Four 2026 Hoopes Prize–Winning Projects Emerge from Harvard Anthropology
The Department of Anthropology at Harvard University is delighted to share that four undergraduate projects connected to the department have been recognized with the 2026 Thomas Temple Hoopes Prize, an award honoring exceptional scholarly work and research.
This year’s recognized projects reflect the breadth and vitality of anthropological inquiry:
- Thea Ellis Chung, for “‘Heart to Heart’: Caregiving Relationships Between the Doulas and Mothers of Elmhurst, Queens,” supervised and nominated by Professor Byron Good.
- Elisabeth Thanh An Ngo, for “Aztec Tradition, Contemporary Trouble: The Rise and Degradation of Chinampa Agriculture in the Basin of Mexico,” supervised and nominated by Professor William Fash.
- Summer Anastasia Lin Tan, for “‘Goodbye to My Chinese Spy’: Affective Infrastructure, the TikTok Ban, and the Gen Z Countermyth,” supervised and nominated by Professor Moira Weigel and Ms. Gangsim Eom.
- Tsering Yangchen, for “The Next Pulse: The Forms and Speculative Worlds of Tibetan Medicine in New York City,” supervised and nominated by Professor Michael Puett.
Established through the estate of Thomas T. Hoopes (Class of 1919), the Hoopes Prize recognizes outstanding undergraduate achievement across disciplines and seeks to promote excellence in research and teaching under faculty mentorship.
Each student recipient is awarded $5,000, and faculty nominators receive $2,000 in recognition of their guidance. Winning projects are bound and made available in Lamont Library for two years.
We warmly congratulate all of the students and faculty involved in these exceptional projects.