RS Student and Faculty Recipients of the 2024-25 Hoefer Prize
RS major Samuel Cao and RS faculty Prof. Roberto Mata co-authored an award-winning paper on the topic of martyrdom.
Samuel Cao
Prof. Roberto Mata
Congratulations to Religious Studies major Samuel Cao and Dr. Roberto Mata, who received the 2024-25 Hoefer Prize for the best student-faculty co-authored paper. Their winning paper is entitled "Conscripted Martyrology: Mapping José Rizal’s Secular Martyrdom in Colonial Spanish and American Philippine Narratives." The prize committee noted, "Religious Studies professor Dr. Roberto Mata and student Samuel Cao’s paper ‘Conscripted Martyrology’ demonstrates rigor in historical and theological research into martyrology. With clarity of argument and style, they illuminate a new reading of José Rizal’s martyrdom as a secular construction that advanced national and colonial interests.”