Dorothy Berkson Award Archive
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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."
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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 -
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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 -
Zoë Smith and Burton Scheer, 2024-25 Winners of the Dorothy Berkson writing award in gender studies -
2024-25 Dorothy Berkson writing award in gender studies winners: Zoë Smith and Burton Scheer, and honorable mention, Alex Chew. -
A group of graduating gender studies seniors -
Rishona Zimring, current director of gender studies, welcomes guests to the event -
Burton Scheer '25, with the title slide for “Women as Water: The Fluidity and Interconnectedness of Female Identity in Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping ” -
Zoë Smith '25, shares the opening slide for “Hell is a Teenage Girl: Feminist and Postfeminist Subjectivity Through the Female Cannibal Figure” -
2026 Opening slide -
Melanie Kohnen, Associate Professor of Rhetoric & Media Studies, and current Director of Gender Studies for 2026. -
2026 Berkson winners: Fellow Moratti and Erin Mongomery -
Andrea Hibbard, Associate Professor with term of English, and a member of the 2026 Berkson selection committee, introduces the winners. -
Fellow Moratti’s presentation was “Numbed Surfaces,” a personal essay. -
Erin Montgomery’s presentation was a collection of poetry titled, “Never Not a Daughter.” -
The 2026 event was held in Smith Hall. -
Andrea Hibbard moderating the Q&A -
Fellow Moratti and Erin Montgomery fielding questions after their presentations. -
Ribs Kramer, Meilin Beloney, and Leaf Hart: three of the 2026 graduating gender studies minors.
Dorothy Berkson Award library page with links to a selection of winning submissions.
Congratulations to the past recipients of the Dorothy Berkson Writing Award in Gender Studies.
2025-26 Recipients:
Erin Montgomery ’26 (English)
“Never Not a Daughter” (collected poetry)
Fellow Moratti ’26 (Religious Studies and Classical Studies)
“Numb Surfaces” (creative non-fiction/essay)
2024-25 Recipients:
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)
2023-24 Recipients:
Lauren Caldwell ’24 (English)
“A Shroud Enveloped Her Form”: Incest, the Language of Family, and the Legibility of Power In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (essay)
McKenna Jones ’24 (English)
“Snakes’ Blood: Reclaiming the Dualistic View of the Archaic Medusa” (essay)
2022-23 Recipients:
Venus Edlin ’23 (Rhetoric and Media Studies)
“Lil Nas X and Dolly Parton: Genre Subversion as Queer Practice” (essay)
Jillian Jackson ’23 (English)
“Can the Master’s Linguistics Dismantle the Master’s House?:
Zilia’s Subversive Bilingualism in Letters of a Peruvian Woman” (essay)
2021-22 Recipients:
Eve March ’22 (Art History)
“Maggots and Metamorphosis: ‘Becoming’ in Louise Bourgeois’ Self Portraiture” (essay)
Ashley O’Leary ’22 (English)
“‘Penetrating Nature’s Hiding Places’: Masculinist Scientific Ideals, Fatal Passions, and the Female Body in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein” (essay)
2020–2021 Recipients:
Phoenix Bruner ’21 (English, Gender Studies minor)
“The Persistence and Impossibility of Queer Life: Representations of Queerness in Katherine
Mansfield’s ‘At the Bay’ ” (essay)
Mie Kumin ’21 (Sociology/Anthropology, Gender Studies and Russian Studies minor)
“Свои/Чужие [Ours/Others]: Sexual Others of the Imaginary Elsewhere” (essay)
2019–20 Recipients:
Amaris Bouchard ’20 (Sociology/Anthropology)
“Howl Together: An Ethnography for my Grandmother” (essay)
Maura Phillips ’20 (English)
“The Edges of Imagination: Women, Art, and Desire in Keats’s Late Romances” (essay)
2018–19 Recipients:
Madeleine Bentley (Sociology/Anthropology)
“Not just ‘like a love affair.’ Tracing the personal in narratives of sexual arousal while breastfeeding” (essay)
Mira Glasser (Rhetoric and Media Studies)
“Queering the Self in Illness: Katherine Mansfields to Katherine Mansfields” (essay)
2017–18 Recipients:
Eva Gellman (English)
“The Slipperiness of the Sublime in Eavan Boland’s “The Woman Who Turns Herself Into A Fish”” (essay)
Mikay Parsons (Psychology)
“Cultural Intelligibility and the Policing of Gender: The Tension Between Butler’s Theory of Performativity and Personal Experience” (essay)
2016–17 Recipients:
Erin Keoppen (Rhetoric & Media Studies)
“Wild Words: Space, Place and Gender in Tamil Feminist Poetry and Prose” (essay)
Sully Pujol (English/Hispanic Studies)
“‘Beauty is Truth, Truth Art(ifice)’: Female Creative Agency in John Keats’s Isabella, Lamia, and The Eve of St. Agnes” (essay)
2015–16 Recipients:
Angie Epifano (Art History)
“A Veiled Revolution: The Photographs of Angèle Etoudi Essamba” (essay)
Eva Goellner (Rhetoric & Media Studies) “Problematizing “Strong”: Why the Strong Female Character is No Longer Enough” (essay)
2014–15 Recipients:
Annabel Saliba Carroll (English)
“The Roles of Illness in the Works of Virginia Woolf” (essay)
Emma Post (English)
“We Begin Our Tour of the Female Muse” (poetry)
2013–14 Recipients:
Laura Houlberg (Environmental Studies),
“Exclusive Environments: Transmisogyny in U.S. Environmentalism” (senior thesis)
Gus Wolff (Political Science),
“A Kind of Love: A Decade of Camp and Me” (essay)
2012–13 Recipients:
Eline Leemans (Sociology/Anthropology)
“Crafting Reproductive Rights Through Social Practice Art” (senior thesis)
Faolán Thompson (History)
“Quiet Anxiety: Women, Domesticity, and Confinement” (essay)
2011–12 Recipients:
Kemiyondo Coutinho (Theatre/Rhetoric and Media Studies)
“Kawuna…You’re It” (original one-woman play)
Kathryn Kucera (Sociology/Anthropology)
“A Case for the Radical Potential of a Cyborg Poet” (essay)
2010–11 Recipients:
Rhiannon Troutman (Sociology/Anthropology)
“Transitions of Crisis: Building ‘Home’ for Transgender Youth Transitioning Out of Foster Care” (essay)
Arielle White (Biology)
“Redefining Cultural Citizenship to Escape Patriarchal Politics” (essay)
2009–10 Recipients:
William Haines (English)
“Fluidity: Gender, Bodily Fluids and the Grotesque Language of Alexander Pope” (essay)
Maile Speakman (Sociology/Anthropology)
“No Hay Manera Apagar el Ocio (They Can’t Stop the Leisure): Queer and Countercultural Space in Contemporary Havana” (essay)
2008–09 Recipients:
Kimberly Fanshier (Theatre)
“Bad Hour” (original play)
Kacie Dalziel (Sociology/Anthropology)
“Long Live the King! Gender Performance and the Politics of Drag Kings” (essay)
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Thank you to Dorothy Berkson’s family, friends, and colleagues, whose generous contributions have made this award possible.