Political Science Major Wins National Research Paper Award

Evelyn Burch A political science major from Clinton, Md., Burch won the Kilmarx Award for her paper titled “Projecting Power: China and the United States’ Struggle for Dominance in the Era of Xi and Trump.” The award also includes a $1,000 prize and publication of her paper in the CSPC online anthology, “The Fellows Review,” this summer.

Burch submitted her paper as the centerpiece of her 2017-18 CSPC Presidential Fellowship. The Kilmarx Award is one of four paper awards given annually by the CSPC. This year’s other recipients were from the University of Toronto, Emory University, Georgetown University and the University of Southern California.

As a member of the ASU Honors Program, Burch also submitted a version of her paper at the 2019 Great Plains Honors Council Conference earlier this month in Tyler, winning a Dennis Boe Award for presenting one of the outstanding research papers at the conference. She also won a Dennis Boe Award at the 2017 GPHC Conference.

Burch has also made research presentations at National Collegiate Honors Council conferences, and she represented ASU at the 2016 U.S. Naval Academy Foreign Affairs Conference and the 2016 Student Conference on U.S. Affairs at West Point Military Academy. In the summer of 2017, she began an internship with the U.S. Department of Defense in St. Louis, Mo., and has returned to continue her internship during subsequent summer and winter breaks.

During the fall of 2018, Burch completed a semester-long internship in the office of U.S. Congressman Michael Conaway, who represents the 11^th Congressional District that includes San Angelo. She was awarded the competitive internship through the ASU Political Science and Philosophy Department’s annual Government and Public Service Internship Program.

Outside of her studies and research, Burch is a member of ASU’s Political Science Association, Modern Languages Association and Honors Student Association, as well as the Alpha Chi national honor society and the San Angelo Community Choir. She will graduate with highest honors in May with her bachelor’s degree in political science.