Undergraduate Awards

Virginia Rucker Walter Scholarship   

​Awarded to Abby Brunn

This award acknowledges an outstanding English major. It is named for Virginia Rucker Walter, who was an undergraduate at UGA in the 1980s. Virginia Walter was killed by a drunk driver before she was able to graduate, but her family presents this prize in honor of her memory and in celebration of her love of literature.    

 

Joshua David Brown Memorial Scholarship   

Awarded to Corinn Smith  

Every year, this scholarship is awarded to an outstanding rising junior in English. Joshua Brown’s father writes: “Joshua loved the University of Georgia and the English Department. He considered it a privilege to study under the incredible professors there.  It is the Brown family's hope that the award will continue to make it possible for students to pursue their dreams in writing and expression.” 

 

R. Baxter Miller Award Undergraduate Award 

Awarded to Ayana Arrington 

This award provides a monetary award for undergraduates who demonstrate excellence in African American and multicultural literature. When creating this award, Dr. Miller says, “Somewhat saddened by all the great students I will not teach in the department of our future, I wanted to pass on to them (a Tony Morrison turn) something wonderful. I hoped for them to know that African American literature—indeed all literary art of color—matters. The award speaks to our intellectual values as a department and a creative discipline.”

Undergraduate Essay Prizes   

Best Essay Highlighting Primary Materials

Leila Mohammadizadeh, “An Analysis of Robert Frost’s Manipulation of the Traditional Sonnet Form in ‘The Oven Bird’”

Nominated by Susan Rosenbaum

Best Essay Making Significant Use of Secondary Materials

Alexandra Sausa, “Uniting the Opposing and Resisting Forces”: Merging Binary Opposites in Mina Loy’s “Parturition” and “Songs to Joannes”

Nominated by Dr. Aiden Wasley 

The Undergraduate Essay Prizes are supported by the Robert E. Park Memorial Fund.

 

 

Digital Humanities Prize   

Awarded to Colin Bergen 

From Joshua King, judge: My House in the Middle of the Void is my pick for this year’s Digital Humanities Prize winner. It’s not only a professionally polished and narratively fascinating work, but it also uses the interplay between audio clips and website to generate an added layer of mystery and a productive tension between what’s real and what’s not. Additional touches like transcripts for those with hearing-related disabilities also set this project apart. It raises more questions than it answers, but I’ll be thinking about My House in the Middle of the Void for a long time.

The Digital Humanities Prize is awarded to an outstanding student project at the intersection of English studies and electronic technologies. It is supported by the Robert E. Park Memorial Fund.

Anita Morrison Thomas Essay Award 

Awarded to Celeste Kazani for “Commenting on the Fairy Tale in Harryette Mullen’s Prose Poetry.”

Named in honor of English alumna Anita Morrison Thomas, this fund supports an award to the student author of the best essay devoted to a culturally diverse and/or female author. 

 

Prigge Family Scholarship   

Awarded to Hailey Sanford 

About the Prigge Family Scholarship Endowment for English: William Prigge (AB/MA English, 2014) enjoyed many academic successes in the English Department and now lives in New York, pursuing his dream in the publishing industry. The purpose of the Prigge Family Scholarship Endowment Fund, endowed by his parents Bill and Melissa Prigge, is to provide scholarship support for students in the Department of English who demonstrate excellence in literary studies.   

The H. Grady Hutcherson Memorial Scholarship   

Awarded to Ayana Arrington, Jessica Renee Green, and Lauren Corley

H. Grady Hutcherson, a Double Dawg (BSED Science Education, 1949; MA English, 1951), began teaching in Park Hall in 1951 and retired in 1991. He and Mary Hutcherson (AB English, 1951) were married in 1955 and had two sons, both of whom attended UGA. Grady died in 1996, and Mary decided to honor her late husband’s work by establishing the H. Grady Hutcherson Memorial Scholarship in English.