Libraries' Announce 2023 Information Literacy Award Winners | University of Texas Libraries

first place info lit award winner Aira Balasubramanian with dean of undergraduate studies Richard Reddick

Wednesday, May 3, 2023

The University of Texas Libraries recently announced the winners of the 2023 Signature Course Information Literacy Award.

The award – administered by the Libraries’ Teaching and Learning Services (TLS) – recognizes exemplary student work that achieves the information literacy learning outcomes of Signature Courses: the ability to find, evaluate, correctly cite, and synthesize sources into their research projects. A panel of librarians and staff from Undergraduate Studies and the Writing Flag office chose four winners who best demonstrated these skills from faculty-nominated and self-nominated submissions. This award comes with a cash prize for 1^st-3^rd place.

This year, the first place winner is Aira Balasubramanian, who wrote “Pots, Pans, and Pussyhats: The Impacts and Ethics of Feminist Protest Tools” in Arturo De Lozanne’s UGS 303 course Originality in the Arts and Sciences. Second place was awarded to Cindy Du, who wrote "An Investigation into P&G's Coconut Oil Supply Chain," in Kirsta Melton's UGS 303 course Modern Day Slavery. Third place winner Caitlyn Kung's "New York City Bitch: Linguistic Appropriation and Awkwafina's Negotiation of Ethnic Identity Through Rap," came from Almeida Toribio's UGS 303 course Language and Ethnic Identity. Bhanu Sharma's paper, "A Final Nail in the Coffin: The Destruction of Houston's Minority Owned Restaurants," from Irene Rosetto's UGS 303 course Afro Entrepreneurship won an honorable mention.

first place info lit award winner Cindy Du with dean of undergraduate studies Richard Reddick

TLS partners with the Center for Skills and Experience Flags and the Writing Flag Coordinator, George Schorn, on the Undergraduate Research and Writing Awards ceremony, where we honor the winners of the Signature Course Information Literacy Award and the Writing Flag Awards. This year's ceremony, held on April 5, featured Undergraduate Studies Dean Rich Reddick and Libraries’ Director of Academic Engagement Catherine Hamer.

Congratulations to each of our winners. Learn more about the Signature Course Information Literacy Award and see the winning work at the LibGuide. Learn more about the Writing Flag Awards and see winning work here.

All four papers have been placed in the open access University of Texas’ Digital Repository, Texas ScholarWorks.