Earning global undergraduate honours
The Faculty of Arts and Science was well represented when this year鈥檚 Global Undergraduate Awards were announced. Leading the way was Damai (Kai) Siallagan who earned a Global Award in the Politics and International Relations category for his paper Our Savages : A Comparative Study of Canadian Media Coverage of the Occupations of Palestine and Western New Guinea.
Since 2015, Queen鈥檚 University has only had two other Global Winners.
For his efforts, Siallagan earns a Gold Medal and a Certificate of Recognition, publication of his winning submission on The Undergraduate Library, and fully funded travel to attend the in Dublin, Ireland starting November 13.
鈥淭hroughout my time at Queen鈥檚, I often felt that the issues I cared about deeply were unimportant to those around me, while the topics on everyone鈥檚 tongues were those that I knew little about,鈥 says Siallagan. 鈥淚t was challenging to find common ground between subjects that mattered to me and those that resonated with others. My winning research paper bridged that gap, echoing the imperative for solidarities between oppressed peoples in Palestine, Indonesia, and globally.鈥
鈥淭his award also offers me the great honour of carrying the histories of my family and my people to a global venue,鈥 he adds. 鈥淢y grandparents came from farming backgrounds. Until relatively recently, the clan name Siallagan was only ever heard amongst a few villages in rural Sumatra. I hope to honour the vastness of my ancestors鈥 lives as I bring their memory to the Global Summit, and that venues like the Summit continue to hold space for ever-more diverse histories.鈥
The Global Undergraduate Awards is the world鈥檚 leading undergraduate awards programme which recognizes top undergraduate work, shares this work with a global audience, and connects students across cultures and disciplines.
Every year, the Undergraduate Awards coordinates an awards program for penultimate and final year undergraduate students, as well as students who have graduated within the program year. Entrants can submit their work to one of our 25 categories, which represent a broad range of academic disciplines. The best 10 per cent of work is shortlisted as Highly Commended, and the top submission in each category is deemed the Global Winner.
Other winners from FAS include:
Regional Winner 鈥 The Americas
- Linguistics 鈥 Corey Page Martin | Queen鈥檚 University at Kingston
Highly Commended Award winners
Art History & Theory
- Xinyi Yue | Queen鈥檚 University at Kingston (two entries)
History
- Alexia Platt | Queen鈥檚 University at Kingston
Politics and International Relations
- Margaret Cavanagh | Queen鈥檚 University at Kingston
Psychology
- Grace Armstrong | 成人大片 at Kingston
Social Sciences: Sociology & Social Policy
- (Margaret) Jitong Shen | Queen鈥檚 University at Kingston (two entries)
Visual Arts
- Della Vaz | Queen鈥檚 University at Kingston
Learn more about the awards on the .