Honors and Awards 2022-2023

HONORS & AWARDS 2022-2023

Bachelor of Arts Degrees

Maddie Bell (Jones)

English; Visual & Dramatic Arts

Alyssa Cahoy (Sid Richardson) * English; Health Sciences (minor: Medical Humanities)

Savannah Carren (Jones)

English

Akaya Chambers (Martel)

English; Visual & Dramatic Arts

Madeleine Cluck (Wiess) English

Sarah Darilek (Lovett)

English

Morgan Gage (McMurtry) *

English; Visual & Dramatic Arts (minor: Study of Women, Gender, & Sexuality)

Ella Hoyt (Hanszen) *

English

Destiny Jackson (Duncan)

English; Psychology

Tiffany Jin (Duncan)

English; Politics, Law, & Social Thought

Sammi Johnson (Duncan) ^

English; Sociology

Annette Jones (Brown)

English

Ray Karki (Brown) ^ English

Jordan Killinger (Will Rice)

English (minor: Business)

Kennedy Kovin (Duncan)

English

Sara Mansfield (Hanszen)

English; Economics

Cg Marinelli (Hanszen)

English (minor: Business)

Warda Mohamed (Jones)

English; Sociology

Izabella Natchev (Martel)

English; Computer Science

Summer Diem-Ha Nguyen (Hanszen) ^ English (minor: Medical Humanities)

Anna Rajagopal (Jones) * English

Alexis Robertson (Sid Richardson) English (minor: Sociology)

Camille Villar (McMurtry) * English; Biochemistry & Cell Biology

Kendall Vining (Martel) ^ English

Alejandra Wagnon (Wiess)

English, Visual & Dramatic Arts

Rachel Waite (Duncan)

English; Sports Medicine & Exercise Physiology

Lily Weeks (Jones)

English; Visual & Dramatic Arts

Elysia Wu (Lovett)

English; Neuroscience

Hannah Young (Wiess)

English

Bonnie Zhao (Baker) English, Sociology

^ Graduated December 2022

* Student recommended for University Distinction in Research and Creative Works

Undergraduate Senior Seminar Projects

The Senior Seminar & Research Workshop is an immersive, year-long, research and writing methods course. The culmination of the course is an in-depth critical or creative work with the potential for public-facing components (e.g., performances, websites, e-zines, podcasts, community events), as well as collaborations with a student’s secondary major or minor.

Maddie Bell

“Crossroads”

Alyssa Cahoy

“A Path is Formed By Walking: With Love, To the Budding Pinay Luminary”

Savannah Carren

“Adjective Noun”

Akaya Chambers

“Death Lives in Cold Bones”

Madeleine Cluck

“Medical Dramas in Public Discourse”

Sarah Darilek

“Nonvert Narratives: Online Identity and Community for Exvangelicals”

Morgan Gage

“dying languages”

Ella Hoyt

“Three Photos of Somme in Spring”

Destiny Jackson

“The Diary Monologues”

Tiffany Jin

“Inheritance and Revolt: Aphra Behn’s Libertine Poetry”

Annette Jones

“Group Sourced Truth”

Ray Karki

“A Fall of Reign”

Jordan Killinger

“Inspiring Middle School Students to Love Reading in an Internet-Obsessed World”

Kennedy Kovin

“Post-Dobbs Abortion Narratives”

Undergraduate Senior Seminar Projects

Sara Mansfield

“The Intersection of Modernism, Gender, and Sexuality”

Cg Marinelli

“But Then She Came Back”

Warda Mohamed

“Black Placemaking at Rice University”

Izabella Natchev

“Increasing Representation of Women, Queer Identities, and Mental Health in Science-Fiction”

Summer Diem-Ha Nguyen

“The Desensitizing Ubiquity of War Metaphors in Healthcare: An Investigation of Militaristic Language in Early COVID-19 News Articles”

Anna Rajagopal

“For All the Tiger Daughters”

