5 Pitt people won Iris Marion Young Awards

The Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Program in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences along with the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) announced the 2025 Iris Marion Young Award winners for political engagement on Dec. 2.

Sabina Deitrick, an associate professor in SPIA and a co-director in the University Center for Social and Urban Studies, was the inaugural recipient of the renamed Laura Lovett Award, a faculty honor for lifetime achievement.

“Our colleague Laura Lovett passed away unexpectedly on March 4,” said Frayda Cohen, who followed Lovett as director of the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Program. “Laura was a broad-ranging historian of the 20th-century United States … and her teaching stood out for building outreach partnerships with community organizations such as Breakthrough Pittsburgh and Jumpstart Pittsburgh, thus connecting Pitt undergraduates to middle and high school students across the city. At the national level, Laura stood out for her leadership positions at the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians whose triennial conference is the largest women’s history event in the world.”

Four other University community members were honored for “working to promote justice and social activism in their communities”:

• Faculty: Tiana U. Wilson, assistant professor in Dietrich School’s Department of Africana Studies
• Staff: Stefanie Mowrey, an IT staff member
• Graduate student: Jennifer Karen Ponce Cori, a PhD candidate in the School of Education
• Undergraduate student: Sarayu Cheemalapati, senior studying political science in the Dietrich School and Bachelor of Philosophy candidate in the David C. Frederick Honors College