Aetna Writing in the Disciplines Award

Congratulations to the 2009 Aetna Writing in the Disciplines Awards winners and honorable mentions!


We received 127 submissions and the overall quality of the pool was strong. Committees comprised of faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates from several different disciplines read the submissions. Four different readers reviewed each paper, blind of student and faculty names, and based on their rankings four winners and six honorable mentions emerged.


Humanities
Winner: “Straight but Searching: Queering the Male Gaze in Lesbian Pulp” by John Bailey.
The professor for the course was Margaret Breen, English Department
 
Honorable Mentions
“The Odyssey's New Epic Hero” by Kaitlin Harley
The professor for the course was Roger Travis, Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies
 
“Gender Stereotyping In Popular Children's Literature” by Lisa A. Tess
The professor for the course was Kathleen O'Reilly, Sociology, Avery Point Campus
 
Social Sciences
Winner: “El Agua es Nuestra: The Bolivian Water War and Anti-Neoliberal Popular Mobilization” by Matthew M. Santacroce
The professor for the course was Shareen Hertel, Political Science
 
Honorable Mentions
“Children's Ability to Recognize Six Universal Emotions” by Brittney Bauer
The professor for the course was Letitia Naigles, Psychology

“The Effectiveness of the Gluten-Free, Casein-Free Diet” by Kenyon Colli
The professor for the course was Inge-Marie Eigsti, Psychology

“Personality and Perception: The Effects of Personality Traits on Gender Role Endorsement” by Cara Flynn
The instructor for the course was Randi Garcia, Psychology
 
Science and Engineering
Co-Winner: “Mimicry: Shades of Gray” by Joseph Keller
The professor for the course was Chris Elphick, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
 
Co-Winner: “Shortened Telomeres as a Root for Cancer” by Alexander Ocampo
The professor for the course was Mary Bruno, Molecular and Cell Biology
 
Honorable Mention
“Anti-Carcinogenic Properties of Anthocyanins in Breast Cancer Prevention” by Melissa Cilley
The professor for the course was Richard Bruno, Nutritional Science

The deadline to submit writing for the Aetna Writing in the Disciplines Awards was August 31, 2009. Please check our website in April 2010 for award information for the 2009-2010 academic year.


The University Writing Center is pleased to announce a new set of awards that will recognize excellent undergraduate writing across the academic disciplines at UConn.

The Aetna Writing in the Disciplines Awards will recognize exemplary academic writing done by students across the sciences, social sciences, humanities, and professional schools. Each of three winners will receive $300, thanks to funding from the Aetna Chair of Writing Endowment, and the papers will be published in Essay Connections, a collection that features the Freshman English prize essays but that will soon to be expanded to include the advanced writing winners.

Research papers, critical essays, lab reports, literature reviews, design projects, case studies—indeed all the genres assigned in UConn courses—are eligible. Writing done as part of W courses is encouraged, but so is writing done for non-W courses. Chapters or excerpts from undergraduate theses are eligible but should be kept to under 25 pages. All students, even graduating seniors, are eligible to submit writing, so long as it was done for UConn course credit.

To have your submission considered, here is what you need to do:
  1. Fill out the submission form (Word).
  2. Remove student/instructor name and course identifiers from the paper (names of instructor and student will remain anonymous until winners are announced).
  3. Obtain an electronic copy of the assignment from your instructor or reproduce it from a hard copy you have.
  4. Make sure that your essay follows appropriate guidelines for your discipline for source documentation and works cited.
  5. Send an email with the following three (3) attachments to writingcenter@uconn.edu
    1. The electronic submission form
    2. The writing assignment to which your paper responds
    3. Your submission (without your name or your instructor's name)

All of those items must be submitted by August 31, 2009.

Three winners will be selected and each will receive a $300 award.

Not eligible are essays written for Freshman English, which should be directed to the Freshman English Aetna Awards (http://freshmanenglish.uconn.edu/students/contests.php), or pieces of creative writing, which should be directed to the awards sponsored by the Creative Writing Program (http://creativewriting.uconn.edu/contests.php). Graduate students are not eligible to submit work for the Aetna Writing in the Disciplines Award.