‘Love seeing them flourish’: Kasey Buckles, Professor of Economics and Gender Studies Concurrent Professor, wins Graduate Student Mentorship Award
May 04, 2026
Adah McMillian
As any good mentor does, Kasey Buckles helps her graduate students produce the best work they can. She keeps them on schedule and refines their research questions. She points them toward analytical tools and connects them with other resources.
But she also knows that there’s more to life than writing an economics dissertation.
“Our students can very easily fall into the trap of thinking their worth is all about their work and how their work is perceived,” she said. “I really try at every stage to think about them as a scholar but also as a person — people who have families and interests and spiritual and mental lives.”
The Quinn and Jean Stepan Family College Professor has served on 13 completed dissertation committees, chairing or co-chairing seven of them, in her time at the University of Notre Dame. She’s currently on three dissertation committees, chairing two.
In recognition of her support for her students as well as their professional success, Buckles is the recipient of the 2026 College of Arts & Letters Graduate Student Mentorship Award. This honor is given annually to a tenured faculty member who has demonstrated outstanding mentorship and care to graduate students.