The ASCE Student Prize Award

Previous Recipients

For a number of years, ASCE has sponsored a prize, consisting of a small stipend, for the best undergraduate or graduate paper on Cuban economic issues. Every year, the ASCE Student Award Committee accepts nominations for the "Annual Jorge Pérez-López Student Award Competition."

Anyone can nominate original papers authored by undergraduate and graduate students in good standing. The papers should address topics related to Cuba's domestic issues, its foreign relations, Cuban-Americans or Cuba in comparative perspectives.

Since its inception, this prize has been awarded to the following individuals and their papers have been published in the Association's Annual Proceedings. Copies are available electronically in our web page.

• 2011: Graduate: First Prize: Max Fitzpatrick, University of New Mexico; Second Place: Alissa Bernstein, UC-Berkeley; Third Place: Hannah Champion, Queen's University.
  Undergraduate: First Prize: John Cairncross, Queen's University; Second Place: Nelson Perez and Roberto Jimenez, Florida International University; Third Place: Jose Vazquez, Georgetown University.
• 2010: Graduate: First Prize: Michael Aranda, Florida International University, "The Evolution of the Cuban Military: A Comparative Look at the FAR with the Bureaucratic-Authoritarian Model of South America." Orlando Villaverde, Nova University, "A Macroeconomic Approach to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Inflow from the People's Republic of China to Cuba."
  Undergraduate: Natalie Kitroeff, Princeton University, "La desigualdad en Cuba. El color cuenta." Maria Carla Chicuen, Harvard University, "Our men in Europe: Cuba's Commercial and Diplomatic Relations with Spain and Great Britain, 1959-1964."
• 2009: Graduate: Brenden Carbonell, University of Pennsylvania Law School, "Cuban Corporatism: Batista's Three-Year Plan and a Nation Betrayed." Ana Cristina Maldonado "Legal Dissent: Constitutional Proposals for "Cambio" in Cuba" Silvia Dreher, University of North Basel ( Switzerland), "Monetary Policy in Cuba." Christian Santiago Patiño, Georgetown University, "Cuba's Sugar Dilemma: The Prospects for a Green Future." Rachel Alt, City University of New York, "Cuba's Tourism and its Effects on the Import Sectors."
• 2008: Graduate: First Prize: Laura García Freyre, Universidad Nacional de México, "De la Iglesia a la Plaza: Las Damas de Blanco y la lucha por el espacio público en La Habana." José Carreras Timoneda, University of Arizona, "Dollar Diplomacy: Fallacies and Consequences of Foreign Investment in Cuba 1909-1924."
• 2007: Undergraduate: Brenden M. Carbonell, Yale University, "FAR from Perfect: The Cuban Military and the Potential for Corporatism in Post-Communist Cuba." Matthew Craig, University of North Carolina, "Making Sense of Dissidence and Repression in Cuba: A Game Theoretic Analysis."
• 2006: Graduate: First Prize: Elizabeth Kath, School of Political Science and International Studies, The University of Queensland, Australia, "Cuba's Proactive Approach to Healthcare."
  Undergraduate: Kelsey Vidaillet, University of Wisconsin, "Violations of freedom of the Press in Cuba: 1952–1969."
• 2005: Graduate: First Prize: Lindsey Frank, Fordham University School of Law, "Maintaining Its Commitment: A Focus on Economic, Social and Cultural Human Rights in Cuba's New Foreign Investment Law"
  Undergraduate: Enrique Romero, El Colegio de México, "Demystifying a Bilateral relation: Rise and Fall of the Mexican-Cuban Political Understanding."
• 2004: Graduate: First Prize: David Penny, Oxford University, UK, "Castro's Cuba: Ideological Themes in Rhetoric" and Andrea Colantonio, University of Readings, UK, "Tourism in Havana during the Special Period: Impacts, Resident's Perceptions and Planning Issues."
  Undergraduate: Kezia McKeague, Wake Forest University, "Institutional Continuity in Cuba: Predicting the Legacy of Communist Institutions in a Democratic Transition." First Honors: Cynthia Romero,Princeton University, "The Communist Reformation: Retrospective Views of Gorbachev and the Fall of the Soviet Union."
• 2003: Graduate: Catherine Caouette, University of Virginia, for her essay "The Politicization of Cuban Healthcare"; First Honorary Mention: Gisela Fosado, University of Michigan, "A Women's Journey into the World of Male Sex in Cuba." Second Honorary Mention: Kristin Sorensen, Indiana University, "Post Revolutionary Cuban Cinema: A Historical Analysis."
  Undergraduate: Sarah Kleiner, Barnard College, for her essay "Economics and Desire: Sex and Power in Cuba"; First Honorary Mention: Robin Ghertner, Wesleyan University, "Rumba and the International Music and Tourist Industry"; Second Honorary Mention: Eric C. Lincoln, Georgetown University, for "Observations on Direct Investment in Cuba, 1994–2003."
• 2002: Ted Henken, Tulane University, for his essay on "A Taste of Capitalism: The Rise and Fall of Havana's Private Restaurants Paladares)".
• 2000: Two prizes were awarded: Charles Trumbull, Darmouth College, for his essay on "Social Contradictions in Cuba" and Feliza Medrano, University of New Mexico, for her essay on "Ni chicha ni limonada: Depictions of the Mulatto Woman in Cuban Tobacco Art."
• 1997: Yosem Companys, Yale University, for his essay on "Institution Building: A Regulatory and Supervisory Framework for Cuba's Financial Sector Reform."
• 1996: Félix Blanco Godínez, Drew University, for his essay on "The Cuban Revolution: A Socio-Economic and Political Analysis of the System."
• 1994: Ivette Marie Barbeite, University of Miami, for her essay on "Economic Outlook for Cuba After Castro, Emphasis on the Sugar and Tourism Industries."
• 1993: Joshua Himes, University of Pennsylvania, for his essay on "Cuban Development and the Sugar Economy."