Kayla Frawley won the Donald E. Jordan, Jr. - Willard C. Potts, Jr. Award on May 31, 2026. She received this honor at the national meeting of the American Conference for Irish Studies (ACIS), which the University of Colorado hosted. It is awarded annually to the ACIS-West member judged the most meritorious emerging scholar (current graduate students and scholars within three years of receiving a PhD). A committee of ACIS-West members appointed by the President chooses the recipient, and the award is presented at the closing banquet of the organization’s annual conference.The award is based on her conference paper titled "Invisible hands, withheld aid: From the Irish Famine to the erosion of America's safety net". Her research draws parallels between the British government's 19th-century economic oppression and poverty governance of the Irish and the modern economic oppression of welfare recipients in the 20th and 21st centuries. She argues that both eras rely on the exact same administrative frameworks and laissez-faire ideologies to control impoverished populations. She explains this using the Social Construction of Target Population theory by Helen Ingram and Anne Schneider.
Congratulations Kayla!