We are excited to announce the 2020 Critical Essay and English Department Award Winners.
2020 Critical Essay and English Department Award Winner:
Anna Kasradze, '21- Discontents and their Civilization: Epic Melancholy in T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land"
Honorable Mention: Gretchen Wright, '20 – “Brontë before Darwin: The Weakening of the Human-Animal Divide”
Each year Duke English sponsors a critical essay competition that is open for essays written by any Duke undergraduate enrolled in an English department course. Submissions must be critical essays of nonfiction produced for a class during the current academic year in which the student is enrolled.
2020 Stanley E. Fish Award for Outstanding Work in British Literature:
Joel Mire, ‘20 - “Narrative as Search: Computational Forms of Knowledge in the Novels of Tom McCarthy”
This award recognizes outstanding work by an undergraduate enrolled in an English course in British Literature.
Thank you for this incredible honor! - Joel Mire
2020 Louis J. Budd Award for Outstanding Work in American Literature:
Jay Arora, ‘20 - “Protein Binds: Decoding Factory-Farmed Meat in the American South”
This award recognizes outstanding work by an undergraduate enrolled in an English course in American Literature.
Thank you so much for this incredible honor! I am so grateful to Dr. Black for his mentorship on this project.
- Jay Arora, '20
2020 Barbara Herrnstein Smith Award for Outstanding Work in Literary Theory or Criticism:
(Co-winners)
Meg Hancock, ‘20 - “‘Bullets in the Dining Room Table’: Reckoning with the South and its Burdens in Faulkner, O’Connor, and Morrison”
Wow!! Thank you - this is such an honor. - Meg Hancock, '20
Brennen Neeley, ‘20 - “Conceits of Imagined Silence: Reconciling Recognition and Acknowledgment in Fiction”
This award recognizes outstanding work by an undergraduate enrolled in an English course in literary theory or criticism.
2020 Award for Most Original Honors Thesis:
(Co-winners)
Alice Dai, ‘20 - “Long Way Home”
Grateful! Hope everyone is finding ways to live beautifully. - Alice Dai, '20
Valerie Muensterman, ‘20 - “The Roadkill Club”
This award recognizes a senior student for writing the most original honors thesis.
Congratulations to all of the 2020 winners!
