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Dorothy Berkson Writing Award

Call for papers Award Reception Information Dorothy Berkson Literary Award Fund

This award recognizes written achievement (e.g., scholarly essays, research projects, creative non-fiction, fiction, poetry, or playwriting) focused on gender and authored by a senior. The award winners are traditionally honored at a reception that celebrates Professor Berkson’s contributions to Lewis & Clark College and the excellence of current students who study gender through scholarly analysis and written expression.

Dorothy Berkson Writing Award in Gender Studies
Remembrances of Dorothy Berkson, Professor Jean Ward
9th Annual Dorothy Berkson Writing Award in Smith Hall
Award winners (L) Sully Pujol ’17 and Erin Keoppen ’17 (R) with Deborah Heath, Director of Gender Studies.
2017 award winners
Eva Gellman '18 presenting her award winning paper, "The Slipperiness of the Sublime in Eavan Boland's "The Woman Who Turns Herself Into A Fish.'"
Dorothy Berkson, professor emerita of English
2018 award winners, Mikay Parsons and Eva Gellman
Mike Berkson (L) and his son David Berkson
Mikay Parson '18 presenting their award winning paper, "Cultural Intelligibility and the Policing of Gender: The Tension Between Butler's Theory of Performativity and Personal Experience."
2016 award winners, Angie Epifano and Eva Goellner
2016 Graduating Gender Studies minors
2016 award winner Angie Epifano presenting her essay, “A Veiled Revolution: The Photographs of Angèle Etoudi Essamba”.
10th Annual Dorothy Berkson Awards
2015 award winners, Annabel Saliba Carroll and Emma Post
Kathryn Kucera, Stephanie Arnold, Michael Berkson, and Kemi Coutinho
2014 award winners, Laura Houlberg and Gus Wolff
2017 Award winner Erin Keoppen presents her essay, “Wild Words: Space, Place and Gender in Tamil Feminist Poetry and Prose.”
Deborah Heath, director of Gender Studies
Director Deborah Heath and program seniors
2015 award winners Annabel Carrol (L) and Emma Post
Jean Ward, Professor Emerita of Communication
Congratulations to our awardees and Gender Studies graduates
Sully Pujol presenting their essay, “‘Beauty is Truth, Truth Art(ifice)’: Female Creative Agency in John Keats’s Isabella, Lamia, and The Eve of St. Agnes.”
2014 Berkson Awardees, Laura Houlberg and Gus Wolff, and the Gender Studies graduates
2019 award winners (L) Mira Glasser '19 and Madeleine Bentley '19 (R) with Deborah Heath, Director of Gender Studies
Eve March presenting her winning paper “Maggots and Metamorphosis: ‘Becoming’ in Louise Bourgeois’ Self Portraiture.”
Gender studies faculty and graduating minors gather in Smith Hall to hear presentations from 2022 Dorothy Berkson writing award winners.
Ashley O’Leary shares an excerpt from her award-winning paper, “‘Penetrating Nature’s Hiding Places’: Masculinist Scientific Ideals, Fatal Passions, and the Female Body in Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein.”
Rishona Zimring, Gender Studies Director, giving opening remarks at 2022 Dorothy Berkson and Gender Studies awards reception
13th Annual Dorothy Berkson Awards
2023 Award recipients Venus Edlin (left) and Jillian Jackson (right)

Credit: Photographed by Julia Salomone
2023 Award recipient Jillian Jackson (right) and recommender Isabelle DeMarte (left)

Credit: Photographed by Julia Salomone
2024 Gender Studies Graduates
Venus Edlin presents 2023 award winning paper,
“Lil Nas X and Dolly Parton: Genre Subversion as Queer Practice”

Credit: Photographed by Julia Salomone

Dorothy Berkson Writing Award in Gender Studies Overview

Congratulations to 2024-2025 winners Zoë Smith and Burton Scheer!

Zoë Smith ’25 (Psychology)

“Hell is a Teenage Girl: Feminist and Postfeminist Subjectivity Through the Female Cannibal Figure” (essay)

Burton Scheer ’25 (English)

“Women as Water: The Fluidity and Interconnectedness of Female Identity in Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping” (essay)

Check out the Dorothy Berkson Archival Page to see past awardees, and the Dorothy Berkson Award library page with links to a selection of winning submissions.

Dorothy Berkson, professor emerita of English, taught at Lewis & Clark College from 1981 until her retirement in 2004. She died in April 2007. Professor Berkson was a presenter in Lewis & Clark’s first Gender Studies Symposium. For the gender studies minor, she designed a course titled Gender and Aesthetic Expression, which she continued to teach for many years.

Thank you to Dorothy Berkson’s family, friends, and colleagues, whose generous contributions have made this award possible.

Majors

Minors

Dorothy Berkson Writing Award

Check out the Dorothy Berkson Archival Page to see past awardees, and the Dorothy Berkson Award library page with links to a selection of winning submissions.