Alexis Robertson

“Confronting the Literary ‘Canon’”

Anne Rubsamen

“Teenage Gothic”

Camille Villar

“The Paperback Patient: Interpersonal Insights from Psychiatric Diagnoses in Gothic Literature”

Alejandra Wagnon

“A Non-Comprehensive Look into The Brain of Alejandra Wagnon”

Rachel Waite

“Too Old: Questioning Age Beliefs”

Lily Weeks

“Stone Acts, Butch Feelings: Minor Aesthetics in Lesbian Pulp Archives”

Elysia Wu

“Tale As Old As Time: Reimaging Femininity in Magical Retellings”

Hannah Young

“Everyday Anomalies: A Collection of Sci-Fi-Realism Short Stories”

Bonnie Zhao

“Unveiling the World of Fanfiction: From Derivative to Legitimate Literature”

Undergraduate Prizes & Awards

Caroline

S.

and

David L. Minter Award for Outstanding Graduating English Major

Created to honor Emeritus English Professor David Minter and his wife Caroline, this award is given out every year to a graduating English major with an extraordinary GPA, whose transcript demonstrates a breadth of scholarship.

Anna Rajagopal

Anne Rubsamen

Fiona Tolhurst Memorial Award

This prize is presented to a graduating English major who has demonstrated academic excellence in upper-level courses, and has expressed interest in a graduate degree.

Kyra McKauffley

Lily Weeks

Caroline S. and David L. Minter Outstanding Essay Prize

This prize is awarded for a paper of ten pages or more written for an English course by a current junior or senior English major.

Lily Weeks

“Too Butch for Feelings: Reading Minor Lesbians in 20th-Century Pulp Fiction”

Caroline S. and David L. Minter Summer Scholar Awards

These awards are given out every year to any student whose research over the summer will inform their work in English during the following semester.

Huijun Mao, Dasseny Areola, Hannah Hoskins, Jasmine Beveridge

Lady Geddes Essay Writing Prize

This prize is an annual writing competition for the best academic paper by a currently enrolled freshman or sophomore.

First Place - Alyse Bijl-Spiro

“Absurd Heroism in the Streets of London: An Existentialist Reading of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway”

Second Place - Shani Chiang

“The Other Slave Girl in Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”

Undergraduate Prizes & Awards

Inprint Marion Barthelme Prize in Creative Writing at Rice University

This award is given out every year to a graduating student who has completed coursework in creative writing at Rice University.

Anna Rajagopal

Paul Otremba Award for Literary Citizenship

Each year, this award is given in memoriam of the life and work of Paul Otremba, a poet, Rice professor, and dedicated literary citizen, honoring a graduating Rice student who has made outstanding contributions to the literary community on campus, in the Houston area, or the field.

Hannah Young

The Rice Review Awards

R2: The Rice Review is a student-run literary journal at Rice University founded in 2004 by creative writing professor and author Justin Cronin, and made possible by the generosity of the Huisick, Epstein, and Williams families. Each year, R2 gives out Williams Awards to those students whose work merits additional recognition.

George Guion Williams Prize for Fiction

First Place – Ella Hoyt for “Three Photos of Somme in Spring”

Second Place – Ashley Wang for “Hope is the Thing With [Unfortunate] Feathers”

George Guion Williams Prize for Creative Nonfiction

First Place – Emelia Gauch for “I am attempting to construct a person from memories and shadows”

Second Place – Anne Rubsamen for “The Uncanny Tooth”

George Guion Williams Prize for Poetry

First Place – Riya Misra for “Show Your Work”

Second Place – Camellia An for “Blood Orange”

The English Department also recognizes Senior Lecturer Ian Schimmel who serves as faculty advisor to R2: The Rice Review. Instructor Schimmel consistently goes above and beyond to mentor, and serve as a resource for, those students that serve on the editorial staff of this incredible journal.

