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LAWRENCE — The Kress Foundation Department of Art History at the University of Kansas has announced its awards for excellence for the 2009-10 academic year.

Students were honored during the 35th annual Amsden Awards Ceremony on April 30. KU alumna Emily Stamey, curator of modern and contemporary art at the Ulrich Museum of Art in Wichita, was the guest speaker. Stamey earned two degrees in art history from KU, a master’s in fall 2004 and doctorate in spring 2009.

KU Endowment administers funds for the awards, which were presented by art history faculty members to outstanding students.

Three doctoral students in art history received a Marilyn Stokstad Award: Megan Blocksom, Shaker Heights, Ohio, and Janet Chen and Rachel Voorhies, both of Lawrence. The award recognizes graduate students in art history who have made major contributions to the educational mission of the department. The awards, which provide cash, are made possible by Marilyn Stokstad, distinguished professor emerita of art history, who established an endowed fund.

Annette Becker, a junior from Lenora, received the Marilyn J. Stokstad Spencer Museum of Art Student Award. Also created by Stokstad, this cash award honors undergraduate or graduate students who have made major contributions to the mission of the Spencer Museum of Art. Museum staff select the recipient.

Sooa Im, a doctoral student from Goyang-shi Gyeunggi-do, South Korea, received the Laurence Sickman Scholarship. The scholarship was established in honor of Sickman, past curator of Chinese art and director of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Mo., to recognize an outstanding student specializing in Chinese art. The scholarship goes toward tuition.

Ai-Lian Liu, a doctoral student from Taipei, Taiwan, received the Scholarship for Academic Excellence in Asian Art History, a cash award given annually by an anonymous donor.

Denise Giannino, a doctoral student from Lawrence, won the 2010 Timothy Mitchell Memorial Art History Award for Academic Excellence. This annual cash award was established in honor of Tim Mitchell, who taught art history at KU from 1979 until his death in 1993. The award recognizes outstanding academic excellence in the graduate program.

Brittany Hill, a senior from Shawnee, and Ashley Yates, a junior from Wichita, received the fall 2009 and spring 2010 Edmund Eglinski Prize Scholarship for Study Abroad, respectively. Named for Edmund Eglinski, professor emeritus of art history, the award goes toward tuition for undergraduates studying art history in Europe.

Paige Elliott, a senior from Hutchinson, received the Jeanne Stump Senior Award, which provides cash and a book in the student’s area of interest for the outstanding graduating senior in art history in honor of Stump, professor emerita of art history.

Megan Williams, a senior from Overland Park, received the Jon O’Neal Photography Award, which is an undergraduate book award funded by O’Neal, a KU alumnus, going to an outstanding student in history of photography courses.

Becker and Melissa Melling, a senior from Prairie Village, were recognized as recipients of Harley S. Nelson Family Scholarships for the upcoming 2010-11 school year.

The Amsden Book Awards were established in 1976 by the late Floyd and Barbara Amsden of Wichita. Faculty members and graduate teaching assistants select winners based on classroom excellence regardless of class level or major. Twenty-nine students received books on subjects in which they excelled. Art history faculty members presented the awards.

KU Endowment is the independent, nonprofit organization serving as the official fundraising and fund-management organization for KU. Founded in 1891, KU Endowment is the first foundation of its kind at a U.S. public university.

Award recipients are listed below by hometown, major, level in school or degree received and, when available, parents’ names and previous schools attended.