Boothe Prize Essays
The Boothe Prize recognizes and rewards outstanding expository and argumentative writing by first-year students in the Writing and Rhetoric and Introduction to the Humanities Programs. One first-place and one honorable mention prize are awarded to outstanding essays from each academic quarter at an annual award ceremony in May.
Each first place winner receives a certificate, a copy of The Riverside Shakespeare and $350. Each honorable mention winner receives a certificate, a copy of The Riverside Shakespeare and $200. The winning essays are published annually in Boothe Prize Essays: Excellence in Writing at Stanford and are available online through this website.
The Boothe Prizes have been made possible by the generosity of the late D. Power Boothe, Jr. and his wife Catie. Mr. Boothe was a graduate of the Stanford class of '31.
Boothe Prize essays for 2007-2008
PWR Winners for 2007-2008
Spring 2007
- Justin Solomon (Winner): "Programmers, Professors, and Parasites: Credit and Co-Authorship in Computer Science"
- Keith Schwarz (Honorable Mention): "Eminent Domain and Antitrust: A Proposal to Remedy Kelo's Excess"
Autumn 2007
- Sophie Theis (Winner): "Imitation vs. Internationalization: The Rhetoric of Teen Travel Program Advertising for College-Bound Youth"
- Dixon Bross (Honorable Mention): "How Interesting: Interest and the Quotidian in Art Cinema"
Winter 2008
- Eric Slessarev (Winner): "Nature Takes New York: A Secret Rebellion"
- Sasha Engelmann (Honorable Mention): "Breaking the Frame: Olafur Eliasson's Art, Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology, and the Rhetoric of Eco-Activism"
IHUM Winners for 2007-2008
Spring 2007
- Alex Krimkevich (Winner): "Saving the State: Roman Resistance to Greek Influence"
- Tony Ricciardi (Honorable Mention): "Education and the Passions: Exploring Rousseau's View of Human Nature"
Autumn 2007
- Kate Hyder (Winner): "Self-Reliance"
- Harshjit Sethi (Honorable Mention): "Constitutionality v. Morality: San Antonio School District v. Rodriguez"
Winter 2008
- Emily Rials (Winner): "'What We May Be': Definition of the Self in Castiglione and Shakespeare"
- Varun Sivaram (Honorable Mention): "Freeing Will"
Boothe Prize essays for 2006-2007
PWR Winners for 2006-2007
Spring 2006
- Leslie Georgatos (Winner): "Brand America: Exploring the Appropriate Role of Marketing Strategies in Public Diplomacy"
- Christine Chung (Honorable Mention): "'Hello Kitty Noodles' and Ramen Culture in the 21st Century"
Autumn 2006
- Jessica Galant (Winner): "Keeping Tableaux Vivants Alive"
- Anne Datesh (Honorable Mention): " The Decision to Drop the Bomb: Where Hindsight is Not 20/20"
Winter 2007
- Jocelyn Jiao (Winner): "Madama Butterfly Gave Birth to a Monster: Exploring the Internalization of Racial Stereotypes within Asian American Women"
- Annelise Blum (Honorable Mention): "Hugo Chávez’s Debut: Rhetoric and Petro–Politics in the World Theater A Dramatic Essay in Three Acts"
IHUM Winners for 2006-2007
Spring 2006
- Sylvia Tomiyama (Winner): "Performing, Essentially: The Anxiety of a Non-essential Identity"
- Juliet Rothenberg (Honorable Mention): "The Immaculate Theory of Fatherhood in Dr. Zhivago"
Autumn 2006
- Allysia Finley (Winner): "Hamlet’s Place in the Cosmos"
- Peter Kardassakis (Honorable Mention): "Perception in the Pursuit of Reality"
Winter 2007
- A. Tariq West (Winner): "Space and Race in Apartheid South Africa"
- Dinah Lewis (Honorable Mention): "The Indeterminacy of Meaning: How Movement Affects Experience"
Boothe Prize essays for 2005-2006
PWR Winners for 2005-2006
Spring 2005
- Kimber Lockhart (Winner): "Reading Between the Lines: The Rhetoric of Literacy"
