Announcing the 2023 Shansi Prize Winners
Oberlin Shansi would like to congratulate Abhisri Nath ‘23 and Parker Niles ‘23 on winning the 2023 Shansi Prize.
Parker Niles ‘23
Shansi received an impressive pool of nominations from various academic disciplines and found it difficult to award the prize to just one winner. This is the second year in a row we’ve had two Shansi Prize winners, with last year’s awardees being Noah Kawaguchi ‘22 and Yan Lou ‘22.
Nath and Niles were selected this year as joint winners for the prize which recognizes the work of a graduating senior that demonstrates an exceptional understanding of an aspect of Asia and is based on the values of mutual understanding, respect and learning.
Abhisri Nath ‘23
Both awardees' works did just this. Abhisri Nath’s senior thesis for the politics department analyzes aspects of the Taliban’s political use of ethnic and religious identity in Afghanistan, a 108-page work completed under the guidance of Dr. Rudabeh Shahid, Visiting Assistant Professor of Politics.
Parker Niles’s impressive honors capstone project “Buddha in a Box: Exploring Museum and Ritual Meanings of Animate Himalayan Sculpture,” was nominated by Dr. Emilia Bachrach, Assistant Professor of Religion and Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies and merited recognition as well, especially for the role it has played in the Allen Memorial Art Museum’s reinstallation of its Himalayan buddha statues.
You can read more about Niles’s and Nath’s works on the Shansi Prize page.