Doctoral Alumna Selected for CGS/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award

December 8, 2025

By Katya Hrichak

Dusti Cheyenne Bridges, Ph.D. ’25, has been selected for the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS)/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award in the humanities and fine arts for her dissertation, “’United With Them in Good Feeling and Friendship’: (Re)lating Archaeological Belongings, Colonialist Histories, and Incorporated Peoples Among the Onöndowa’ga:’ Hodinöhšö:ni’.”

Two awards are given each year to individuals in two different broad areas whose dissertations represent original work that makes a significant contribution to the discipline. In addition to a check for $2,000, winners received travel reimbursement to attend the 65th CGS Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. where they were formally recognized during the Awards Ceremony on Dec. 4.

“I am immensely honored to be a recipient of the CGS/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation award this year. To have the product of one’s labor be recognized by such a respected award is an incredibly fulfilling and encouraging distinction,” said Bridges. “The recognition of excellence for an archaeological dissertation in a competition across all arts and humanities fields is especially meaningful to me.”

An alumna of the archaeology master’s program and anthropology doctoral program, Bridges sees the award as a reflection of the variety of resources and support available at Cornell, including the Library, Digital Humanities CoLab, Cornell Institute for Archaeology and Material Studies, American Indian and Indigenous studies program, and anthropology department.

“I hope that being recognized through this award allows this work to reach a wider audience, encouraging further collaborative research that studies the past in order to understand the present and inform the future,” she said.