We are pleased to announce the winners of the 2022 UGA Libraries Undergraduate Research Awards! All our applicants provided us with insights into their research process, describing impressively creative and sophisticated projects which demonstrate both a commitment to high standards for their academic work and their passion for research. 

2022 Winners

Senior Division 

First Place

Thomas Russell. "White Internationalism: Senator Richard B. Russell and Southern Africa."  Research process essay and bibliography.
Faculty Mentor, Dr. Claudio Saunt
Librarian Mentor, Dr. Nan McMurry; Archivist Mentor, Sheryl Vogt

Thomas states that during his use of the UGA Libraries’ Special Collections and other resources he “learned how to be an active researcher.” His deep dive into primary and secondary resources to look for multiple perspectives was the work of a skilled and persistent researcher.

Honorable Mentions

Ben Barrett. "Liberty and the Public Good: Alternate Conceptions of Political Virtue in the Works of Camille Desmoulins." Research process essay and bibliography.
Faculty Mentor, Dr. Jennifer Palmer
Librarian Mentor, Dr. Nan McMurry

Ben’s thorough and thoughtful research was conducted in French and made extensive use of primary sources found in French and U.S. online archives and in the UGA Special Collections.

Aryaman Dass. "Effectiveness of Mobile-Health Based Programs in Improving Childhood Immunization in Low and Middle Income Countries." Research process essay and bibliography.
Faculty Mentor, Dr. Donald Harn
Librarian Mentor, Casey Roberson

Aryaman provided an in-depth description that clearly showed his understanding of the systemic review process.  These exhaustive literature reviews are exacting, and the committee appreciated the inclusion of his search syntax and the map of his review and exclusion process.

1st-3rd Year Division 

First Place

Dhriti Pentela. "Examining the Extent at Which Mobile Application Technology Can Promote Health Literacy of the HPV Vaccine in Hispanic Female Adolescents." Research process essay and bibliography.
Faculty Mentor, Dr. Gabriel Darville
Librarian Mentor, Sandra Riggs

Dhriti’s research was impressive, particularly for a first-year student. Her essay reflected her increasing sophistication with research developed through practice and meetings with a librarian and her advisor.

Honorable Mention

Jayasri Mankan. "Establishing a Quantitative Relationship Between Smoking and Lung Squamous Cell Carcinoma." Research process essay and bibliography.
Faculty Mentor, Dr. Ying Xu
Librarian Mentor, Ian Thomas

As a second-year student, Jayasri used the UGA Libraries to validate unexpected lab results using skills she had developed for the focused searching of scientific articles.

Jurors' Choice Awards

Mennah Abdelwahab. "Dangerous Women: Analyzing the Securitization of Female Protesters during the Egyptian Revolution." Research process essay and bibliography.
Faculty Mentor, Dr. Maryann Gallagher
Librarian Mentor, Shelia Devaney

Mennah showed us how she used the library in every stage of her research: finding theory, choosing research methods, locating datasets and conducting an analysis that incorporated information from multiple sides of an interdisciplinary issue.

Cortney Stevenson. "Local Soil Survey of Georgia Piedmont Landscape." Research process essay and bibliography.
Faculty Mentor, Dr. Matt Levi
Librarian Mentor, Kelsey Forester

Cortney left no stone unturned when finding historical documents related his fieldwork to update a 1931 soil survey.

Michael Wolfman. "The Modulatory Effect of Predictability on Processing Difficulty Due to Syntactic Complexity." Research process essay and bibliography.
Faculty Mentor, Dr. John Hale
Librarian Mentors, Sandra Riggs and Laura Shedenhelm

Michael’s reflective essay used the “four stages of competence” to frame his growing knowledge during his research project that made extensive use of the Digilab.

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