Undergraduate Service

McKenna Tanner, Lily Weeks, Hannah Young Editors-in-Chief, R2

Dasseny Arreola, Riley Combes, Suzanne Harms, Katherine Jeng, Janai Kameka, Kaitlyn Keyes, Grace Kwon, Izabella Natchev, Kayla Peden, Hannah Son, Ariana Wang, Grace Yetter

Section Editors, R2

Basma Bedawi, Shreya Challa, Joanna Coram, Kenna Dixon, Emelia Gauch, Kyra McKauffley, Hadley Medlock, Hoang Nguyen, Jaclynn

Schwander, Cat-Linh Tran, Amelia Tsai, Ziana Ukani, Ashley Wang

R2 Staff

Julia Li, President, English Undergraduate Association (EUA)

Katherine Jeng and Cg Marinelli, Co-Vice Presidents, English Undergraduate Association

Riley Combes, Treasurer, English Undergraduate Association

Ellie Cha, Secretary, English Undergraduate Association

Founded in 2016, the EUA connects English majors and potential majors, readying students for diverse career paths and lives. Lecturer Amanda Johnson serves as faculty advisor.

Doctor of Philosophy Degrees

Scott Pett Professor José Aranda

“No More New Worlds: Utopic Anxiety and the US Settler Imagination, 1885-1925”

August 2022

Sólveig Sigurdardottir Professor Nicole Waligora-Davis

“Hidden in Plain Sight: Nordic Colonialism in American Literature from Reconstruction to the Immigration Act of 1924”

December 2022

Sam Stoeltje Professor José Aranda

“Of Ghosts and Justice: Spectral Politics in 20th-Century U.S. Literature” May 2023

Achievement of Candidacy

Chaney Hill Rowan Morar

New Academic Positions

Sonia Del Hierro PhD 2023

Assistant Professor of Chicanx Literature, Southwestern University

Kevin MacDonnell PhD 2021

Assistant Professor of Eighteenth-Century British Literature, Wake Forest University

Graduate Student Awards & Prizes

EXTERNAL

Taylin Nelson Travel Award

American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies

DEPARTMENTAL

Bren Ram

Clancy Taylor Summer Public Humanities Fund

Graduate Student Awards & Prizes

DEPARTMENTAL

Shirley Bard Rapoport Essay Prize

This essay prize is awarded every year for the best essay by a graduate student in the English Department. Morris Rapoport established this endowed prize as a memorial to honor his beloved wife and lifetime partner, Shirley Bard Rapoport, and her love of writing and literature.

First Place - Paul Burch

“Receptivity, Simultaneity: The Thin Red Line as Ecological Cinematic Poesis”

Second Place - Bren Ram

“Realism and Interface: Reading Ruth Ozeki Apocalyptically”

Chair’s Best Dissertation Prize

Each year, this prize is awarded to the best dissertation in the English department.

Sólveig Sigurdardottir

“Hidden in Plain Sight: Nordic Colonialism in American Literature from Reconstruction to the Immigration Act of 1924” Advisor: Professor Nicole Waligora-Davis

December 2022

Margaret C. Ostrum Summer Research Grant

This summer research grant allows students to travel to archives or work on ethnographic projects outside of Houston, especially for work related to their dissertation.

Nina Cook

Chaney Hill

UNIVERSITY

Chaney Hill

Dean’s Fund Travel Grant School of Humanities

Bren Ram

National Humanities Council Graduate Student Summer Residency School of Humanities

Graduate Service

Zainab Abdali, Humanities Graduate Student Assocation Co-president

Taylin Nelson, Humanities Graduate Student Assocation Co-president; Graduate Student Representative

Nina Cook and Karen Siu, Graduate Student Representatives

Graduate Fellowships

Chaney Hill

Diluvial Houston Initiative Predoctoral Fellowship

Center for Environmental Studies, Rice University

Meredith McCullough Visionary Partners’ Dissertation Fellowship

Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, Rice University

Diluvial Houston Predoctoral Fellowship

Center for Environmental Studies in collaboration with the Diluvial Houston Initiative, Rice University

