Renaissance Art to Theoretical Physics

With interests ranging from Renaissance art to theoretical physics, the 2017 College of Arts & Sciences Graduate Medalists are deep divers, immersing themselves in big questions with no easy answers.  Four medalists — representing each of the College’s four divisions — are selected each year based on faculty nominations.

Shuxuan Zhou grew up in Fujian, China, where the government opened the region's mountains to large-scale forestry, with social and environmental ramifications over decades of socialism followed by market reform. Zhou's dissertation in gender, women and sexuality studies presents a historical-ethnographic account of...