Barnett Essay Awards

The Donald E. Barnett Essay Awards

 

Each year, the English Department recognizes excellent writing in English 1101 and 1102 by presenting three Barnett Awards. Named in honor of Donald E. Barnett, who directed the Freshman English Program for many years, the awards consist of cash prizes and publication of the winning essays in a pamphlet. Below are links to the Barnett Award-winning essays from recent years.

 

2021 Barnett Essays

• Loving Your Mother and Her Earth by Helen Sorme

2019-2020 Barnett Essays

• Quackery in India by Shiva Byroju
• Technology as a Parent by Juliana Lutz

2018 - 2019 Barnett Essays

• The Reality of Parachuting Doctors and Voluntourism by Sanjana Rao

 

• On Patriarchal Subjugation of the Erotic in “Tall Tales from the Mekong Delta” by Kyra Posey

 

2017 - 2018 Barnett Essays

• How Technology Changed the NBA  by Jack Froistad

 

• The Role of Art in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Alex Hines

 

2016 - 2017 Barnett Essays

• Once Upon a Modern Time: The Importance of Hungarian Folklore in Zadie Smith's "Two Men Arrive in a Village" by Christian Schoeberl

 

• Should Georgia Have an Opportunity School District in 2017? by Jasmin Johnson

 

• Marketing Mania: An Attack on Advertising by Ashley Kehoe

 

2015 - 2016 Barnett Essays

• Miss Anachronism, by Sujith Vadlamudi

 

• Sexism in "The Free Radio", by Farrah Agha

 

2014 - 2015 Barnett Essays

• Fine, whatever..., by Scott Davis

 

• Dealing with Damaged Relationships, by Brian West

 

2013-2014 Barnett Essays

• The Gut-Churning Love of Tennis, by Cameron Gibson

 

• Othello’s Journey of Identity, by Angela Edmonds

 

• Power from Pain, by Sarah Landry

 

2012-2013 Barnett Essays

• The Adventures of Shan and The East/West Bus, by Shandrika Flowers

 

• Swimming Away from Patriarchy, by Jesslyn Rollins

 

• Dances, Dreams, and Crazy Horse: Cultural Fusion in Sherman Alexie’s Flight, by Erin Galvin-McCoy

 

2011-2012 Barnett Essays

• Logic's Despair in Polanski's Chinatown (1974), by Erin Michelle Todd

 

• The Immortality of the Author, by Diane Turner

 

2010-2011 Barnett Essays

• Diary of a Facebook Convert, by Thomas Parrott

 

• Character Identity in The Taming of the Shrew, by Kaitlyn Downs

 

• Considering the Physical and Symbolic in Joy Harjo’s “The Myth of Blackbirds” and “Hieroglyphic,” by Deanna Stevens

 

2009-2010 Barnett Essays

• A Profile of Pirate Football, by Macy Marie Sirmans

 

• 'Maharaj Cotton': How the Death of 'King Cotton' Led to Increased British Interest in India, by John Mays

 

• Rise Against: Speaking Out Against War, by Olivia Swint

 

• Father Knows Best, by Darcy Lenz

 

• Crime and Punishment--Egyptian Style, by Mariana Heredia

 

2008-2009 Barnett Essays

• Death by Association: The Jeffery Wood Case, by Stephanie Ryals

 

• A "Jaunty Salute": Jordan Baker's Role as the Modern Woman of the 1920s in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, by Brianna Randall

 

• James Weldon Johnson's "The Creation" and the Biblical Creation: A Comparison, by Ellen Davis

 

• When Colors Contrast, by Savannah Willerton

 

2007-2008 Barnett Essays

• The Hoodie, by Ronald B. Ramsey, Jr.

 

• Overcoming Proteasomes: One Step Closer to a Cure for Cystic Fibrosis, by William C. Mitchell

 

• The Mummy Invokes His Soul: A Portrayal of Women Suffering Under and Overcoming the Repression of Men, by Mary Tanner Scott

 

• The Forbidden Fruit of The Kite Runner, by Christina Westpheling

 

2006-2007 Barnett Essays

• The Not So Wonderful World of Disney, by Caroline Smith

 

• Real Money, by Laura Bowden

 

• Satan and Economics, by Rebecca Kopp

 

• Mythology as a Means of Understanding in Al Young's "Somebody Done Hoodoo'd the Hoodoo Man" and Leslie Marmon Silko's "Call that Story Back," by Kathleen Mischaikow

 

2005-2006 Barnett Essays

• Death With Dignity, by Nicole Parker

 

• California Proposition 69 and the DNA Fingerprint Act: Considerable Expansions in Criminal DNA Databases, by Adam Rea

 

• Landscape With the Fall of Icarus: Musée des Beaux Arts, by Mason Savage

 

• Silence as Beauty, Silence as Self: The Asian American Identity, by Cecilia Schoenbaum

 

2004-2005 Barnett Essays

• Cutting Disorders: A Silent Cry for Help, by Jennifer Davis

 

• False Façades in A Doll House, by Laura Thomas

 

• The Unpatriotic USA PATRIOT Act: Roving Wiretap Provision is Both Unconstitutional and Invasive, by Ashley Louise Smith

 

• Invisibility and Isolation as Indicative of the Asian American Female Voice, by Meggan Wood

 

2003-2004 Barnett Essays

• Trendy or Healthy, by Melissa Light

 

• Chopin's Other Awakenings, by Sean Hill

 

• Allusions to Bob Dylan and the Folk Music Revival in Toni Morrison's "Recitatif", by Cameron Dye

 

2002-2003 Barnett Essays

• How to be an Honest Cheater, by Alex De Nadai

 

• No Small Parts, Only Small Actors, by Erinn Rowe

 

• The Impact of Catholicism on Chippewa Love Medicine, by Diane Beavers

 

2001-2002 Barnett Essays

• Lunch is What Spaceships Do . . , by Mark J. Dial

 

• Life's Not a Paragraph, by Bonnie Sillay 

 

• The Combined Use of Poetry and Prose in Janice Mirikitani's "Spoils of War", by Kerry McCaughan

 

2000-2001 Barnett Essays

• The Ever-Changing Culture of Country Music, by Sarah Winchell

 

• Joyce's "Araby" and Updike's "A & P": A Culture Hostile to Romance, by Genna Miller Walters

 

1999-2000 Barnett Essays

• Arthur Ashe: A Legend in His Own Time, by Lesley Joseph

 

• The 'Fickle' One?, by Mary Catherine D'Arcy

 

• Linguistic Intrigue: How Bilingual Storytelling Reveals a Culture, by Jeremy Craig

 

1998-1999 Barnett Essays

• Archetypal Characters Within the 'Slasher' Film Sub-Genre, by Jonathan King

 

• The Influence of Sociology in Getting Out, by Lori Guimond

 

• The Function of Greek Mythology and The Bridge of Dreams in the Character of Sorin, by Megan J. Hall

 

1997-1998 Barnett Essays

• Still Enduring: Equity Feminism for the Next Generation, by Elizabeth Harper

 

• Sylvia and the Struggle Against Class Consciousness in Toni Cade Bambara's "The Lesson," by Sara Wiktorski

 

• The Lonely Effects of Assimilation, by Lauren Murphy