Giulliano Prize in Spanish and Virginia Louise Garth Scholarship

May 7, 2020

The Department is proud to announce that the Giulliano Prize in Spanish was awarded to Javaria Abbasi and Katerina Silis was awarded the Virginia Louise Garth Scholarship

Giulliano Prize in Spanish given to a fourth-year graduating student on the basis of demonstrated academic excellence in Spanish language study and a contribution to the growth and nurturing of Spanish at the University. Javaria Abbasi is a 4th year student who is double majoring in Spanish and Political and Social Thought. Javaria is writing a thesis about European and Indigenous cartographic thinking in sixteenth-century Mexico. Javaria's project has required her to think deeply and creatively around and through archival silences. With a sophisticated methodological approach, Javaria juxtaposes European history and philosophy with classical Nahuatl-language codices and Nahua maps to show how [some of the most celebrated works of Spanish imperial literatures and histories depended on and subsequently erased Nahua cosmologies.  Next year, she will be studying in the Latin American studies program at Oxford University.

Virginia Louis Garth scholarship is awarded an undergraduate student from Virginia who has demonstrated outstanding academic performance and who has contributed to the life and well-being of the Spanish Department. This scholarship is offered by the Garth family in honor of their late daughter. Katerina Silis is a third-year student doing a double major in Spanish and Neuroscience.  She lives in the Casa Bolívar and has received one of UVA’s most important grants for researching the therapeutic use of marihuana.  In her free time, Katerina is a volunteer at the hospital.  She is a generous person who is always ready to help the community. She also helped organize the poetry series in the fall of 2019.  Katerina has also organized the music and poetry series in the Casa Bolívar.  Her studies at UVA have combined her equal love for science and the humanities. 

Please join us in congratulating our two outstanding Spanish students!