2025

Graduate

• First Place: Manuel F Perez Archila, Princeton University, Ph.D. Candidate

• Second Place: Laurin Chapon, Sorbonne Nouvelle University, Ph.D. Candidate

  Undergraduate

• First Place: Ryan Jones, New York University, B.S. Sociology.

• Second Place: Richard "Rex" Crespin, University of Georgia, BBA Finance and International Business

 

2020

Graduate

• First Place: Adriana Vitagliano, Oxford University – “Remittances and Protest: The Case of Cuba.”

• Second Place: Denisse Delgado, University of Massachusetts Boston – “The Cuban Diaspora's Participation in the Economic and Political Changes on the Island.”

Undergraduate

• First Place: Isabelle DeSisto, Harvard University – “Atoms for Autonomy: Explaining the Cuban Reaction to the Chernobyl Nuclear Accident.”

 

2018

Graduate

• First Place: Tamarys Bahamonde, University of Delaware, “Mercado Laboral Cubano: Distorciones y Retos”

• Second Place: Miranda Garcia, University of Michigan, “Cuban Stuff: Material Culture and the Cuban-American Imaginary”

Undergraduate

• First Place: Roberto Felipe Veloso, Instituto de Estudios Esclesiásticos Padre Félix Varela, Cuba, “La economía de comunión como una forma de emprendimiento en Cuba”

 

2017

Graduate

• First Place: Pablo Boorsman-Mendoza from Utrecht University (Netherlands), won for his paper on “Peripheral Ideas that Won’t Fly: EU Foreign Policy Decisions on Cuba and US Influence.”

• Second Place: There was a tie for second place in the graduate category.  These papers were presented by Julie Rausenberger of the University of Louvein (Belgium) whose paper was entitled, “Importing Modernity: Foreign Fashion and Identity-Making in Urban Cuba” and by Kate Gaffney of  New York University whose paper was entitled, “The Destruction of Havana’s Neighborhoods: When Heritage Tourism Becomes a Priority Over Habitable Housing.”

Undergraduate

• First Place: Anthony Bencivengo from Sarah Lawrence College who presented on, “Sembrando la Sostenibilidad.”

 

2016

Graduate

• First Place: Aleida Cobas Valdes, Universidad de La Habana y Universidad del Pais Vasco, Spain, “Cuban Immigrants in the United States: What Determines their Earning Distributions?”  To view her journal article published in Applied Economics, click here.

• Second Place: Anina Jil Uhlig, Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies, Geneva

Undergraduate

• First Place: Nayara Sabrina, Department of Biology, University of Miami and Universidade do Estado do Para, Brazil, “Havana’s Wastewater Treatment Plants: Changes over Time and Estimate Replacement Cost”

• Second Place: Andrew Gillen, New York University

 

2015

Graduate

• First Prize: Paloma Checa Gismero, University of California San Diego

• Second Prize: Lisa Clarke, University of South Florida and Ramon Centeno Sheffield University (UK).

Undergraduate

• First Prize: Kara Sheppard Jones, Yale University

• Second Prize: Chloe Broadfield, University College London

 

2014

Graduate

• First Prize: Roberto González, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, “Underreporting of the Infant Mortality Rates in Cuba”

• Honorable Mention: Rebecca Freeman, John Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, “Gauging the Impact of Cuban Casino Dance in the US”

Undergraduate

• First Prize: Antonio L. Díaz, David Cabrera, and Arturo Cancino, University of Florida, “Evaluation and Design of Algal Growth, Harvest and Utilization for Various Applications in Cuban Infrastructure”

• Honorable Mention: Katrin Márquez, Amherst College, “Conscious, not Collaborators: The Ladies in White as a Case-Study on the Catholic Church’s Non-Threatening Relationship with the Cuban Regime”

 

2013

Graduate

• First: Roberto Armengol University of Virginia

• Second: Jose Fuentes Florida International University

• Third: Leya Mundrake George Mason University

Undergraduate

• First: Eric Bulnes University of Florida (tie)

• First: Emily Snyder University of Florida (tie)

• Second: Jesse Friedman Tulane University

• Third: Julia Radomski University of Pittsburgh (tie)

• Third: Trent Blanchard Arizona State University  (tie)

 

2012

Graduate

• First Prize: J. Horst for his paper entitled “Shantytown Revolution: Slum Clearance, Rent Control, and the Cuban State, 1933–55”

• Second Place: Y. Chen, U. Texas at Austin

• Third Place: F. Cirenza, American University.

Undergraduate

• First Prize: Alex Arias, Jhon Cores, Antonio Díaz, Miguel Morales and William Rodríguez for their joint paper entitled “Evaluation and Design of a Decentralized Alternative to Conventional Wastewater Infrastructure in Cuba”, all from University of Florida

• Second Place: N. Montague, Tulane University

• Third Place: J. Hutt, Harvard University.

 

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.”

• Andrea Colantonio, University of Reading, UK, “Tourism in Havana during the Special Period: Impacts, Residents’ 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”

• 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.”

 

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