Two Texas State University doctoral students and one recent master's alumna have been selected as awardees of the Dissertation Fellowship or Graduate Research Grant from The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi.
“I am impressed that our graduate students are recognized year after year by Phi Kappa Phi," said Andrea Golato, Ph.D., dean of The Graduate College and TXST's Phi Kappa Phi graduate education officer. “These three awardees demonstrate that Texas State cultivates, nurtures, and supports outstanding graduate students engaged in dissertation research and professional development."
The Phi Kappa Phi Dissertation Fellowship is a highly competitive, $10,000 national fellowship awarded annually to only 12 active Society members who are doctoral candidates and are completing dissertations. The award provides financial support during the dissertation writing process to candidates in all fields of study whose projects demonstrate originality and significant potential for advancing knowledge in the candidates’ disciplines.
This year marks the fourth year in a row that TXST has had a winner of the Phi Kappa Phi Dissertation Fellowship.
2025 TXST Phi Kappa Phi Dissertation Fellowship awardee
Krysten Cruz, doctoral student, applied anthropology (advisor: Nicholas Herrmann)
Cruz's dissertation focuses on the Early Mycenaean mortuary features of the archaeological site of Ancient Eleon, located in central Greece. By analyzing the human remains found within and around the funerary structures at this site, she aims to understand who is buried there, to observe patterns of biological relatedness between the individual decedents, and to establish whether these individuals were local to the site or migrated in.
These analyses will show whether this community valued either biological or social relationships regarding kinship, and how they may have incorporated spreading Mycenaean mortuary practices into their own rituals. Cruz is currently conducting research for her dissertation at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, funded by its Jacob Hirsch Fellowship.
The Phi Kappa Phi Graduate Research Grant is a highly competitive, $1,500 grant awarded annually to only 20 active Society members who are attending graduate school and who are conducting or presenting research.
This year marks the third time that TXST has had two Phi Kappa Phi Graduate Research Grant recipients in a single year—10% of the awardee pool for this prestigious national award—and the fourth year in a row that TXST graduate students have received this award.
2025 TXST Phi Kappa Phi Graduate Research Grant recipients
Cathlin Noonan, alumna, master of fine arts in creative writing with a concentration in poetry (advisor: Steve Wilson)
Noonan will use the grant funds to present her paper, “Transubstantiation as Threshold: Michael Field's Conversion in Wild Honey from Various Thyme (1908),” at the Victorian Interdisciplinary Association of the Western United States (VISAWUS) hosted by St. Louis University on Oct. 4.
Gwen Olivier, doctoral student, applied anthropology (advisor: David Kilby)
Olivier will use funds from the grant to support her geoarchaeological field research in central New Mexico, where she will study how the paleoenvironment affected the distribution of archaeological sites during a 14,000-year period.