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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. Preference for this prize will be given to students who are not graduating seniors in the year under consideration. Established: June 2020.

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