The Claremont Colleges Library has selected the winners of its 11th Annual Library Undergraduate Research Award (LURA). Students who demonstrate exemplary original research and scholarship, including remarkable skill and creativity in the use of library and information resources, receive recognition and cash prizes ranging from $500 to $1,500 for their work.
The Library received submissions from nearly all undergraduate institutions of The Claremont Colleges (TCC) consortium in 2024. From this year’s outstanding submissions, the 2024 LURA winners are:
Senior Award ($750)
Derik Suria, Claremont McKenna College
Paper Title: Divided by Design? Urban Renewal’s Differential Impacts on Economic Outcomes by Race
Faculty Sponsor: Tamara Venit-Shelton, Claremont McKenna College
Junior Award ($500)
Xuehuai He, Pomona College
Paper Title: The Grammar of Approximating Number Pairs (ANPs) in Mandarin Chinese
Faculty Sponsor: Mary Paster, Pomona College
Sophomore Award ($500)
Arenaria Cramer, Pomona College
Paper Title: Indigenous Labor and Survival on the Colonial Pacific Coast, 1740-1849
Faculty Sponsor: Preston McBride, Pomona College
First-Year Award ($500)
Becca Choe, Pomona College
Paper Title: Korean America: Korean Diasporic Movements in Los Angeles Throughout the 20th and 21st Century
Faculty Sponsor: George Gorse, Pomona College
Group Project Award ($1,500)
Daniel Bonilla, Pitzer College
Sophia Lore, Pitzer College
McKayla Khatija Proulx, Pomona College
Bertha M. Posada Villanueva, Pitzer College
Paper Title: Halophilic Diversity in the Salton Sea: Identifying Resiliency and Abundance in Extremophiles Across Salt Gradients
Faculty Sponsor: Jason Tor, Keck Science
An awards ceremony to honor the winners will be held on Friday, April 19, 2024 at 4:15 p.m. in the Library’s Founders Room. While friends, family and associated faculty of the winners are encouraged to attend, this is also a great opportunity for students across TCC to draw inspiration from the winners’ projects — especially as finals season approaches! Community members are also welcome to attend to gain some insight into the ongoing research taking place in the “City of Trees and PhDs”. Please note that light refreshments will be available starting at 4 p.m. There will also be an opportunity to chat with Library staff after the ceremony to learn more about available Library services and resources.
Library staff is humbled and honored to support the research efforts of all TCC students and, through LURA, recognize their outstanding work. Since its start in 2014, LURA has generated the publication of 61 student research projects through TCC”s institutional repository Scholarship@Claremont, which have contributed to a wide array of academic fields. As a testament to the quality nature of these projects, these winning and honorable mention papers have been downloaded more than 41,500 times from readers around the world — from Seattle, Washington to Piscataway, New Jersey, and all the way to the likes of Germany, Kenya the Philippines and beyond.
Undergraduate students from across the consortium have the opportunity to apply for LURA every year. This means that students are likely already hard at work on 2025 submissions and discovering new things to add to the world.
Visit the LURA webpage for additional information. Questions about LURA, including the awards ceremony and application process, can be directed to libraryresearchaward@claremont.edu.