Congratulations to the 2026 President Alistair McCrone Promising Faculty Scholars Award winners:
Gabi Kirk, assistant professor, Geography
Stefanie Israel de Souza, associate Professor, Sociology and Criminology & Justice Studies
Rachael Wade, assistant professor, Biological Sciences
Additional congratulations to Risa Ogushi, graduate student in Biological Sciences, for winning the Alistair & Judith McCrone Graduate Fellowship Award.
The Office of Research & Sponsored Programs Foundation will be holding their annual McCrone Awards Reception at the Humboldt Bay Aquatic Center in Eureka on Tuesday, Nov. 10 from 4 - 6p.m. where each recipient will present a TED Talk-style presentation about their research interests.
The event is open to the university community. RSVP HERE
Following are brief biographies of the 2026 McCrone Promising Faculty Scholars and the Alistair & Judith McCrone Graduate Fellowship Award winner.
Gabi Kirk is a political ecologist interested in how agriculture has been used as a tool of settler-colonial dispossession and of anti-colonial resistance. She has written about feminist criticisms of militarisms, with a focus on how everyday technologies and landscapes may have violent structures “hidden in plain sight/site.” Her work has been published in the Journal of Political Ecology, Historical Geography, Society and Space, and Historical Materialism, as well as several edited volumes and popular media outlets.
During the McCrone reception, Kirk will present “Cultivating Sustainable Sovereignty: Palestinian Agrarian Lives in Transnational Focus.”
Stefanie Israel de Souza is a political ethnographer of urban marginality whose research is primarily based in Brazilian favelas, looking at how policing and other state interventions, as well as the presence of drug gangs, impact the everyday lives of favela residents. She is currently working on a book manuscript entitled “Expiration Date,” examining how the policing intervention known as "pacification" was carried out and experienced by residents over time.
During the McCrone Reception, Israel de Souza will present “Expiration Date: The Broken Promises of Rio de Janeiro's Favela Pacification Initiative.”
Rachael Wade focuses on the diversity of marine macroalgae and the evolutionary processes that determine and support their current distributions. Her work often relies on genetic resources from 19th and 20th century collections, to better understand their diversity and taxonomy.
During the McCrone Reception, Wade will present “Cracking the Stacks: Exploring Herbarium Collections to Clarify Seaweed Diversity and Evolution.”
Risa Ogushi grew up in Vancouver, British Columbia, and has spent much of her time exploring tidepools in southern BC. She has been enjoying learning about marine life in Northern California, and her current research involves studying the life cycle of graceful coral seaweed (Corallina vancouveriensis). In her free time, she enjoys a variety of fiber arts and hanging out with her cat, Twig. After graduation, she hopes to pursue a career in education.
During the McCrone Reception, Ogushi will present “Examining the Life Cycle Dynamics of a Calcified Seaweed in Northern California.”
The 2027 McCrone Award call for nominations will open on Cal Poly Humboldt’s Engagement Hub November 11 and will be due February 25, 2027.