Initiated in 1986, the annual Prytanean Alumnae Faculty Enrichment award recognizes a tenure track woman faculty member for outstanding scholarship, teaching, mentoring, leadership, and service to UC Berkeley and the community. Dr. Vasugi Kailasam (2024) and Dr. Youjin Chung (2025) were each chosen from over twenty exceptional applicants representing diverse disciplinary backgrounds. Selection committee members include Prytanean Alumnae Board members; Dr. Sheila Humphreys, inaugural UC Berkeley Electrical Engineering Director of Diversity; and past Faculty Enrichment Award recipients Dr. Markita Landry (2019; Chemistry and Biomolecular Engineering); Dr. Lori Markson (2007; Psychological and Brain Sciences); and Katherine Bergeron (1995; Musicology).
Dr. Youjin Chung, 2025 award recipient, and Dr. Vasugi Kailasam, 2024 award recipient, were both honored at an Alumni House reception hosted by UC Berkeley Chancellor Rich Lyons this past November. Since the Prytanean Alumnae Faculty Enrichment Award’s inception, all faculty award recipients, who have been evaluated for tenure, have successfully secured tenure. To date, the majority of recipients remain at UC Berkeley as celebrated faculty and leaders, while a few enjoy success at other universities.
Dr. Vasugi Kailasam, 2024 Prytanean Alumnae Faculty Enrichment Award recipient
Dr. Vasugi Kailasam, Assistant Professor of South and Southeast Asian Studies, is the recipient of the 2024 Prytanean Alumnae Faculty Enrichment Award and a $35,000 grant. Dr. Kailasam presented her research at the 2025 Annual Spring Prytanean Alumnae Meeting. Moreover, Dr. Kailasam will generously serve on the faculty review committee associated with the forthcoming award cycle.
"Receiving this recognition is an incredible honor, and I am deeply grateful to the Prytanean Alumnae for this award and to UC Berkeley for their unwavering support of Tamil studies teaching and scholarship. I extend my heartfelt gratitude to my departmental colleagues, whose distinguished trajectory in South and Southeast Asian studies continues to inspire me and whose encouragement has been instrumental in my journey. Hosting the UC Berkeley Tamil Studies conference and conducting archival research for my second book will be opportunities to bring Tamil cultural narratives into global academic and public conversations. I dedicate this achievement to the vibrant Tamil-speaking communities around the globe whose timeless and evolving narratives inspire my work every day," said Kailasam.
Kailasam will dedicate the $35,000 grant towards hosting a Tamil Studies conference on campus and completing her second book. A preeminent scholar, she researches how Tamil identity, migration, and transnational spatial politics inform modern Tamil literature and visual culture, and how Tamil cultural production challenges dominant paradigms and offers alternative perspectives rooted in non-Anglophonic traditions.
Kailasam, a native Tamil speaker raised in Chennai, India, engages with Tamil diasporic communities across South and Southeast Asia. Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken primarily in Tamil Nadu, India; Sri Lanka; Singapore; Malaysia; and the Tamil diaspora in countries including Canada, the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom. One of few Tamil experts globally, Kailasam connects Tamil literary tradition with broader cultural dialogues and prioritizes public engagement.
Dr. Youjin Chung, 2025 Prytanean Alumnae Faculty Enrichment Award recipient
Dr. Youjin Chung is the recipient of the 2025 Prytanean Alumnae Faculty Enrichment Award and a $35,000 grant in recognition of her outstanding scholarship, teaching, mentoring, leadership, and service. Dr. Chung, Assistant Professor with a joint appointment in the Energy and Resources Group and the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, stood out among a pool of high caliber applicants. In recommending Dr. Chung for this award, Dr. Isha Ray, Professor at the Energy and Resources Group and previous Prytanean Faculty Award recipient, refers to Dr. Chung as “brilliant” as well as “intrepid.”
"I am deeply honored to receive this award from the Cal Prytanean Alumnae Chapter, the alumni group of the oldest collegiate women’s honors society in the United States," shared Chung. "I am excited to pay this forward by mentoring the next generation of students and scholars, supporting women in academia, and continuing my commitment to meaningful scholarship, teaching, mentoring, and service at UC Berkeley."
Chung describes herself as “an ethnographer conduct[ing] long-term, immersive fieldwork in [her] study sites to understand the richness and complexity of nature-society relations and the contradictions of everyday life.” Her qualitative research skills are reflected in her mastery of various methods, including participant observation, interviews, focus groups, archival research, oral histories, community mapping, and photovoice. Her rich ethnographic work forms the basis of her award-winning book, Sweet Deal, Bitter Landscape: Gender Politics and Liminality in Tanzania's New Enclosures, published by Cornell University Press.
Chung’s exemplary accomplishments within the field of political ecology reflect theoretical rigor, originality, and complexity. Colleagues and students alike attest to the scholarly significance of her research alongside the conscientiousness and generosity she conveys in teaching, mentoring, and community service. Chung also convenes the Critical Ruralities Lab, “a research workshop and collaborative mentoring space that promotes empirically grounded and justice-oriented scholarship on development and socio-environmental change in the global countryside.”
The $35,000 grant will support Chung’s second book project based in Tanzania; hiring of graduate research assistants; traveling, writing, and publishing activities; and dependent care. Prytanean Alumnae is fortunate to host Dr. Chung, who will present her research at the 2026 Annual Spring Prytanean Alumnae Meeting.
