Elizabeth Johnson Awarded Trinity's Excellence in Ph.D. Research
Trinity College of Arts and Sciences recently celebrated the achievements of three 2025 Ph.D. graduates selected as the first recipients of the Trinity Distinguished Dissertation Award. Nominated by their programs and representing each of Trinity’s three divisions — Natural Sciences, Arts and Humanities and Social Sciences — the recipients demonstrated remarkable academic excellence in their fields. This award honors not only their dissertation work but also their contributions to fostering a positive and enriching graduate education environment at Trinity.
Awardees and dissertations:
Elizabeth Johnson, Department of Sociology
“Sexual Harassment, Gender Harassment, and Workplace Aggression in the Church: Comparing the Experiences of Mennonite and Episcopal Clergywomen”
Lesa Redmond, Department of History
“Roots to Routes: Black Intellectual Labor and the Politics of Higher Education in North Carolina, 1790-1891.”
Samantha McDonald, Department of Chemistry
“Independent Control of Barrier Properties in Thiol-Yne Click Polymers”
Elizabeth Johnson
Elizabeth Johnson’s dissertation compared the experiences of Mennonite and Episcopal clergywomen surrounding sexual harassment, sexism and non-sexual harassment, such as bullying. She explored how differences between the two organizations — which she acknowledges aren’t usually studied simultaneously — shaped their clergywomen experiences.
Johnson found was that sexual harassment is less commonly reported than sexism and non-sexual harassment, and that most incidents clergy reported were perpetrated by laypeople. Johnson stresses that the findings are surprising considering research and policy often focus on sexual harassment, and usually view clergy only as perpetrators, not targets, of such harm. She hopes her findings can help the work of scholars and practitioners reflect more fully the challenges faced by women in ministry.
During her time at Duke, Johnson benefitted from the strong campus community of sociologists of religion and is thankful for the feedback received from monthly writing groups. “When I started my Ph.D., I intended to pursue medical sociology, so I feel especially lucky to have landed at a university that could provide me with outstanding mentorship, community and support even as my research interests shifted,” she shares.
This summer, Johnson joins the Religion and Social Change Lab (RaSCL) at Duke as a postdoctoral associate. “I’m excited to continue sharing my dissertation results while also working as part of a team to study the lives and well-being of seminarians and early-career clergy.”
Lesa Redmond
In her dissertation, Lesa Redmond traced the major transformations in African American higher education over the course of the nineteenth century in North Carolina, which was a pioneering state for the establishment of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs).
Her research asked how, when, and why industrial education came to dominate HBCU curricula as the century ended.
In her dissertation, she argued that Black higher education in North Carolina developed as a consequence of complex maneuvers between State and Federal forces attempting to control Black education on the one hand, and a burgeoning class of Black intellectuals attempting to raise a generation “up from slavery” on the other.
Redmond has received fellowship awards from funding sources including the Dean’s Graduate Fellowship, the Julian Price Graduate Research Fellowship, the Duke Graduate School Conference Travel Award and the Summer Research Fellowships for Research on Racism and Systemic Inequalities.
“Without the financial support I received from the Department of History and Graduate School, the development, research and writing of my dissertation would not have been possible, particularly since the majority of my doctoral work happened over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic,” she shares.
Redmond will join Wake Forest University’s Department of History as an assistant professor in the fall.
Samantha McDonald
Samantha McDonald focused her dissertation on designing barrier polymers to support the development of transient health monitors and other implantable, biodegradable technologies. Current implantable devices require cables to pass through the skin and connect to external power sources and displays, increasing the risks of infection and complications related to their surgical implantation and removal.
With the M.L. Becker Research Group for Functional Biomaterials, McDonald helped create new barrier polymers to encapsulate transient health monitors and demonstrated that when protecting the devices in this way, they degrade much more slowly than current technology allows.
At Duke, she also discovered a creative community that changed her perspectives and shaped the trajectory of her thesis. She credits Matthew Becker, principal investigator and the Hugo L. Blomquist Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, for cultivating such a healthy work environment.
“One of the most important things I learned in Dr. Becker’s lab was how to be creative towards addressing problems I don’t explicitly have the resources to solve,” she admits. “I also developed into an enthusiastic team member who was able to approach situations from other perspectives — that improved the quality of my research and made me a kinder, better person.”
In the fall, McDonald joins the Department of Chemistry at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill as a postdoctoral scholar.