Big Questions, Bold Research: Trinity Honors 2026 Distinguished Dissertation Award Recipients

What does it mean for an entire nation — not just an individual — to feel ashamed? 

What happens inside a family when one member becomes involved in the criminal justice system? 

How do people change the way they think in order to feel better? 

These are the questions anchoring the research recognized this year by the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences’ Distinguished Dissertation Awards. Now in its second cohort, the award honors three members of Trinity's graduating Ph.D. class who demonstrated remarkable academic excellence in their fields, and whose work pushes scholarship in bold directions. 

Selected from nominations across Trinity’s three academic divisions — Natural Sciences, Arts and Humanities and Social Sciences — the award recipients have also contributed significantly to fostering a vibrant and enriching graduate education environment for their peers. 

Meet Trinity 2026 Distinguished Dissertation Awardees

Arts and Humanities

Tye Landels 

Department of English
“Blush, Britannia: Collective Shame and the Moral Anguish of Empire, 1776–1807”

A literary historian specializing in the British Romantic period, particularly the 1790s, Landels’ research examines how writers and thinkers in the late 18th and early 19th centuries grappled with the moral implications of empire. His dissertation investigates the idea that moral responsibility can belong not only to individuals but also to entire societies. 

“I’m interested in the question of what it means for a whole society or people — not just individuals within a society — to feel themselves to be in the ‘wrong,’” Landels said. “To understand British literary and political culture of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, we must take seriously the position that virtue is no less a collective than an individual attribute. We have to take seriously the idea that we are good only insofar as our community is good, and that the conduct of our neighbors necessarily has bearing on our own moral standing.” 

Landels argues that Britons during the Age of Revolution were deeply preoccupied with the collective shame of their nation and empire. Tracing the development of this idea from the 1770s through the early 19th century, his research shows how it took shape in the works of writers including Frances Burney, John Newton, William Cowper, Anna Laetitia Barbauld and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. 

Landels credits Duke’s intellectual community with shaping the interdisciplinary nature of the project. “It’s difficult to overstate the extent to which this project has been shaped by the extraordinary — really, I think unparalleled — intellectual community at Duke,” he said. “Interdisciplinarity at this university is not an empty institutional cliché but a central part of what it means to do serious work in the humanities.” 

That environment, he said, made it possible to pursue a project that combines literary criticism, intellectual history and moral theory. “Over time, I’ve come to appreciate even more fully the unique intellectual courage, ambition and vision of Duke graduate students and faculty.” 

Landels will join the Department of English at the University of Alabama this fall as as a full-time instructor. 

Social Sciences

Garrett Baker 

Department of Sociology
"Family Dynamics and Social Inequality in an Era of Mass Incarceration"

Through a joint program in Sociology and Public Policy, Baker’s research examines how contact with the criminal justice system can shape family life and influence children’s expectations for the future — specifically, how family dynamics, criminal justice system involvement and social inequality intersect in the lives of parents and children. 

His dissertation is organized into three chapters, each using a different dataset and quantitative methodology to investigate how these forces interact. Together, the studies offer new insight into how families adapt when confronted with incarceration and other forms of system involvement. 

Baker identified significant consequences of parental incarceration. “Specific findings include large negative consequences of parental incarceration for children’s expectations and aspirations for the future,” he said. 

Another chapter examines how parents adjust their parenting strategies after one child becomes involved in the criminal justice system, often altering how they guide younger siblings. The third chapter analyzes how Americans think parents should respond when their teenagers engage in delinquent behavior, showing that these beliefs are strongly shaped by geography and attitudes toward government spending. 

Baker believes that Duke’s interdisciplinary training played a key role in shaping the project. “I received proper interdisciplinary training and had unparalleled access to a range of faculty, students, classes and seminars,” he said. 

He also emphasized the importance of institutional resources that supported his research, including summer funding through The Graduate School’s Summer Research Fellowship, conference travel support, small project grants and training opportunities through the Duke Population Research Institute. 

Above all, Baker credited the mentorship of his advisors, Chris Wildeman and Anna Gassman-Pines. “They brought me in to work on large collaborative projects, giving me invaluable training in how to conduct rigorous research,” Baker said. “At the same time, they gave me ample opportunity and guidance as I branched out to work on my independent projects that ultimately became my dissertation.”

Natural Sciences

Lucas Bellaiche 

Department of Psychology and Neuroscience
"Conceptualizing the Human Affective Experience Via Creativity" 

Drawing on research in creativity and cognitive psychology, Bellaiche’s research examines how individuals shift their thinking to improve their mood when they feel distressed or discouraged by investigating the mental processes that allow people to generate alternative perspectives and solutions during emotionally challenging moments. 

“My dissertation examined the role of flexible thinking in emotion regulation — how we make ourselves feel better when we otherwise feel poorly,” Bellaiche said. 

One chapter of his dissertation focuses on the relationship between creative thinking and emotional well-being. Through research related to art therapy, he explores how creative expression can influence mood and support healthier emotional regulation. Another avenue of his research takes a broader cognitive approach, examining the mechanisms people use to reconsider situations, reframe thoughts and develop new ways of responding to adversity. 

The interdisciplinary character of the project reflects Bellaiche’s experience in Duke’s doctoral program. Drawn by the opportunity to work across different research traditions, he was able to rotate through multiple laboratories and work with faculty mentors who brought diverse perspectives and methodological approaches to psychology. “I chose Duke because it offered an extremely unique opportunity for interdisciplinary research,” he said. 

Bellaiche was this year's Graduate Commencement Speaker. Beyond its academic opportunities, Duke’s community played a central role in his graduate experience. “Duke fostered an incredibly welcoming and supportive environment which ultimately propagated my curiosity,” he said. “And when I say ‘Duke,’ I of course mean the amazing people that surrounded me for five years — friends and faculty alike.”