The Presidential Undergraduate Prize

In support of its mission to promote the discipline of comparative literature, the American Comparative Literature Association is proud to announce the establishment of two new prizes recognizing student accomplishment in comparative literary study. The President's Awards for Best Master's Thesis and for Best Undergraduate Essay on a Comparative Topic together honor comparative work broadly construed at these important stages of educational achievement. Work will be judged based on theoretical rigor, comparative breadth, and lucidity of exposition. Though not a formal requirement, especially for the Undergraduate essay prize, work that engages in comparison across linguistic boundaries will be especially valued by the committee.

The Association welcomes submission of an entry by its member institutions.

The Presidential Undergraduate Prize goes to the best substantial essay nominated by a department or program that is an Institutional Member of the ACLA. The project must be completed by July 1, 2011. The dealine for nominations has been extended to December 1st, 2011. Each institutional member may nominate one student in the field of comparative literature, identified as the best without regard to actual departmental affiliation. The prize carries an award of $250 and a certificate, as well as complimentary registration, and a complimentary ticket to the banquet to facilitate the recipient attending the 2012 conference.

Congratulations to the winner of the 2010 Presidential Undergraduate Prize:

Kirsten Harmon (Georgetown University), for her paper, "Voices of the South. Re-telling History through Fiction in the Works of William Faulkner and Gabriel García Márquez" (CITATION)

Congratulations to the 2010 Presidential Undergraduate Honorable Mention:

Andrea Yamsuan (University of California at Los Angeles), for her paper, "Possibilities of Paradise in Yeats and Rilke" (CITATION)

To nominate a student's work for the 2012 Presidential Prizes, please notify both the ACLA secretariat, Alexander Beecroft, and the chair of the committee by December 1st, 2011.

Nominators should submit a letter or report of one or two pages, outlining the exceptional qualities of the nominated dissertation. Copies of the nominating letter should be sent, along with copies of the student's work, to each member of the committee by the extended deadline.

The prize committee for 2011-12 is Debarati Sanyal (Chair - Berkeley University), Nergis Erturk (Penn State University), and Leerom Medovoi (Portland State University).