The 2880-2890 Expository Writing Prize


The John S. Knight Institute offers an award of $300 for the best essay written in English 2880-90; Honorable Mention carries an award of $100. Many winning essays have been published in the Knight Institute's journal Discoveries.

Winners in the history of the course include:

Fall 2019: One first prize: to Olivia St.-Amand, ILR '20, for "Danielle."

Spring 2019: Catherine Huang, ILR '21, for "A Taiwanese-American Family Canon," and Tiffany Liu, AS '22, for "Moving Beyond Anthropocentrism in Jeff Vandermeer's Annihilation" (two first prizes); Honorable Mention to Sabrina Xie, AS '21 for "Building Bridges Through Pipelines," and to Andrés Sánchez, AS '21 for "Quien I Am""

Fall 2018: Pegah Moradi, A&S '19 for "Brush, Pluck, Repeat,"; Seonah Kim, A&S '20 for "An Attempt at Altruism" (two first prizes)

Spring 2018: Amanda Weinstein, Hotel '18 for "Textbooks, The Newest Form of Socioeconomic Barrier in Higher Education"; Honorable Mention to "Michaela Novakova, A&S '18," for "Second Life in San Junipero"

Fall 2017: Jacob Hawkes, A&S '20, for "A Dream from Which There is No Waking" ; Clara Goldrich, ILR '20 for "Closed Up-Closed Out? Identity Concealment in Persona" (two first prizes)

Spring 2017: Laura Fletcher, A&S '17, for "Inked"; Siddarth Reddy, ENGR '17, for "Slavery in silico? Regulating Lives in Simulated Reality" (two first prizes)

Fall 2016: Sundas Wiqas, ILR '19, for "Possession as Power"; Shaneese Sicora, A&S '18, for "Cold Fantasy" (two first prizes)

Fall 2015: Hae Bin Kim, A&S '18, for "Line"; Emily Miller, HE '16, for "Resorting" (two first prizes)

Fall 2015: ; Patrick Casey, ILR '16, for "Gritty White Guys: A Love Story"; Honorable Mention to Stephanie Parker, A&S '18, for "Excuse Me, Was You Saying Something? Uh Uh, You Cant Tell Me Nothing: The Contradictions of Mr. West"

Fall 2014: Allessandra DiCorato, A&S '15, for "Choosing an Objective"; Honorable Mention to Timothy Vhay, ENGR '17, for "Samantha Baker to Ferris Bueller"

Spring 2014: Ana Niño, A&S '15, for "Walking"; Honorable Mention to Matthew Farrell A&S '15 for "Approaching Escape Velocity in Akira"

Fall 2013: Two first prizes: to Michael Ferrer, I&LR '16, for "Robin Hood or Rags to Riches?" and to Daniel Toretsky, AAP '16, for "It's for Her I Write My Poems in Yiddish." Honorable Mention to Noah Rankin AS '16 for "Grand"

Spring 2013: Benjamin Schneider, A&S '13, for "Addicted to Football"; Honorable Mention to Greg Crawford, I&LR '14 for "Genetic Alteration and Changing Work Relations," and to Emily Miller, I&LR '15 for "Not-So-Universal Juridisction"

Fall 2012: Emma Gerstenzang, A&S '15, for "Sexual Violence and the Postmodern Film" ; Honorable Mention to Emma Pollack, A&S '15, for "The Fish Head of 5773"

Spring 2012: Samantha Gobioff, HE '14, for her essay "Hitchcock Plays God" ; Honorable Mention to Henry Huang, HE '12, for "Defending the Right to L20"

Fall 2011: Pallavi Basu, A&S 12, for "A Dance of Spirits" ; Honorable Mention to Evan Shelley, A&S '12, for "In the Tracks of the Coyote"

Fall 2010: Laura Jones, SCE, for "Shabbos" ; Honorable Mention to Jane Mermel, A&S '11, for "Heroes and Villains: Man and Nature in Nissan's 'Lear' Commercial."

Spring 2010: Michael Braverman, I&LR '12, for "The Importance of Net Neutrality" ; Honorable Mention to Micah Del Rosario, A&S '13, for "Otherness: An STD"

Fall 2009: Elizabeth Soltan, A&S '12, for "Left Behind: Brimstone Gets Hip" ; Honorable Mention to Michael Zhang, A&S '11, for "Decentralized Consumer Activism: Towards Stronger Transnational Corporate Social Responsibility"

Spring 2009: Matthew Clemente, CALS '11, for "The Framers' Aims: Heller, History, and the Second Amendment"; Honorable Mention to Carolyn Sheehan, A&S '09, for "Creeps and Casanovas"