Taylin Nelson Marilynn Mars Gillet Fellowship

Graduate Publications

Nina Cook

“A Speaking Silence: ‘Universal Language’ and Multilingualism in The Shape of Water” Word & Image, forthcoming

“Like a Lamb to the Slaughter: Unjust Censorship in Tales from Shakespeare” The CEA Critic, November 2022

Graduate Publications

Chaney Hill

“The Roots and Routes of Black Emancipation in Sutton Griggs’s Imperium in Imperio”

Texas Studies in Literature and Language, forthcoming Summer 2023

“Review of Steven L. Davis and Sam L. Pfiester, eds. Viva Texas Rivers! Adventures, Misadventures, and Glimpses of Nirvana along Our Storied Waterways”

Western American Literature, vol. 57, no. 4, Winter 2022

“Necro-Settler Coloniality in Texan Mythology and Identity: Forgetting the Alamo”

Western American Literature, vol. 57, no. 3, pg. 255–83. Fall 2022

Review of V Castro’s The Haunting of Alejandra

Southern Review of Books, forthcoming, May 2023

Review of KB Brookins’ Freedom House

Southern Review of Books, April 2023

Review of Clint Smith’s How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America, “Confronting False Histories in How the Word is Passed”

Southern Review of Books, January 2023

Taylin Nelson

“Chapter 10: ‘Labouring Bodies: Work Animals and Hack Writers in Oliver Goldsmith’s Letters”

Routledge Studies in Eighteenth-Century Cultures and Societies Series - Letters and the Body: 1700-1830 ed. Karen Harvey, Sheryllynne Haggerty, and Sarah Goldsmith, forthcoming Summer 2023

Bren Ram

“Realism and Interface: Reading Ruth Ozeki Apocalyptically”

Modern Fiction Studies , forthcoming Fall 2023

“Lucy’s Apocalypse: Placing the End of the World in Narrative” Apocalyptica 1.2, pp. 97-115, forthcoming Spring 2023

“Reproductive Poetics: Infertility and Mediation in Monica Youn’s Blackacre”

Arizona Quarterly 79.1, pp. 105-129, Spring 2023

“An Introduction to the Speculative Fiction of Percival Everett” Ancillary Review of Books, 2022

“Coming Home to Folk Horror: A Review of C. A. Fletcher’s Dead Water” Ancillary Review of Books, 2022

Graduate Conference Presentations

Nina Cook

“‘As the Judge’: The Interpolation of the Reader in The Woman in White”

North American Victorian Studies Association Conference

Bethlehem, PA

October 2022

Chaney Hill

“Translating the Global Climate Concerns with Personal Stories”

Guest Lecture for Environmental Studies 205: Reckoning with the Anthropocene, Watersheds Rice University

2023

“Black Histories Lab: Re-Thinking Black Houston”

Black Houston(s) Symposium: Research, Policy, and Activism—Past and Future

Rice University and the Gregory School

March 23–24, 2023

“A Space in Between: The U.S.-Mexico Border Wall as War Memorial”

Experiencing War Memorials: Feeling, Place, and Public Memory

University of Alabama

2023

“Bathed in the Blood: Necro-Settler Colonialism at the Alamo”

Modern Language Association Conference

San Francisco, CA

2023

“Future-Oriented Black Expressivity in Sutton Griggs’ Imperium in Imperio”

Western Literature Association Conference

Santa Fe, NM

2022

“The Roots and Routes of Black Emancipation in Sutton Griggs’ Imperium in Imperio”

South Central Modern Language Association Conference

Graduate Conference Presentations

Taylin Nelson

“Black Histories Lab: Re-Thinking Black Houston”

Black Houston(s) Symposium: Research, Policy, and Activism—Past and Future

Rice University and the Gregory School

March 23–24, 2023

“Digitally Mapping the 18th Century”

