Congratulations to Terje Saar-Hambazaza, the winner of the first annual Sherry Clarkson prize for the best conference paper or presentation at the RAW Symposium. The prize is named in honor of Ms. Sherry Clarkson, who served for many years as the Graduate Coordinator in the School of Arts and Humanities. The pool of submissions was quite strong, which shows the quality of this year’s presentations.
This year’s winner is Terje Saar-Hambazaza for “‘You’re Scared of Me Just Because I’m Myself’: Anzia Yezierska and the Reconciling of Multiple Identities.” This presentation exemplified the qualities outlined in the guidelines for the Prize: academic excellence; clarity and fluidity of prose; significant findings and/or conclusions. The paper presented the argument in an accessible and clear prose that allowed a larger audience to converse with the text and grapple with the argument. The argument was topical, as it related to current issues of assimilation, immigration, and identities. Overall, the presentation conversed with a larger academic discourse.
An Honorable Mention was awarded to Brad Hennigan for his paper “Toward a Methodology for Writing Dynamically Immersive Branching Dialogue in Digital Games and Simulations.” The Committee felt that Hennigan’s work was notable for the significance of its findings.