April – 2025
2025 RELIGION DEPARTMENT AWARD RECIPIENTS:
Paul B. Courtright Prize for Overall Excellence among Majors in the Department:
- Yijin Li
John Fenton Prize in the Comparative Study of Religion, Undergraduate:
- Paige Scanlon
John Fenton Prize in the Comparative Study of Religion, Graduate Division
- Mujahid Osman
Eugene Bianchi Prize in Religion:
- Matthew Veerasammy
Eugene Bianchi Prize in Religion – Honorable Mention:
- Sherlyn Shao
Congratulations to Eli Li for completing Honors with High Honors.
Thesis: “Karma, Rebirth, and Buddhist Identity: Historical Developments and Contemporary Debates”
Congratulations to Sherlyn Shao for completing Honors with Highest Honors.
Thesis: “Seeking New Belief: Yijing Divination for Predicting Stock Market Movement in the Black Swan Event of COVID-19”
We are also happy to announce this year’s Beardslee Prize in Religious Literature Recipients:
1st Place: Matthew Veerasammy, for their paper: “The Worship of the Divine Mother: Through the Eyes of the Guyanese Diaspora”
2nd Place: Catherine Yan, for their paper: “Pellegrini’s Religious Tolerance & Scheppele’s Autocratic Legalism: Analyzing China’s Secularization & Game Theory Applications of Plausible Ways Forward
The Department of Religion thanks every student that submitted papers for our Annual William A. Beardslee Literature submission.
Congratulations to the 2025 Theta Alpha Kappa (TAK), The National Honor Society for Religious Studies and Theology Inductees:
- Kate Bright
- Samuel Chao
- Natalie Garcia-Ramos
- Sarah Lim
- Nico Morris-Fry
- Jackson Petroske
- Eunjae Thompson
- Matthew Veerasammy
- Lauren Yee
- Cece York