Funding & Awards

Group photo from GW American Studies 2023 Graduation Celebration in Square 80
Image Credit: Maria Luz Bravo

American Studies students frequently earn recognition and funding to support their research endeavors. This recognition includes an undergraduate essay prize, undergraduate honors and funding for graduate student research travel around the globe.


The Elsie M. Carper Prize for Outstanding Senior Research Essay

A student composing a research essay

The Carper Prize is awarded annually to a graduating American Studies major who has exhibited extraordinary research and writing abilities. The prize goes to the best research paper in the senior research seminar. Funding for the award comes from the Carper Endowment, which was amassed through a series of gifts from alumna Elsie M. Carper (BA ’41) and other individuals.

 


History

Pioneering reporter and editor Elsie M. Carper (BA ’41) worked at the Washington Post for 48 years, displaying an unwavering commitment to improving media coverage and journalism employment opportunities for African Americans and women. When she became the  Post’s first female assistant managing editor, she used her position to hire a more diverse pool of journalists.

Carper received many prestigious awards for her work on issues like teaching reading and segregation in schools. In 1990 she received a GW Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award, and in 1993, she was inducted into the Society of Professional Journalists Hall of Fame. Carper gave generously to the Department of American Studies until her death in 2007. Her support helped fund two major initiatives to support student research: the Elsie M. Carper Prize, and the Elsie M. Carpenter Undergraduate Scholarship Fund.

Carper Prize Winners

2023-24: Alys Gross, "Possibility Space: Situating the History of Corcoran College and its Merger with George Washington University Within the Context of Neoliberalism and Examining its Future Potential"

2022-23: Lauren Guzowski, "I Lost, but I Gained: D.C. Abortion Clinics, Self-Help Feminism, and Making Space" and Julia Russo, "A Legacy of Disenfranchisement: Interrogating the Displacement of the Historical Black Foggy Bottom Community"

2021-22: Oliver Kogod, "After the Gold Rush: Forging Jewish Identity in San Francisco after 1848" and Andrea Martinez, "Rapid Stasis: Familiarity in Public Print Advertising to Manufacture Dismissal"

2020-21: Grace Bautista: ‘National Feelings’ of the Philippinesian: Early Twentieth Century Filipino Community Life at The George Washington University and Hannah Delvecchio: "A Life Dedicated to the Sea and One Another: Women in Nineteenth-Century New England Maritime History" 

2019-20: Michael Knapp: "The Trachtenberg Era: George Washington University’s National Ascension From a Local Perspective" and Maya Adelstein: "Internships: A consequential phenomenon at The George Washington University"

2018-19: Lexi Chavin: "Race and Place: The Impact of GWU on the Evolution of Foggy Bottom" and Isabelle Moody: "Examining GW's Student-Led Food Initiatives Through Food Sovereignty"

2017–18: Samantha Gonzalez: “The Sum of the Whole: The Negro Units of the Federal Theatre Project”

2016–17: Ciaran Lithgow, “Constructing the Conservative Vision: Housing Policy in the Cold War”

2015–16: Ariel Amaru, “From Legal to Social Authority: Black Women’s Reporting of Domestic Violence”

2014–15: Altaire DeLeon, “On Negotiating Latino Vernacular Housescapes: The Spatial Performance of Mexican/Mexican-American Citizenship in East Los Angeles”

2013–14: Rachel Holbreich, “First Do Harm”


Kimberly Probolus

"Thanks to the support of the Kasch Foundation, I visited 10 different archival collections [that] allowed me to start my dissertation."

Kimberly Probolus
MA ’17, PhD Student


2020-21: Grace Bautista: ‘National Feelings’ of the Philippinesian: Early Twentieth Century Filipino Community Life at The George Washington University and Hannah Delvecchio: "A Life Dedicated to the Sea and One Another: Women in Nineteenth-Century New England Maritime History"

2019-20: Michael Knapp: "The Trachtenberg Era: George Washington University’s National Ascension From a Local Perspective" and Maya Adelstein: "Internships: A consequential phenomenon at The George Washington University"

2018-19: Lexi Chavin: "Race and Place: The Impact of GWU on the Evolution of Foggy Bottom" and Isabelle Moody: "Examining GW's Student-Led Food Initiatives Through Food Sovereignty"

2017–18: Samantha Gonzalez: “The Sum of the Whole: The Negro Units of the Federal Theatre Project”

2016–17: Ciaran Lithgow, “Constructing the Conservative Vision: Housing Policy in the Cold War”

2015–16: Ariel Amaru, “From Legal to Social Authority: Black Women’s Reporting of Domestic Violence”

2014–15: Altaire DeLeon, “On Negotiating Latino Vernacular Housescapes: The Spatial Performance of Mexican/Mexican-American Citizenship in East Los Angeles”

2013–14: Rachel Holbreich, “First Do Harm”


The Horton-Vlach Fund

John Vlach at the reception launching the Horton-Vlach Fund for American Studies
Emeritus Professor John Vlach (right) was honored at the reception launching the Horton-Vlach Fund for American Studies.

The Horton-Vlach Fund supplements a broad range of scholarship, from faculty and student research to public events and educational enrichment activities. The fund was launched in 2014 to honor two former professors in American Studies, James Horton and John Vlach, for their extraordinary research and teaching legacies.

Support the Horton-Vlach Fund

 



Horton-Vlach Research Trip Spotlight

Thanks to a generous donation from the Jeffrey Kasch Foundation that was contributed to the Horton-Vlach Fund, many of our doctoral students have conducted breakthrough research around the globe.

 

GJ Sevillano

PhD candidate GJ Sevillano used their funding to digitize cookbooks, recipes, and other important ephemera. The funds also allowed Sevillano to develop a presentation for the Association for Asian American Studies Conference based on a chapter of their dissertation.

 

Maddie House-Tuck

PhD candidate Maddie House-Tuck used her funding to visit archives at the Milwaukee County Historical Society, Milwaukee Public Library, University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, and more.

Aryn Kelly

PhD candidate Aryn Kelly visited the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts’ collection of ephemera relating to the 1939 production of The Hot Mikado