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Undergraduate Program


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Undergraduate Awards

(photo of Uris Hall)

External Awards

From time to time our undergraduates are honored by others. This is a partial list of the many awards earned by Sociology undergraduates.

2013 Joanna Smith Truman Fellowship Recipient

Leo Meltzer Award

This award was established many years ago to celebrate the contributions of Professor Leo Meltzer to this Department, which he served from 1963 until 1990. Professor Meltzer was a distinguished scholar, an internationally recognized social psychologist, a wonderful colleague, and a dedicated teacher at Cornell. In light of Dr. Meltzer's devotion to undergraduate education, his colleagues and family established an award to honor the best undergraduate thesis in the field of social psychology, broadly defined.

2004 Megan Kamil "The Relationship Between Trust and Reputation "
2004 Lauren Polakoff "Gender Roles and Gender's Role: Gender in Advertising"
2005 Heather Ferguson "What Messages Do Your Children's Books Hold: Predominant Themes In Award Winning And Best Selling Children's Picture Books From Twentieth Century America"
2005 Kaprisha Cressel "Alternative Career Choices For Nevada Women: Exotic Dancers in Las Vegas"
2006 Shana Platz "Hearing the Voices of Abused and Neglected Children: An Examination of Representation for Children in Protection Proceedings and the Implications for Child Welfare"
2007 Christopher Frank “Hegemonic Masculinity and Same-sex Friendships”
2008 Christy Kidner “ 'Looks' Like She Means Business: Appearance Norm Conformity and Women's Occupational Aspirations”
2009 Shanel Fields “The Self-Segregation of African American Students on the Cornell Campus”
2010 Meaghan McMahon “An Institutional Analysis of the Green House Project and its Transformation of Long-Term Care for the Elders”
2011 Dayna Zolle “Gender and Judicial Decision Making: An Examination of Supreme Court Opinion in Sex Discrimination Cases (1961-2005)”
2012 Bethany Nichols “The Black-White Gap in Educational Confidence and Spending Preferences”
2013 Zoe Wong “Making a Difference vs. Making Money: Social Value Orientation as a Predictor of College Students' Career Motivations”

The Robert Wertheimer Award

Robert Wertheimer is a former sociology major who graduated with honors in sociology. He remains devoted to both the field of sociology, to the Cornell Sociology department, and to the University. As a tribute to his contributions, the department recently established a prize for the best paper or thesis outside the field of social psychology (and hence not eligible for the Meltzer award).

2004 Freya Estreller "I was a Door-to-Door Salesman: An Ethnographic Examination of the Organizational Structure and Culture of a Direct Sales and Marketing Firm"
2004 Asa Wilks "The Spatial Concentration of Affluence in Urban America, 1990-2000"
2005 Sarah Lee "Same Only Story in the "New" South Africa: Post-apartheid Racial and Gender Inequality"
2006 Elizabeth Becker "Kosovar Political Migrants and Narration of the Nation: Homeland Cosmopolitans and Ethnic Chauvinists Abroad"
2007 Anny Fenton “The Motivations Behind the Rise in Nationalist Party Support in London Over the Past Decade”
2008 Marielle Macher “Immigrant Farmworker Social Integration in Rural New York”
2009 Jeffrey Javed “Legal-Institutionalism, Political Opportunities, and Environmental Contention in Post-Mao China”
2010 Kimberly Leung Awarded for having the highest GPA.
2011 Theodore Leenman “Class Congruence: Regularity and Control in the Home and Classroom”
2012 Harrison Warren “A Puzzling Silence: Understanding Honor and Omeritá in Sicily”
2013 Visha Meyer “Neighborhood Disorder and Fear in a College Town: A Study of the Role of Shared Organizational Affiliation”

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