Congratulations to Assistant Professor Youjin Chung on receiving the 2025 Prytanean Alumnae Faculty Enrichment Award.
First awarded in 1986, the annual accolade recognizes the outstanding scholarship, teaching, mentoring, leadership, and service of a woman tenure-track faculty member at UC Berkeley. Recipients of the award receive $35,000 in grant funding from the UC Berkeley alumnae chapter of the Prytanean Women’s Honor Society.
“I am deeply honored to receive this award from the alumni group of the oldest collegiate women’s honors society in the United States,” said Chung, who is jointly appointed in the Energy and Resources Group (ERG) and Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management. Both Chung and 2024 Prytanean faculty awardee Vasugi Kailasam, a professor in the Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies, were honored last fall during a reception hosted by Chancellor Rich Lyons.
A political ecologist and ethnographer, Chung leads Berkeley’s Critical Ruralities Lab, which promotes empirically grounded, justice-oriented research relating to development and socio-environmental change in the global countryside. She uses archival research, interviews, observation, photovoice—in which individuals document their lives and community issues through photography and narrative storytelling—and other participatory research methods to conduct long-term, immersive fieldwork. This fieldwork served as the basis for her first book, Sweet Deal, Bitter Landscape: Gender Politics and Liminality in Tanzania's New Enclosures (Cornell University Press), which traces the lived experiences of women and men in rural Tanzania following an attempt to privatize and enclose a large tract of coastal land during the mid-2000s.
In nominating her for the award, ERG Professor and previous Prytanean awardee Isha Ray called Chung brilliant and intrepid. Following the publication of Sweet Deal, Bitter Landscape, Chung was recognized by the American Association of Geographers for her innovative and foundational writing in cultural and political ecology. In addition to her scholarly contributions, Chung is regarded for her conscientiousness and generosity in teaching, mentoring, and community service
“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,” she said.
The $35,000 award will support Chung’s second book project in Tanzania, graduate research assistants, and other associated costs. She will present her research at the 2026 Annual Spring Prytanean Alumnae Meeting in April 2026.
