2024 E-Newsletter - UNDERGRADUATE

From the DUS Office

Professor Aarthi Vadde with Colorful background — Professor Aarthi Vadde, DUS

This year was a busy one in the undergraduate program! We launched new courses on contemporary African literature and artificial intelligence in literature and film. We held open houses for the Creative Writing program, gathered at our monthly Third Tuesday events, and sponsored the largest Distinction Day yet with fourteen seniors presenting critical and creative theses.

Award Winners

Stanley E. Fish Award for Outstanding Work in British & Anglophone Literature: This award recognizes outstanding work by an undergraduate enrolled in an English course in British Literature.

Eliana Genatt, “An Exploration of the Violent versus Traitorous Nature of Suicide”

Barbara Herrnstein Smith Award for Outstanding Work in Literary Theory or Criticism: This award recognizes outstanding work by an undergraduate enrolled in an English course in literary theory or criticism.

Skijler Hutson, “Five-Leaf Clovers: Freeways and the Los Angeles Postmodern Novel”

Louis J. Budd Award for Outstanding Work in American Literature: This award recognizes outstanding work by an undergraduate enrolled in an English course in American Literature.

Maddie Rubin, “Committing to the Bit: The Work of Personality in the Automaton Age
Milla Surjadi, “Intimacy as World-Making: Modes of Female Liberation in Fiction”

Victor Strandberg Literary Award: This award, made possible by the Seinfeld family, recognizes an undergraduate for excellence in the literary arts.

Marina Chen
Sita Conde

Award for Most Original Honors Thesis: This award recognizes a senior student for writing the most original honors thesis.

Heidi Smith, “Judging Books by Their Covers: Reese’s Book Club and Contemporary Bookishness”

Critical Essay Award: Arielle Stern, “The Force of Othering”

Faculty Scholar’s Award (the highest award awarded by faculty to undergraduate students pursuing a scholarly career): Arielle Stern

Duke English Class of 2024

30 - English Majors
19 - English Minors
16 - Creative Writing Minors

Distinction Graduates

Nima Babjani-Feremi, After Spicer
Nhu Bui, Sputnik II: The Price of Progress
Marina Chen, Wide and Deep
Sita Conde, The Better World of Romance Fiction
Skijler Huston, Five-Leaf Clovers: Freeways and the Los Angeles Postmodern Novel
Stephen Kim, The History of Western Romance in Béroul’s Le Roman de Tristan, Annie Proulx’s “Brokeback Mountain,” and Jenny Offill’s Department of Speculation
Mia Malden, The Three Afterlives of Alana Loren: A Novel
Maddie Rubin, Committing to the Bit: The Work of Personality in the Automation Age
Heidi Smith, Judging Books by Their Covers: Reese’s Book Club and Contemporary Bookishness
Milla Surjadi, Intimacy as World-Making: Modes of Female Liberation in Fiction
Angelica Villalba, Permutations of The Fall: Innocence Lost and The Paradox of Knowledge
Ruby Wang, Angelus Novus