Writing Award
The Women's Studies Program offers a prestigious Writing Award each year. The winning essay is chosen in a blind competition: two to three faculty readers from widely different fields read all the submissions, which can come from any field as long as they have a Women's Studies focus in either subject or methodology. We usually have a substantial and strong field of contenders for the $100 prize.
Recent winners of the Women's Studies Writing Award:
Danny Bean, 2023
"The Power of Female Anger in Music"
Anya B. Bennett, 2022
"Lesbian Porn for Straight Men: The Commodification of Queer Women's Bodies"
Sadie A. Kurtzman, 2021
"Behind the Door: Female Sexuality in 鈥楤luebeard鈥� and 鈥楾he Bloody Chamber鈥�"
Honorable Mention, 2021: Faith L. Scully for her paper "Peach Women and Patriarchy: Planet Aa'A As My Own Terrible Revelation"
Samantha Reynolds, 2020
Emma A. Lyons, 2019
"Whoring Out: Themes of Resistance and Inclusivity Among Women鈥檚 Rugby Players"
Honorable Mention, 2019: Kierstin G. Conaway for her paper "China鈥檚 One-Child Policy: The Effects on Women鈥檚 Sphere"
Atolani Victoria Ladipo, 2018
"The Relentless Pursuit of the Black Female Body"
Honorable Mention, 2018: Jayne Stone for her paper "A Beautiful Demise: Helga Crane's Body as an Agent of Both Mobility and Permanence"
Kaylie Taylor, 2017
"Catholic Health Care on a Lutheran Campus: Examining the Merger between 性视界 and Community Mercy Health Partners"
Honorable Mention, 2017: Joseph Sechrist for his paper "'Motionless Agony': Corporeal, Constricted Agency and Suicide in Butterfly Burning"
Sarah Van Deusen, 2016
"Pulling off the Band-aid: Trauma and Healing in Alison Bechdel's Fun Home"
Alison Bewley, 2015
"Literary Traditions on Fire: Mimetic Desire and the Role of the Orphaned Heroine in Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games"
Lindsey Criswell, 2014
"Linking Gang Rape and Hegemonic Masculinity: Predicting Intensity of Sexual Assault Victimization"
Laura Kay, 2010
"Not a Woman, But a FANY: Appropriations of Gender in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry During the Great War"
Erin Gorman, 2009
"Heloise as Author: A Historiographical Examination"
Heather Roscow, 2008
"Excerpts from the Diary of Sofinisba Anguissola"
Andrea Ipjian, 2007
"Christine de Pizan: A Visionary for Women"
Alison Davis, 2006
" Approaching Eliot's Adam Bebe From Two Moral Perspectives"
Jenny Burns, 2004 and 2005 Recipient
"Pious vs Holy: The Relationships and Differences between the Lives of Laywomen and the Lives of Female Saints that Depict the Evolution of Sancitity in Byzantium"
Alaina Carroll, 2003
"The Indispensable Pre-Modern Woman"
Annie Wagganer, 2002
"The Make-up of Plain Women: Understanding the Construction of Beauty and Body Image Among a Community of Amish Women"
Jennifer Kidd, 2001
Susan Davis, 2000
"Barrett Browning's Aurora Leigh"
Honorable Mention: Lauren Schmidt
Reagan Lothes, 1999
"The Immaculate Conception of the Faerie Queene and Sir Walter Ralegh's Proposed Possession of Guiana: The Rape of Feminine Power"
Jennifer Nauck, 1998
"Written on the Body: A Discourse on Diff-rance"
Corinne Wohlford, 1997
"She Who Holds Her Tongue: A Feminist Reading of Disney's The Little Mermaid"
Anne Ford, 1996
"'Great Things In Her Liberation': Manipulation and Revision in Hildegard's Scivias"
Erin Fox, 1995
"Entrance to and Exit from the Green World: The Feminine Condition in the Works of Colette"
Kim Snyder, 1995
"Factors Contributing to Women's Changing Representation in the House of Representatives, 1980-1994"
Gay Zoldesy, 1994
"Phallogocentrism: L'Ecriture Feminine"
Molly Wilkinson, 1993
"Catharine Beecher: Feminist"