A metal bas relieve scuplture of Sisyphus, persisting as he forever pushes uphill.

2024 Undergraduate Humanities Prize: 

Best Undergraduate Senior Research Paper

The Humanities Prize recognizes a graduating humanities major for the writing of an exceptional senior research paper, typically a capstone project or senior thesis.

The annual prize is awarded at the end of each Spring semester. Recipient(s) receive a $500 cash stipend and participate in recognition ceremonies at both the Baker-Nord Center graduation celebration and the commencement awards assembly.

This year’s deadline is April 21, 2024.

Eligibility

Only seniors graduating with a major in one of CWRU’s humanities departments or interdisciplinary humanities programs may apply. Click here for a list of CWRU humanities majors.

Application Details

To begin your application, follow the instructions on the
2024 Undergraduate Humanities Prize Application

Application Components:

Required:

  • a completed cover sheet [click here]
  • a copy of your best senior research paper, typically a capstone or senior thesis;
  • paper written in a foreign language are eligible but must include a two-page summary of the project written in English. 

Recommended:

  • a letter of support from a faculty member, describing the quality and significance of your research paper. While not required, it is strongly encouraged.

 

For full consideration, all application materials, including faculty letters of support, should be sent directly to bakernord@case.edu by Sunday, April 21, 2024. 

 

Recent Humanities Prize Winners

  • Emily Belina (Art History ’22), “White Men, White Women, and a White Cockatoo: Eighteenth Century Gender and Race in “An Experiment on a Bird in an Air Pump”
  • Jillian White (Classics ’21), “Filial Anxiety in the Poems of Sulpicia”
  • Morgan McCommon (Art History ’21), “An Attack on Constantine: Vandalism in the 4th-century Frieze of the Arch of Constantine”
  • Brian Eckert (English ’20), “Dashiell Hammett’s Detectives as Plato’s Ideal Proletariat in Corrupt Capitalist America”
  • Elizabeth Hanna (International Studies and Religious Studies ’20), “The Religious Rhetoric of Othering: Julia Boutros and Lebanese Christian Support for Hezbollah”
  • Sierra Lipscomb (History ’19), “The Price of Black Power: Winston E. Willis and the Fight for Economic Self-Determination in Cleveland, 1960s – 1980s”
  • Ann Wang (English and Music ’18), “Transfering Performativity: Song and Class Mobility in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night“
  • Cullin Brown (Philosophy ’17),  “Thinking Like a Farm: Thoughts Towards an Ethos of Careful Construction”
  • Chloe Gellert (History ’16), “World War II and Today’s Refugee Crisis in Germany”
  • Francesca Langer (History ’16), “Republican Pastoral and Federalist Epic: A Mythology of the First Party System”
  • Jason Walsh (Philosophy ’15), “New Readings of Louis Althusser”
  • Derek Reinhold (Art History ’14), “Gods of Fire on the Parthenon: Helios and Hephaistos in the East Metopes”