Awards & Honors

2010 Writing Award Winners

Eliza A. Drew Awards for best English essay and best short story

Best English Essay: "A Distorted Image: Reflections of Gender and Class in the Mirror of Galadriel."  by Mikayla Moffet

The essay provides an insightful, theoretically-sophisticated and eloquently-written analysis of how central characters in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring reflect and enforce the gender and class norms of Tolkien's cultural context.  The author also suggests how the gender boundaries and class stratifications that Tolkien delineates are often reinscribed across the fantasy fiction genre and, in turn, in its readers.

Best Short Story: “A Bachelor’s Degree in Survival” by Dani Foster

“A Bachelor’s in Survival” is a mesmerizing rumination on a few days in the life of young survivors of an undefined apocalypse. 

Evelyn Apitz Morris Award for best short story or Play 

"If I Only Had a Pomegranate, I Could Keep You,"
By Ashley Wirth-Petrik
 
“Pomegranate” tells an old, familiar story – a couple's communication problems, played out through one tense conversation – with a playful, formally-complicated structure.  Its understanding of the way people misunderstand one another, how our language can convey radically different notions, is mature and compelling.  It is even stronger yet in its self-reflexive attention to the structure of such stories, and how our language and aesthetic forms shape and misshape our attempts to make sense of one another. 

George Henry Bridgman Award

First Prize:  “Red is the Secret Never Told” By Karyn Cave

“Red is the Secret Never Told” is a poetic tour into a psychic life marked by trauma and is a splendid example of poetic craft.  The poem’s metaphors and imagery showcase the hard-to-capture character of trauma and the ambivalent, nagging haunting of events that cannot be forgotten or remembered.

Second Prize: "Approaching Nihilism” By Zachary Psick

"Approaching Nihilism," is a wonderfully crafted poetic debate about life and its meaning — a debate all human beings engage in, in one form or another; is life meaningful because of a belief in afterlife or can it be meaningful in the here and now? This poet offers a form that mimics controlling ideologies while also demonstrating freedom through counterpoints of difference.

Alfred D. and Hazel Stedman Awards

Best Papers written by first-year or sophomore students:

Joe Muchlinski, 2013
“I can see clearly now:  U. S. Healthcare in 2020”
First Year Seminar 1010 The Wall Street Journal:  It’s Much More than Money
Prof. William Snyder

Tessa Mortenson, 2012
“Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: A Pressing Need”
Education 3660 Immigrants & Refugees in US Schools
Prof. Letitia Basford

Best Papers written by junior students:

Danielle Drasher, 2011        
 “The Physiological Effects of Oxytocin in Animal and Human Models”
Psychology 5980 Seminar on Neuroendocrinology
Prof. Matt Olson

Sean Traynor, 2011            
“Texas v. Johnson:  Flag Desecration and the First Amendment”
History 3930 Topics in American History:  Landmark Trials
Prof. Nurith Zmora

Best Papers written by senior students:
 
Patrice Anthony, 2010            
“Attribution and Image in Song of Solomon”
Religion 3200 Biblical Narrative
Prof. Earl Schwartz

Kaitlyn Hawkinson, 2010        
“The Effect of Individual Differences on Aggressive Responses to Ostracism”
Psychology 5890 Honors Research Seminar
Prof. Dorothee Dietrich

Kevin Miller, 2010            
“The Wire and Social Organizations:  How One Television Show Uses Social Organizations to Discuss Systemic Inequality”
Sociology 5960 Senior Seminar
Prof. Maggie Jensen

Sarah Perez, 2010            
“Compelling Circumstances:  The Need to Mandate Spousal Testimony in Domestic Violence Prosecutions”
Legal Studies 5800 Senior Seminar
Prof. Margaret Hobday