{"id":168190,"date":"2026-04-17T03:27:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T03:27:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/168190\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T03:27:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T03:27:06","slug":"sas-recognizes-2026-deans-scholars-for-exceptional-academics-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/168190\/","title":{"rendered":"SAS recognizes 2026 Dean\u2019s Scholars for \u2018exceptional\u2019 academics, research"},"content":{"rendered":"

Penn\u2019s School of Arts and Sciences recently recognized 20 students as 2026 Dean\u2019s Scholars.<\/p>\n

The April 1 announcement<\/a> honored undergraduate and graduate students for their \u201cexceptional\u201d academic and research contributions at Penn. Nine seniors in the College of Arts and Sciences were recognized alongside students from the College of Liberal and Professional Studies and the graduate division of SAS.<\/p>\n

Among this year\u2019s recipients is College senior Amanda Rodriguez, an art history and Latin American and Latinx studies double major whose research examines \u201cvisual culture, land, and power through border studies and abolitionist frameworks.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian, Rodriguez explained that her work draws upon experiences growing up along the Texas-Mexico border and focuses on \u201cthe aesthetics of borderlands and the aesthetics of militarized zones.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rodriguez has presented much of her research through photography and other artistic mediums. She noted the significance of recognition for research in the humanities, expressing that receiving the award was meaningful on a personal level.<\/p>\n

Get the DP delivered straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n

Sign Up<\/a><\/p>\n

She added that she has \u201cbeen fortunate enough to be able to juggle\u201d research work with \u201cchallenging\u201d seminar and graduate-level coursework.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really dedicated a majority of my time out of class to my passion for academics and research,\u201d Rodriguez said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

College senior Norah Rami \u2014 a former DP staffer \u2014 was recognized for her work exploring \u201cgender, power, and property through feminist and critical theory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rami explained that she was unaware she \u201cwas up for this award\u201d until she received it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not something that I specifically applied to,\u201d she added, emphasizing that receiving a faculty nomination made the recognition particularly meaningful.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen someone else says that they want you to win the prize and they are the one throwing your name in the ring, I think that really means a lot,\u201d Rami said.<\/p>\n

Rami\u2019s senior thesis and prior research projects have focused on work in political theory where she examined image rights, autonomy, and identity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt particularly centered around image rights as they apply to intimate images, and the way in which a property right ownership in those images can undermine the subject autonomy and ability to create their own identity,\u201d Rami explained.<\/p>\n

She told the DP that her academic experience focused on intellectual exploration, adding that her time at Penn has been \u201ca chance to learn and academically immerse\u201d herself.<\/p>\n

Rami added that she was \u201cnot really thinking\u201d about the recognition \u201cas a resume checkpoint,\u201d but rather as a \u201cnice thing to have.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the awards are really nice as affirmation for the work that you do, and they’re not an incentive with their affirmation,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Penn\u2019s School of Arts and Sciences recently recognized 20 students as 2026 Dean\u2019s Scholars. The April 1 announcement…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70],"class_list":{"0":"post-168190","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-philadelphia","9":"tag-philadelphia-headlines","10":"tag-philadelphia-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}