Dr. Ben Waddell  has just been awarded UNM’s major prize for best dissertation — the 2016 Tom L. Popejoy Dissertation Award. The Popejoy Award is given on a rotating basis; this year was for best dissertation in any social science discipline from the last 3 years. Dr. Waddell won  for “The Political Economy of Remittance-led Development in Guanajuato, Mexico,” his outstanding 2013 dissertation in the UNM Department of Sociology combining ethnographic and statistical analysis of the political economy of immigrant remittance impact on ‘sending communities’ in that state of Mexico. His committee was Dr. Richard L. Wood (chair), Dr. Matias Fontenla (Economics, essentially serving as co-chair), Dr. Bob Fiala (Sociology), and Dr. Manuel Garcia y Griego (History) — but this award is all Ben’s, for sure. Dr. Waddell now serves on the Sociology faculty at Adams State University (Alamosa, Colorado). For an overview of his dissertation and full nomination , click here. 

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Waddell — a terrific honor, well deserved. And thanks to the UNM Office of Graduate Studies and those who reviewed the nominated dissertations, on behalf of the Department of Sociology.