American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies

St. Louis, MO

March 9–11, 2023

“Studying Sharks as ‘Enfleshed Work’: Christina Sharpe and Natural History”

American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies

St. Louis, MO

March 9–11, 2023

“Defining the Human in Environmental Humanities”

Venice International University Graduate Seminar Series

Venice, Italy

June 6–11, 2022

Bren Ram

“I Spy Nothing: A Nuclear Commons of Anti-Blackness”

Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment

Portland, OR 2023

“Genre Theory as Pedagogical Tool: A Case Study on the Personal Statement” College English Association

San Antonio, TX 2023

“American Desert and the Palimpsest of Nuclear Apocalypse”

Western Literature Association

Santa Fe, NM

2022

“Inviting Apocalypse Studies: Reading Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being”

Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment

Newark, DE 2022

Faculty Hosting the Reception

Professor José Aranda, Director of Graduate Studies

Professor Aranda has a joint appointment with the department of English and the department of Modern and Classical Literatures and Cultures. He has written articles on early U.S. criticism, 19thcentury Mexican American literature, the future of Chicano/a studies, and most recently undertaken an investigation of the relationship between modernity and Mexican American writings, entitled, The Places of Modernity in Early Mexican American Literature, 1848-1948. Nationally, he sits on the board of Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project, and is an active member of the MLA Chicana and Chicano Literature Division. He teaches courses in Chicano/a literature and 19th- and 20th-century U.S. literature.

Professor Krista Comer, Chair of the Awards Committee

Professor Comer is a scholar of contemporary literature and cultural politics with interdisciplinary interests in problems of place, space and their theorization. Her books include Landscapes of the New West: Gender and Geography in Contemporary Women’s Writing (1999), and Surfer Girls in the New World Order (2010). She has published essays widely, and edited two special issues of the journal Western American Literature. In 2014, Professor Comer co-founded the Institute for Women Surfers (IWS), an international grassroots political education initiative in the Public Humanities. Her current book project is Living West as Feminists

Professor Lacy Johnson, Director of Undergraduate Studies

Professor Johnson teaches Creative Nonfiction. She is a professor, curator, activist, and author of The Reckonings (Scribner, 2018), which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism, and the memoir The Other Side (Tin House, 2014). For its frank and fearless confrontation of the epidemic of violence against women, The Other Side was named a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Autobiography. She is also author of Trespasses: A Memoir (University of Iowa Press, 2012), which has been anthologized in The Racial Imaginary (Fence Books, 2015, edited by Claudia Rankine et al.) and Literature: The Human Experience. She is currently Artistic Director of the Houston Flood Museum.

Professor Kirsten Ostherr, Department Chair

Kirsten Ostherr, PhD, MPH is a media scholar, health researcher, and technology analyst. She is currently leading a multidisciplinary project called “Translational Humanities for Public Health” that will identify humanities-based (and humanities-inspired) responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, to document and help others build upon these creative efforts. Kirsten is founder and director of the Medical Humanities program (2016-present) and the Medical Futures Lab (2012-present). She has spoken to audiences at the White House, the World Health Organization, the National Library of Medicine, TEDx, the mHealth Summit, Medicine X, the Louisville Innovation Summit, the Bauhaus, and universities and conferences worldwide.

About the Department of English

Rice English integrates creative and critical practice through training in close reading, analytical writing, cultural history, and craft/form. Our faculty research and pedagogy cover the breadth of the study of British and American literatures and cultures ranging from the medieval era to the present. The curriculum emphasizes literature and literary history, race and ethnicity studies, feminist and gender studies, queer theory and the history of sexuality, visual culture and comparative media studies, and the Anglophone literature of the postcolonial world. Faculty have particular strengths in the newer interdisciplinary areas of medical humanities, ecocriticism, post-humanism, and environmental humanities.

Rice English is also home to a vibrant creative writing concentration offering a range of courses in fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction.

Our doctoral program is training the next generation of teacher-scholars through interdisciplinary seminars and a comprehensive professionalization program.