Sigma Tau Delta recognized excellence by awarding nearly $12,000 for the best convention submissions at the Red & Black Convention Awards Gala.
Given for the best presentations by active student and alumni members at the Sigma Tau Delta International Convention, these awards were established in 1991 by Isabel Sparks, the fifth President of Sigma Tau Delta.
Each year, these awards recognize critical essays and creative works by active students and alumni writing on the convention theme; this year’s theme is Work in Progress. The monetary prizes are given in honor of Justin Q. Owen, the first National Secretary of Sigma Tau Delta.
Sigma Tau Delta values creative and scholarly contributions that represent diversity of abilities, races, and creeds, and we present special awards for the best among these submissions. Sigma Kappa Delta (our sister organization at two-year schools) and Alumni Epsilon (the alumni chapter of Sigma Tau Delta) also reward excellent submissions by their members.
Beyond convention submissions, the organization also gives prizes for “Outstanding Chapter Displays” (posters displayed and judged during Convention). And Sigma Tau Delta Scholarship and Award applicants submit Convention-theme-based essays that are eligible for prizes.
First Place ($600)
Kieron Walquist
Lincoln University of Missouri, MO
“Death Defying Acts”
Second Place ($400)
Emily Schubert
Muhlenberg College, PA
“Mourning Commute”
Third Place ($200)
Mackenzie Egan
Wilkes University, PA
“Sentiment”
Honorable Mention ($100)
Emily Roberts
Arkansas Tech University, AR
“Case En Pointe”
Jacob Bergman
Olivet Nazarene University, IL
“Bombers”
First Place ($600)
Faith Kressner
Furman University, SC
“Pilgrimage to a Rock House”
Second Place ($400)
Ashton Hoffman
George Fox University, OR
“Expectations”
Third Place ($200)
Madeline Gardiner
Northern Michigan University, MI
“Reconciliation: Relativity”
First Place ($600)
Brittany Barron
Georgia College & State University, GA
“Mad Girl at Home”
Second Place ($400)
Sara Baxter
Indiana University East, IN
“Conspiracy Theories”
Third Place ($200)
Emily Casey
Muhlenberg College, PA
“Poems for the Third Coming”
Honorable Mention ($100)
Zane Hesting
Chadron State College, NE
“Some Recipes”
Shea McCollum
Pepperdine University, CA
“Things Remembered and Things Forgotten”
First Place ($600)
Nicholas Dolan
The University of Iowa, IA
“Mad Humanists: Frankenstein and Naturphilosophie”
Second Place ($400)
Madisen Ransford
Oklahoma Christian University, OK
“Dancing and Courtship in Pride and Prejudice”
Third Place ($200)
Stormi Verret
Louisiana Tech University, LA
“Fairy Tales, Liminality, and Jane Eyre”
Honorable Mention ($100)
Sophia Elisha
University of Colorado, CO
“Benevolent and Hostile Sexism in Indian Fiction”
Sarah Selden
Palm Beach Atlantic University, FL
“A Room of Her Own: Triumph in To the Lighthouse”
Rebekah Brown
Wayland Baptist University, TX
“Imitating the Sun: Henry V‘s Ties to Richard II‘
Lauren Ganger
Mercyhurst University, PA
“Pride & Pianoforte: Jane’s Dilettantes & Virtuosos”
First Place ($600)
Carina Stopenski
Chatham University, PA
“Transfeminism in Imogen Binnie’s Nevada”
Second Place ($400)
Brenna Ware
Pepperdine University, CA
“Diving into the Wreck”: Deconstruction of Gender”
Third Place ($200)
Jennifer Johnson
The College of New Jersey, NJ
“Harriet Jacobs: Invisibility as Power”
Christine Luongo
Westfield State University, MA
“Rejecting Expectations in The Two Kinds of Decay”
Honorable Mention ($100)
Taylor Van Vliet
Morningside College, IA
“Female Oppression and Frustration in Winesburg, Ohio”
Jacqueline Janik
Marian University, WI
“Edna St. Vincent Millay’s Subversive Femininity”
First Place ($600)
Joshua Leopold
Washington University, MO
“Capitalism with a Capital “C” in Goody Two-Shoes”
Second Place ($400)
Amanda Ayers
University of North Georgia, Gainesville Campus, GA
“A Syntactic Study of Sherlock Holmes”
Third Place ($200)
Sophie Jeffery
McKendree University, IL
“Patreon: An Unexpected Return of Patronage”
Honorable Mention ($100)
Macey Howell
Belmont University, TN
“Muslim Superheroes: Islam in Comic Books”
Abigail Breyer
Rockhurst University, MO
“Hashtag Activism and the Rhetoric of #MeToo”
Katelyn Juerjens
Northeastern Illinois University, IL
“AACK!”: Gender, Beauty, and the Workplace in Cathy”
First Place ($300)
Molly Cameron
University of South Dakota, SD
“Uprooted”
Second Place ($200)
Katie Kirk
University of Kentucky, KY
“October’s End”
First Place ($300)
Cara Charles
University of Scranton, PA
“Tess Taylor’s Work & Days‒Response to Theology and Science”
Second Place ($200)
Alaina McHugh
The College of New Jersey, NJ
“Aligning Humans & Nature in ‘Elsewhere Flood'”
Critical First Place ($300)
Christina Orlandos
Missouri State University, MO
“Millennial Financial Anxiety in The Lizzie Bennet Diaries”
Critical Second Place ($200)
Jim Lupher
Dixie State University, UT
“Cummings: Pioneering Visual Poetry”
Creative First Place ($300)
Caitlyn Mulcahy
Franklin Pierce University, NH
“I Am, I Am, I Am”
Creative Second Place ($200)
Paul Harmon
Framingham State University, MA
“Of Missiles and Euphemisms-Reality Behind the DD-214”
First Place ($300)
Therese Holzapfel
“The Journey of the Hero”
Second Place ($200)
Nicole Jones
“Satire and Pathography in Joyce Carol Oates’ ‘Lovely, Dark, Deep'”
Kara Knickerbocker
“The Shedding Before the Swell”
Third Place ($100)
Kristen Capano
“Fanny in the Attic: Austen Defies Femininity”
Honorable Mention ($75)
Kayley Hopster
“’The Mute Protest’: Repression and Rebellion in 1984”
Kelli Bahls
“Speaking Bird”
First Place ($100)
Alpha Beta Iota Chapter
Lee University, TN
Honorable Mention ($50)
Alpha Upsilon Phi Chapter
University of North Georgia, Gainesville Campus, GA
Honorable Mention ($50)
Tau Theta Chapter
Olivet Nazarene University, IL