The 2024 Chase Peace Prize Winners

The Chase Peace Prize is awarded each year to the best senior thesis or culminating project that treats the subject of war, conflict resolution, the prospects and problems of maintaining peace, or other related topics. 

This year's recipients are: 

Jason Acosta Espinosa '24

Jason graduated as a double major in History and Government with Honors and minor in Latin American Studies, and one of our Global Health Fellows. He is now a global banking and market analyst with Goldman Sachs. His winning thesis, "'Hermanas en Armas!' The Women of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, 1979-1992," was also awarded the Richard B. McCornack Prize for Excellence in History by the Department of History. 

Eleanor Sullivan '24

Eleanor graduated as a government and quantitative social sciences major. She was a Stamps scholar, a War & Peace Fellow, and senior editor of World Affairs, Dartmouth's International Affairs journal. She's now with Bridgewater Associates. Her winning senior thesis was titled, "Explaining the Gap: Why Men Support the Use of Military Force More than Women."

Yevheniia Dubrova '24

Yevheniia graduated with a major in English & Creative Writing. Her winning senior thesis was titled, "What Remains: Stories," a collection of short fiction spanning the past hundred years of Ukraine's history and exploring displacement, loss, memory, and what endures. The collection also secured Yevheniia a 2024 LANDO grant from the deGroot Foundation. Her essay, "Blue Heron" won the English and Creative Writing Department's 2024 Grimes Prize, and in 2023 she received the Student Translation Award from the American Translator's Association. Yevheniia is currently pursuing an M.F.A. in Creative Writing at Vanderbilt University. 

The History of The Chase Peace Prize

The Chase Peace Prize was established in 1940 as a bequest by philanthropist Edward M. Chase, a native of Lithuania who emigrated to the United States, settling in Manchester, New Hampshire. 

THROUGH THE BEQUEST of Edward M. Chase, merchant and philanthropist of Manchester, N. H., Dartmouth College has been left $5,000 for the establishment of a prize related to the promotion of world peace. According to Mr. Chase's will, the fund is to be used "to establish a prize to be known as the Edward M. Chase Prize, the income of said sum to be awarded annually to that student of the College who shall submit the best essay on a subject relating to the promotion of world peace." Full authority is given to the President of the College to arrange the details of the competition, set the subject, and establish the board of judges. 

(From Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, February 1940.)

At Dartmouth, the prize was first awarded in 1945. The Department of Government at Harvard also awards a Chase Peace Prize. 

Philanthropist Edward M. Chase

Mr. Chase was born in Lithuania. He immigrated to Maine with his family when he was a child. Edward ended up moving to Manchester in 1888 to begin a business that eventually became a very successful furniture enterprise and had many real estate holdings as well. 

He had a keen sense of social responsibility and after World War I built houses in Manchester, NH (the Chase Family Home Association) that were sold to working families on very favorable terms. These houses are still in use. 

He had philanthropic efforts in his native Lithuania which included building a school for Jewish students and helping families immigrate to the USA. Chase brought to Manchester the Shapiro family who went on to found Southern New Hampshire University. 

In addition to the Chase Peace Prize, Mr. Chase also offered awards for students at Manchester Central High School and at The Jewish Theological Seminary of America. 

(From "The Edward M. Chase Legacy" by Dr. Sol Rockenmacher, MD '60 MED '61, in the July 2022 edition of the New Hampshire Jewish Reporter. Reporting on a presentation in May 2022 by Terry Nelson, a Dover, NH historian and author, to the Temple Adath Yeshurun Brotherhood.)