Past Chakra Student Paper Prize Recipients
2022
Rhea Swain, Art History, for her paper entitled "Real, Imagined, and Reimagined: Shahzia Sikander’s Early Miniature Self-Portraits"
2021
Malaika Jawed, AMESALL, for her paper entitled "Self in the Lover"
2017
Vivek Shah, Religion, for his paper entitled "History, Myth, and the Hermeneutics of Time in the South Asian Imaginary"
2016
Saloni Gupta, History and AMESALL, for a chapter from her honors thesis, “TK Adranvala’s Negotiations with Ideological, Social and Political Constraints, 1947–1966.”
Naimi Patel, Philosophy and Religion, for her paper entitled “Sir Charles Wilkins: An Orientalist?”
Honorable Mention
David Sastre, English and Comparative Literature, for his paper entitled “New-Hewn Faces: Baluta and Double Consciousness”
2014
Rashmee Kumar for her paper entitled "The Myth of the “Body Beautiful”: Representation and Commodification in Contemporary American Yoga Culture."
2013
Vakul Gupta, Genetics, SAS, Rutgers University for his paper entitled "Death and Decay in U.R. Anantha Murthy's Samskara: A Rite for a Dead Man"
Honorary Mention
Dimple Shah, Public Health, SAS, Rutgers University for her paper entitled "The Victimized Feminist"
2011-12
Ashley Hussey "Complications in the South Asian Slavery System"
Evangelia Psarakis "Hunter/Lariviere Documents"
Honorary Mentions
Jessica Grollman "The Business of Bodies: Comparing the treatment of slaves in British, French, and Dutch slave colonies from the 17th to 19th Century"
Chelsea Thompson, "The Effects of Imperialism on a Tradition--Based Slave System"
Neha Kagal, "Resources, Bargaining Power and Domestic Violence: An Analysis of a Wastepickers Union"
2010-11
Shruti Devgan, Graduate Student, Department of Sociology, Rutgers University for her paper entitled "Sacred Cyberspaces: Virtual Commemoration and 1984 Anti Sikh Violence"
Honorable Mentions
Rochisha Narayan, Graduate Student, Department of History, Rutgers University for "Reshaping Family and Inheritance in Eighteenth-Century Banaras" and
Sonja Thomas, Department of Women's & Gender Studies, Rutgers University for "Bodies of Difference: Aryan Racial Origins and Sexual Morality."
Our 2008 winners:
Asmi Patel - undergraduate student awarded $250
Manjusha Nair - graduate student awarded $250
The first annual Chakra Fund Student Paper Prizes were awarded in May 2007 to the following students:
First place, graduate student ($250) -- Mona Bhan, doctoral candidate in Anthropology, for the paper entitled, "Border Practices: Labor and Nationalism among the Brogpas of Ladakh (India)."
First place, undergraduate student ($250) -- Kejal Vyas, Journalism and History major at Rutgers-Newark's College of Arts and Sciences, for the paper entitled, "Symbolism in Linguistic Nationalism in 19th and 20th Century India."
Honorable mention, undergraduate student ($100) -- Barjdeep Kaur, Finance major at Rutgers Business School, for the paper entitled, "Femal Feticide in South Asia and How it Manifests Itself in the Past, Present, and Hopefully Not, the Future."
We would like to thank the anonymous donors of the Chakra Endowed Fund, who created the endowment that makes this yearly competition possible.