Outstanding Thesis Award

The Liberal Arts Honors Program sponsors an annual LAH Outstanding Thesis Award. Two winners will be selected – one from a Humanities discipline and one from a Social Science discipline. Each winner will receive $5,000. The award is open to all Liberal Arts Plan 1 majors. We ask that each department nominate one student who is writing a thesis to earn departmental honors and is not double majoring in Plan II. Theses completed in the previous fall or this Spring are eligible for nomination.

The nominated student or the department should submit the following:

• 1,500-word project summary of thesis with student’s name, EID, and department
• Copy of full thesis
• Department letter of recommendation

Theses will be evaluated on the following criteria:

• Clarity of writing
• Quality of analysis
• Originality
• Contribution to the field

All materials should be uploaded to the following folder as a Word or PDF file:  LAH Outstanding Thesis Submission

The deadline for submission is Monday, April 27, 2026. Only completed nominations will be reviewed. If you have any questions, please contact Lahscholarships@austin.utexas.edu.

 

Previous Winners

2025 for Humanities: Elijah Kahlenberg, Middle Eastern Studies, Government, and Jewish Studies, LAH Scholars

2025 for Social Sciences: Laura Yon, Economics and Asian Cultures & Languages

2024 for Humanities: Sam Mills, Asian Studies and IRG

2024 for Social Sciences: Mishell Magnus Ducloux, Humanities Honors and French 

2023 for Humanities: Elexis Wiebe, Humanities Honors

2023 for Social Sciences: Sarah Syamken, IRG and Spanish & Portuguese, LAH Scholars

2022 for Humanities: John Prado, Linguistics and Classics, LAH Scholars

2022 for Social Sciences: Brooke Jones, Economics, College Honors

2019 for Humanities: Sarah Ahmed, IRG and Middle Eastern Studies

2019 for Social Science: Odera Okafor, Anthropology, LAH Scholars

2018 for Humanities: Anton Ermakov, History, LAH Scholars

2018 for Social Science, Annie Elledge. IRG and Government