1960s and 70s, discussing how the yearbooks represented, or misrepresented, major historical and social events. Using the idea of the "nostalgia trap," or overly positive recollections of the past, the analysis concludes that the UConn yearbook does take time to document important social issues of the time, though has some level of uncalled for positivity compared to reality.