Near Eastern Studies held its 2025 Class Day reception in Aaron Burr 219 on May 26, 2025. During the celebration, the Department announced departmental honors and presented this year’s prize winners. Following introductory remarks by Chair Şükrü Hanioğlu, Director of Undergraduate Studies Michael Reynolds spoke about the NES major and announced the prizes.
The winner of the Bayard and Cleveland Dodge Memorial Thesis Prize was Noura Shoukfeh for her senior thesis, “Palestinian Representation Online: Social Media & Israel’s Genocide in Gaza (October 2023–March 2025).” Her advisor, Lara Harb, briefly spoke about the thesis. The Near Eastern Studies Department Prize for an Outstanding Senior Thesis was awarded to Jonathan Rosenberg for his thesis, “Diplomacy for the Holy Land: Vatican Engagement with British-Controlled Palestine, 1917–1922,” which was advised by Jonathan Gribetz, who also described the thesis to the assembled family members and friends. Genevieve Cox won the Program in Near Eastern Studies Senior Thesis Prize for her thesis, “A Mystical Strategy to Counter Extremism: State Support of Sufism in the Muslim World.” Parker Summerhill was awarded the Ertegün Foundation Prize for his thesis, “Exporting the 8,000th Vintage: Assessing the Georgian Government’s Culpability in Its Wine Industry’s Continued Dependence on Exports to Russia.”
Reynolds also announced the departmental honors with Jonathan Rosenberg earning highest honors; Noura Shoukfeh and Parker Summerhill earning high honors; and Madison Qualls earning honors.
Next, Senior Lecturer Gregory Bell presented the language prizes. The Near Eastern Studies Senior Language Prize for Overall Achievement in Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, or Turkish was awarded to Rawand Aziz, and the Judith Laffan Memorial Prize for Outstanding Progress and Dedication to the Arabic Language was shared by Mitchell Czarnecki ’28 and Weston Richards ’28.
Director of Graduate Studies Lara Harb then presented the Bayard and Cleveland Dodge Memorial Prize for PhD Dissertation to Rami Koujah for “Rights, Responsibility, and the Legal Construction of the Human: An Intellectual History of Personhood in Islamic Law,” advised by Hossein Modarressi.