Five students in the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies (MALS) program at the Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies have been honored with thesis excellence awards, and a sixth received recognition for distinguished service, at this year's Investiture Ceremony. F. Jon Kull, dean of the Guarini School, presented all six awards.
The Byam Shaw-Brownstone Thesis Excellence Award recognizes outstanding work across four MALS concentrations. This year's recipients are:
- Charles Butler, Guarini '26 (General Liberal Studies), The Thinnest Veil: a narrative that uses one woman's story to examine the transatlantic slave trade and the redemptive power of love and personal determination.
- Abigail Dollries, Guarini '26 (Cultural Studies), Aestheticizing and Engendering Disease: The Case of Tuberculosis: an interdisciplinary examination of tuberculosis patients in 19th century America through cultural studies and the medical humanities.
- Stephen Marchand, Guarini '26 (Creative Writing, Fiction), ILL: a vivid, hallucinatory novel about a high school teacher on sabbatical in Lisbon, Portugal with his wife, grappling with an undiagnosed illness.
- Denisse Rojas Maldonado, Guarini '26 (Globalization Studies), Anatomy of an A.I. Arms Race: The U.S. and China Technological Dispute for A.I. Leadership: an analysis of the strategic competition between the United States and China in artificial intelligence development, highlighting one of today's defining geopolitical challenges.
- Reng Zhao, Guarini '26 (Creative Writing, Nonfiction), The Flow of Ink: A Journey through Calligraphy, Culture, and the Self: a memoir weaving fieldwork and Chinese history into a 5,000-year exploration of Chinese calligraphy and its cultural significance.
In addition to the thesis awards, Kull presented the Privitera Family Distinguished Service Award to Caden Ide, Guarini '26, recognized for academic excellence, a selfless communal spirit, and outstanding leadership. During his time in the MALS program, Ide presided over both the Dartmouth Writers Society and the editorial board of Clamantis, the MALS literary journal.
Congratulations to all six recipients.
