The Department of Comparative Literature awards an annual prize for an outstanding student essay written for a First Year Course in Comparative Literature. Student essays of 3,000 words or fewer are eligible. GSI's may nominate up to two essays written for each section of a 100-level Comp Lit First Year Writing course that they have taught over the current calendar year. See the past prize winners below.
2020 Prize Winners
Student: Mallory Raven
Essay: "Brazil in Tension: Grupo Corpo’s Embodiment of Brazilian Identity"
Nominated by: Elizabeth Boyle
Class: COMPLIT 141-Great Performances, Fall 2019
2019 Prize Winners
Student: Katherine Glad
Essay: “Chuck Too Close”
Nominated by: Duygu Ergun
Class: COMPLIT 122, Fall 2018
2018 Prize Winners
Student: Deryl Long
Essay: “From the Basement Up: Delegitimizing White Property Rights in The Invisible Man”
Nominated by: Alex Aguayo
Class: COMPLIT 122, Winter 2017
Student: Miri Kim
Essay: “Diversifying Conversation and Narratives: How Angels in America Sparked Political and Social Change”
Nominated by: Harry Kashdan
Class: COMPLIT 141, Fall 2017
2017 Prize Winners
Student: Clare Francis
Essay: “Gendered Spaces: The Role of Female Refugees”
Nominated by: Yael Kenan
Class: COMPLIT 122, Fall 2016
2016 Prize Winners
Student: Michelle Abramczyk
Essay: Colonizing Caliban the Man and Monster
Nominated by: Basil Dufallo
Class: COMPLIT 140, Fall 2015
Student: Elizabeth Stanley
Essay: “The Roman Lens: Views on Gender Roles and Nonconformance in Anthony and Cleopatra”
Nominated by: Basil Dufallo
Class: COMPLIT 140, Fall 2015
2015 Prize Winners
Student: Merin McDivitt
Essay: “Cave of the Heart and the Language of the Body”
Nominated by: Richard Pierre
Class: COMPLIT 141, Fall 2014
Student: Yue (Sheila) Xu
Essay: “Redology and Its Authorship Obsession”
Nominated by: William Stroebel
Class: COMPLIT 122, Winter 2015
2013 Prize Winners
Student: Matthew Bell
Essay: “The Operation of Time in the Detective Novel and Story”
Nominated by: Christopher Meade
Class: COMPLIT 122, Spring 2012
Student: Kayoon Jung
Essay: ‘”Saving’ the ‘Other’: A Destructive Mentality”
Nominated by: Ruth Tsoffar
Class: COMPLIT 140, Winter 2013
2012 Prize Winners
Student: Eli Cahan
Essay: "Love, Notre Dame, and John McCain"
Nominated by: Rostom Mesli
Class: COMPLIT 122, Winter 2012
2011 Prize Winners
Student: Oriol Burgos-Tsoffar
Essay: "Human Waste: Existential Thought in 'The Waste Land' and 'Waiting for Godot'"
Nominated by: Tatjana Aleksic
Class: COMPLIT COMPLIT 140, Fall 2011
