Overview:

The Baker-Nord Institute Prize for Excellence in a Senior Paper or Creative Work in the Humanities recognizes graduating humanities majors for the writing of an exceptional capstone project or senior research paper and/or creative production.

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

Eligibility:
  • Only seniors graduating with a major in one of CWRU’s humanities departments or interdisciplinary humanities programs may apply
  • The submitted work must come from a capstone project or from work submitted in Fall 2025 or work to be submitted in Spring 2026. For those working on current senior capstones, a polished draft of the work is sufficient.
  • The work submitted must be entirely student-authored.
Requirements:

Students must complete the application form which includes:

  • A 200-word abstract describing the project.
  • An excerpt of up to 20 pages. Written materials should be double-spaced, numbered, and in 12-point font. On the form, please indicate where the excerpt comes from in the larger project (e.g., beginning, middle, or end).
  • A letter of support from the student’s faculty advisor.
  • Creative projects. Students submitting creative work (e.g., studio art, dance or music performance, theater monologue, podcast, or other artistic projects) should provide links to media files documenting the work. Please include:
    • Links to accessible media (video, images, or audio) hosted on platforms such as YouTube, Vimeo, Google Drive, or Dropbox.
    • Viewing permissions that allow reviewers to access the files without requesting access.
    • A brief description of each file (1–2 sentences) explaining what it shows.
    • If submitting an excerpt from a longer work, please indicate the section shown (e.g., a specific segment of a performance or a selection from a larger portfolio).

Application Deadline: Friday, March 27 by 5:00 pm.

This deadline is established in accordance with submitting the winner’s name in a timely manner to the Division of Student Affairs.

Recent Humanities Prize Winners:

  • Natalie Tangpricha (Theater ’25) & Hannah Boehringer (Theater ’25), Flux
  • Charlotte Goyal (English ’25), “The Drying Well of Compassion”
  • Sidney Negron (History ’24), “Cops and Queers: Cleveland’s Struggle Over the Criminalization of Queer People”
  • Lisa O’Brien (Theatre and International Studies, ’24) & Jasmyn Zeigerson (Theatre and Music, ’24), Mars the Musical
  • Caroline Kuntzman (History and Political Science ’23), “Advocacy or Accomplice?: Examing the Efficacy of Fire Prevention in Cleveland, 1850 – 1890”
  • 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”