Fall 2008: Amy Maude Pape, CE, for "Werewolf in Sheep's Clothing"; Honorable Mention to Michael Stratford, A&S '11, for "Free Speech and Flag Burning"

Spring 2008: Lulu Yan, CALS, for "Walking on the Margins"

Fall 2007: Jessica Walden, CALS, for "Chasing Loons"; Honorable Mention to Youzhou Zhang, I&LR, for "The Apocalyptic Appeal"

Spring 2007: Alexander Terepka, A&S, for "McCleskey v. Kemp, the 21st Century, and Equal Protection"; Honorable Mention to Caroline Gonzalez, A&S, for "Ironic Apathy and Carnivalesque Activism in Watchman and Super Flat Times"

Fall 2006: Marta Novoa, I&LR, for "Beards,"; Honorable Mention to Jennifer Chuong, AAP, for "The Oyster Bar."

Spring 2006: Two first prizes: to Steven Helfont, I&LR, for "Oncale and Beyond: A Study of Same-Sex Sexual Harrassment," and to Jeffrey Juhasz, A&S, for "A Brief History of Porn -- Ghost Love." Honorable Mention to Lisa Gorman, A&S '07, for "Held in Check"

Fall 2005: Rima Turner, A&S, for "The One Who Wields the Knife"; Honorable Mention to Craig Fischer, I&LR, for "The People's Property: An Analysis of Kelo v. New London"

Spring 2005: Adam Sasiadek, I&LR, for "Cultural Warriors: The Old South, Nostalgia Without Memory, and the Formation of Contemporary Conservatism"; Honorable Mentions to Sarah Brubaker, A&S, for "Kepputch and Cold Bay," and to Joshua Wilson, A&S, for "A Conversation with My Parents"

Fall 2004: Sepeyeonkqua Myles, A&S, for "Efficiently," ; Honorable Mention to Adam Krotman, I&LR, for "Government Regulation of Campaign Finance"

Fall 2003: Lindsay Watkins, A&LS, for "Putting Rock Climbers to Shame: The Sticky Success of Nature's Best Climbers"; Honorable Mention to David Gray, I&LR, for "This Just In: The Media Will Never Be Objective"

Spring 2002: Harrison Leavens, A&S, for "David Lynch and a Cinema of Dreams"; Honorable Mention to Carolyn Smith, A&S, for "Just One"

Fall 2002: Victor Pollaci, Engineering, for "Exposure"; Honorable Mention to Lisa Feinstein, I&LR, for "The Role of Media in the Graduate Student Unionization Movement"

Spring 2002: Scott Paltrowitz, I&LR, for "One Wrong Makes Two Rights"; Honorable Mention to Matthew Tietjen, I&LR, for "Geeks, Grease Monkeys, and My Search for Identity"

Fall 2001: Lori A. Delale, I&LR, for "Homestead: Power and Space in the Transition from an Industrial to a Service Landscape"; Honorable Mention to James May, A&S, for "I Scratched My Arms"

Spring 2001: Jennifer Kohler, A&S, for "Words Save the White Page"; Honorable Mention to Jonathan Melnick, A&S, for "Cloning in Perspective"

Fall 2000: Maureen Zi Wang, A&S, for "Retracing Tangerines and Smokestacks." Honorable Mention to Edward Howard, A&LS, for "One Nation Under Cash: The Dilemma of Campaign Fundraising"

Spring 2000:Sunny Wong, A&S, for "The Perfect Family." Honorable Mention to N. Kathryn Morgan, A&LS, for "Sweet Flower of Spring"

Fall 1999: Two first prizes: to Homa Zarghamee, A&S, for "How We Played Pretend," and to Matthew Niva, I&LR, and Alix Morse, A&S, for a collaborative project: "Advertising and the Media: Hiding the Dangers of Psychotropic Drugs." Honorable mention to Helen Hsi, I&LR, for "East of Liberty"

Spring 1999: Seth Myers, A&S, for "Meditations on the Reality of Reality." Honorable mention to Natalya Bolshun, I&LR, for "Sylvia Plath: The Other Side of Femininity."

Spring 1998: Micaela Grill, I&LR, for "Pigeons in Boxes." Honorable mention to Jeremy DeSilva, A&S, for "Whatever Happened to that Randy Boy?"

Spring 1997: Julia Gordon, I&LR, "Girls and Kids: One and the Same?" Honorable mention to Seth Perretta, I&LR, for "From Volk to Violence: The 'Scientific' Assumption"

Fall 1996: Amy Lai, A&S, for "Female Rebellion in The Bacchae: Criticism and Motivation." Honorable mention to Shannon Smith, Human Ecology, for "Toni Morrison's Jazz as Jazz: A Musical Interpretation of the Novel"

Return to main page