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We are accepting submissions for the 2024 Yoko Okita Award and 2024 Award for Outstanding Diversity and Social Justice Research Paper!
Please see details in the flyers here: Yoko Okita Award and Award for Outstanding Diversity and Social Justice Research Paper.
The deadline for both awards are April 25, 2024.
2023 Student Recognition
Yoko Okita Award
- Winner ($100)
- Haley Williams
“'Impending Doom': An Episode of Sexual Trauma”
Best Paper on the Topic of Diversity and Social Justice
- Winner ($125)
- Haley Williams
“The Outdated Practice of Sex Testing in Athletics and the Harm it Causes to Female Athletics”
2022 Student Recognition
Best Paper on the Topic of Diversity and Social Justice
- 1st place winner ($250)
- Beauregard Clifford
“Exploring Lesbian Identity in Emma Donoghueʼs ‘The Tale of the Rose’”
Beauregard Clifford
- 2nd place winner ($200)
- Keʻalohi Rebekah Wang
“The Dainty, the Innocent, and the Suffering: An Analysis of the Representation of Femininity in Fairy Tales”
Keʻalohi Rebekah Wang
- 3rd place winner ($175)
- Kemey Shirley Andrew
“The Often Neglected Root Cause of Female Juvenile Delinquency: Causes & Effects of Traumatic Domestic Abuse”
Kemey Shirley Andrew
- Honorable mentions ($125)
- Skye Crosby - “Snow White and The Female Archetype”
- Elena Espinoza – “Feminism in Aldous Huxleyʼs Brave New World”
- Paige Hamada - “Understanding the Conflicts of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) Project and Analyzing its Impact on Students at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo”
Paige Hamada
Skye Crosby
Elena Espinoza
Yoko Okita Award
- Best Creative Submission on the Topic of Sexual Assault and/or Violence
- Michelle Bond – “Sexual Assault Poem” ($100)
- Cydney Harkness - “Motherhood” – ($100)
Michelle Bond
Cydney Harkness
Regina Titunik Memorial Award for Gender and Women’s Studies
- 2022 Winner
- Lindsey Krewson
Lindsey Krewson
2021 Student Recognition
Outstanding Rising Senior ($500 Award)
- Lindsey Krewson
Passionate Activism Award ($500 Award)
- Melissa Ferguson
Regina Titunik Memorial Award in Women's Studies
- Dayva Escobar
- Jaime McCampbell
About the Regina Titunik Memorial Award in Women’s Studies
Regina Titunik was a professor of Political Science at UH Hilo from 1995-2009. She was actively involved with the Women’s Studies Program (as it was then called), and was the newly-appointed Program Facilitator at her untimely death. She taught a cross-listed course called “Women and War,” and advocated for the establishment of a Women’s Studies major.
The memorial award was established in 2010 with the following description:
For the Women’s Studies student who best exemplifies Professor Titunik’s traits of rigorous scholarship, collegial cooperation, generosity, compassion, and resistance to injustice. Regina exemplified the philosophy of Women’s Studies: to work to transform institutionalized oppression and initiative transformative solutions.
Regina Titunik
Past recipients
2020
Beverly Yates-Tese
Beverly Yates-Tese
2019
Briana Tucker-Archie
Briana Tucker-Archie
2018
Kaylee DeCambra
Kaylee DeCambra
2017
Amy Gregg and Elise Inouye
Elise Inouye
2016
Amy Gregg and Sadie Dossett
Sadie Dossett
2015
Hannah Lipman
Hannah Lipman
2014
Rachel Thomson
Rachel Thomson
2013
Scheherazade Folley-Regusters
Scheherazade Folley-Regusters
2012
Alison Martyn
Alison Martyn
2011
Amanda Johnson
Amanda Johnson
2010
Kylie Alexandra
Kylie Alexandra
| Year | Award Winner |
|---|---|
| 2021 | Dayva Escobar, Jaime McCampbell |
| 2020 | Beverly Yates-Tese |
| 2019 | Briana Tucker-Archie |
| 2018 | Kaylee DeCambra |
| 2017 | Elise Inouye |
| 2016 | Sadie Dossett |
| 2015 | Hannah Lipman |
| 2014 | Rachel Thompson |
| 2013 | Scheherazade Folley-Regusters |
| 2012 | Alison Martyn |
| 2011 | Amanda Johnson |
| 2010 | Kylie Alexandra |