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The Sperry Writing Prize in Religion

This prize for outstanding writing will be awarded on an annual basis for the best essay, body of essays, or research paper written for any course offered in any term by the Department of Religion. Up to three prizes per year will be awarded with the amount to be determined annually. The Sperry Writing Prize is reserved for continuing students only (not graduating seniors) and is our way of indicating to our students that we recognize, honor, and celebrate excellent writing and student work! Winners of the prize will receive a certificate and a cash award. Established: June 2020.

2023-2024 Academic Year

  • Kevin Guo '26, for "The Buddhist Way of Practice" written for REL 41.07 Buddhism, Gender, and Sexuality in Southeast Asia in Winter 24, nominated by Prof. M.K. Long
     
  • Stella Larson '26, for "Renovation and Revitalization of Imperial Rome through Santa Maria Antiqua" written for REL 30.01 Sacred Cities: Rome in Winter 24, nominated by Prof. Christopher MacEvitt
     
  • Guanming Liang '25 and Ashley Wang '25, for "Bridging Worlds: W. E. B. Du Bois and Lu Xun On Rebuilding Nations and Cultures" co-written for REL 54 African American Religion and Culture in Jim Crow America in Spring 24, nominated by Prof. Ralph Craig
     
  • Emma Ratchford '25, for "The Sound of Identity: Exploring the Continuity of West African Musical Traditions in Haitian Vodou Songs and Rhythms" written for REL 17 African Religions of the Americas in Spring 24, nominated by Prof. Eugenia Rainey
     
  • Heyi Zhang '27, for a collection of four ethnographic essays written for REL 20.08 Ethnography and Religion in Spring 24, nominated by Prof. Rachel Feldman

2022-2023 Academic Year

  • Gideon Gruel '26, for "Reformed Prostitutes: Comparing Christian and Roman Sexual Politics in Late Antiquity" written for REL 31 Sex, Celibacy, and the Problem of Purity: Asceticism and the Human Body in Late Antiquity in Winter 23, nominated by Professor Christopher MacEvitt
     
  • Ruby Benjamin '26, for "The Implications of Orthopraxy on Female Identity" written for REL 1.11 Sisters, Sages, Seekers: Women and Religion in Spring 23, nominated by Professor Sara Swenson 
     
  • Tea Wallmark '25, for "The Rise of Chongxuan Daoism: The Daoist Use of Buddhist Madhyamaka in the Early Tang Dynasty" written for REL 80.12 Religions on the Silk Road in Spring 23, nominated by Professor Gil Raz

2021-2022 Academic Year

  • Caris White '23, for "Hilma Af Klint: Artist, Medium, Prophet?" written for REL 80.10 Messengers of God: Prophetism in Historical and Comparative Perspectives in Spring 22, nominated by Professor Robert Baum
     
  • Elijah St. Clair Smith '25, for "Building Bridges Quietly: The Activism of Donald and Nancy Brewer" written for REL 61 Religion and the Civil Rights Movement in Winter 22, nominated by Professor Vaughn Booker
     
  • Jared Pugh '25, for "Black Empowerment through Religious Art: Ethiopianism and the Harlem Renaissance" written for REL 54 African American Religion and Culture in Jim Crow America in Fall 21, nominated by Professor Vaughn Booker
     
  • Megan Ren '23, for "Internet Apocalypticism: Exploring Eschatological Rhetoric and Ideology in Online Communication" written for REL 57.07 Apocalyptic Imagination in Spring 22, nominated by Professor Ed Wright

2020-2021 Academic Year

  •  Emilie Bowerman '23, for "Entering the Iberian Orbit: The Hisham Casket and Inter Faith Dialogues in the Spanish March" written for REL 33 Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the Age of the Crusades in Spring 2021, nominated by Professor Christopher MacEvitt 
     
  • Yevheniia Dubrova '24, for "The Inheritance of Abraham: The Discovery of the Holy Patriarchs in Hebron as the Enactment of Sacred History," written for REL 33 Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the Age of the Crusades in Spring 2021, nominated by Professor Christopher MacEvitt
     
  • Nicole Tooper '24, for "Hui and Uyghur Muslims: The Dichotomy in Relative Power Policy," written for REL 69 Religion & World Politics in Spring 2021, nominated by Professor Robert Baum

2019-2020 Academic Year

  • Dashiell W. Prince-Judd '23, for "American Indigenous Vision Quest," research paper written for REL 7.09 Living With the Dead, in Winter 2020, nominated by Professor Vaughn Booker
     
  • Cecelia King '23, for "The Book of Ruth or the Myth of the Female Conversion?," reflection paper written for REL 56 Women and the Bible, in Fall 2019, nominated by Professor Susan Ackerman
  • Rachel Gambee '21, for "Prophetic Dreams and the Emergence of the 'Dreamer Prophet,'" research paper written for REL 80.10 Messengers of God, in Spring 2020, nominated by Professor Robert Baum