Women's Studies Student Opportunities

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 ‘Bluebeard’ and ‘The Bloody Chamber’"

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’s Rugby Players"

Honorable Mention, 2019: Kierstin G. Conaway for her paper "China’s One-Child Policy: The Effects on Women’s 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 Wittenberg University 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"

 

Back to top