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congrats 2026 grads!

Graduation 2026


Please join the Department of Anthropology in congratulating our Class of 2026! 

A message from Dietrich Stout, Anthropology Department Chair:

"Congratulations!

On behalf of the Department of Anthropology, I want to say how proud we are of your many
achievements during your me here at Emory. We wish you the very best as you move forward with your careers
and hope that you will stay in touch with us. You are part of our community and we would love to hear from you!

With all my best wishes.
Dietrich Stout,
Professor and Chair, Anthropology"

Class of 2026

Daniela Adler

Jyoti Alaparthi

Rachel Alpert-Wisnia

Abby Brown

Kyra Sydney Caldwell

Sophia Castro

Isabella Colindres

Mahliet Demissie

Kailey Diatikar

Tess Enemark

Karina Esquer Amezcua

Laila Farmer

Anvitha Gadipudi

Lucy Gardner

Alina Glass

Sara Gotkin

Arayah Hampton

Richmond Hodo

Montana Jackson

Alyssa Jang

Joam Jeannite

Silmi Jiwani

Alya Khoury

Bliss Kim

Roaa Kordeir

Sia Kripalani

Olivia Landever

Evelyn LeDesma

Matthew Lee

Nica Leung

Amy Lin

Theodore Lin

Ann Liu

Andrea Lopez

Claire McGovern

Saanvi Nayar

Lilian Nguyen

Shwetha Nidyanandh

Zuri Omari-Muhammad

Akshay Padala

Amal Panjwani

Padraig Pantoja

Nikki Patterson

Nicole Paula

Dylan Plemper

Srinidhi Prasad

Nacole Rhodes

Abby Rollins

Melina Ross

Ariana Rossuck

Paul Saah Jr.

Fatima Safdar

Che Skeete

Ava Sklar

Daniel Sorungbe

Srinivas Sowmiyanarayanan

Madeleine Szabo

Camlyn Takahashi

Dakota Taufeeq

Natu Tewelde

Aditi Thakare

Sasha Trukhnova

Elyssa Wagshal

Amaris Watts

Ellen White

Meadow Worthley

Fei Xu

Tom Zhang

Jackie Zhou

Sasha Tycko

Kristin Buhrow

SJ Dillon

Rusen Bingul

Honors and Awards Recipients

Learn more about our Anthropology Student Awards and Honors Students! For award descriptions and past winners, check out our Departmental Awards webpage.

2026 Anthropology Student Awards

The Anthropology Department is pleased to announce our 2025 student award winners!  Undergraduate awards were presented at our annual Honors and Awards Ceremony on Friday, April 25. We are so proud of our many impressive students. Please join us in congratulating them!

Outstanding Senior Award: Theo Lin

Outstanding Junior Award: Anna Yego, Carily Aikens, Peri Rhoads

Trevor E. Stokol Scholarship(awarded for 2026-27): Nellie Gregg

Marjorie Shostak Award, Undergraduate: Sasha Trukhnova

Marjorie Shostak Award, Graduate: Jo Abillama

George Armelagos Award: SJ Dillion

 

Read more about this year’s honors students and their projects on our 2026 Honors Students page.

Honors Students 

Name: Mahliet Demissie

Major: Anthropology & Human Bio (BS)
Title of Honors Thesis: The Sacred Plate: Food, Faith and Limits of Secular Dietary Labels in Ethiopian Orthodox Tsom
Advisor: Dr. Jessica Ham
 
Name: Theo Lin
Major: Anthropology and Human Biology (BS)
Title of Honors Thesis: Hominin population connectivity and isolation across the Mid-Pleistocene Transition: Toward an application of density-based spatial clustering in understanding mechanisms of hominin macroevolution
Advisor: Dr. Laura van Holstein
 
Name: Che Skeete
Major: Anthropology and Human Biology (BS)
Title of Honors Thesis: Roots: An Ethnobotanical Inquiry Into the Maintenance of Barbadian Plant Medicines from the Era of Enslavement in Present-day Barbadians
Advisor:
Dr. Cassandra Quave
 
Name: Daniel Sorungbe
Major: Anthropology & Human Bio (BS)
Title of Honors Thesis:
YOUPHORIA: Multimodal Experience in Rave, Religion, and Personal Inquary
Advisor: 
Dr. Debra Vidali
 
Name:Aditi Thakare
Major:
 Anthropology and Human Biology (BS)
Title of Honors Thesis: The Role of NADPH Oxidase 4 (NOX4) in the Regulation of Cardiac Fibrosis in Heart Failure
Advisor:
Michael A. Burke, MD
 
Name:Sasha Trukhnova
Major: 
Anthropology (BA)
Title of Honors Thesis:
Kitchens of Becoming: Gender, Foodwork, and Transformation in Morocco
Advisor:
Dr. Peter Little
 
Name: Tom Zhang
Major: 
Anthropology (BA)
Title of Honors Thesis: The Unstable Anchor: Navigating Tradition, Chineseness, and Moral Life Among Guangzhou College Youth

Advisor:
 Dr. Sarah Rodriguez
  
Name: Jackie Zhou
Major: 
Anthropology and Human Biology (BS)
Title of Honors Thesis: Deconstructing Sexuality in Primates: Analyzing Same-Sex Sexual Behavior in Wild White-faced Capuchins in Guanacaste, Costa Rica

Advisor:
 Dr. Marcela Benitez

Lambda Alpha is the national honors society for anthropology.  Members must be juniors or seniors, have completed at least 14 credits of Anthropology coursework, and meet GPA requirements.

Jyoti Alaparthi

Vinay Devulapalli

Karina Esquer-Amezcua

Lucy Gardner

Alina Marie Glass

Silmi Jiwani

Olivia Landever

Xinyu Liu

Amal Panjwani

Padraig Pantoja

Srinidhi Prasad

Madeline Szabo