- Nick Parker (Honorable Mention): "The Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell: Mistakes Worth Fixing"
Autumn 2005
- Jennifer Chin (Winner): "Reaffirming, Not Redefining: A Look at Rem Koolhass' New Seattle Central Library"
- Matthew Gribble (Honorable Mention): "Gender, Art, and the Nursing Shortage: The Effect of Gendered Visual Rhetoric on the American Healthcare System"
Winter 2006
- Cecilia Yang (Winner): "The Memorial Hall for the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre: Rhetoric in the Face of Tragedy"
- Aaron Quiggle (Honorable Mention): "In Search of an Anorexic Rhetoric: A Theory of Language, Meaning, Society, and Mental Illness"
IHUM Winners for 2005-2006
Spring 2005
- Jessica Lee (Winner): "Death of the Faces of God"
- Julie Byren (Honorable Mention): "If You're Lost Enough to Find Yourself: Unveiling Nature's Secrets in Robert Frost's 'October' and 'Directive'"
Autumn 2005
- Patrick Leahy (Winner): "The Three Furies of Dublin"
- Nathan Pflueger (Honorable Mention): "Hamlet's Imagined Filial Love"
Winter 2006
- Sarah Johnson (Winner): "Breaking the Watch Along With the Wedding Glass: Conceptions of Time in the Transition from Biblical to Rabbinic Judaism"
- Jason Dunford (Honorable Mention): "Empowering the Oppressed: The Role of Language in the Struggle Against Apartheid in South Africa"
Boothe Prize essays for 2004-2005
Boothe Prize essays for 2003-2004
PWR Winners for 2003-2004
Spring 2003
- Joshua Smith (Winner), "Conflict Diamonds: Resolving Africa's Worst Resource Wars."
- Jennifer Cribbs (Honorable Mention), "Darkness in the Vicious Kitchen: An Analysis of Feminist Themes and Suicidal Imagery in Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath's Poetry."
Autumn 2003
- Rui Xiong Kee (Winner), "Exploring the 'Communist' in the Communist Insurrection in Malaya."
- Jasmine Hanifi (Honorable Mention), "Belonging to America: Rhetoric of the Second Generation"
Winter 2004
- Andrew Leifer (Winner), "Harry Potter and the Battle of International Copyright Law."
- Hammad Ahmed (Honorable Mention), "Grafting Cuba Onto the American Body Politic: The Intersection of Natural Science and Foreign Policy in the Annexationist Era."
IHUM Winners for 2003-2004
Spring 2003
- Steph Abegg (Winner), "Rome: The City of Gods."
- Gloria Nguyen (Honorable Mention), "In Search of the Perfect Love."
Autumn 2003
- Anne Kalt (Winner), "Perspectives on the Human Good."
- Bob Hough (Honorable Mention), "Faith in Death." [link to] Allison Katsev, Instructor
Winter 2004
- Patrick R. Callier (Winner), "Matter, Systems, and Alternatives from the Americas by Borges."
- Annie Kalt (Honorable Mention), "Male and Female Love Worlds: Inherently Separate Landscapes?"
Boothe Prize essays for 2002-2003
PWR Winners for 2002-2003
Spring 2002
- Eric Yieh (Winner), "Back to the Future: Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum Bilbao Contextualized."
- Mari Hayman (Honorable Mention), “Adoption Issues in Latin America: Behind the Silence and the Secrets.” Instructor: Carolyn Ross.
- Jennifer Kong (Honorable Mention), “Fulfilling Stanford's Commitment to Diversity: Eliminating Gender Bias and Increasing the Number of Tenured Women Faculty.”
Autumn 2002
- Prabhu Balasubramanian (Winner), “Pharmaceutical Patents: Life Savers or Profit Makers?"
- Andre de Alencar Lyon (Honorable Mention), “The Question of Textual Ideology in Changing Lanes.”
Winter 2003
- Eric Adamson (Winner), “Malleability, Misrepresentation, Manipulation: The Rhetoric of Images in Economic Forecasting.”
- David Craig (Honorable Mention),“Instant Messaging: The Language of Youth Literacy.”
IHUM Winners for 2002-2003 [anchor]
Spring 2002
- Heather MacKintosh Sims (Winner), "Reflections of an Empire: The British Celts as Indicators of Roman Self-Perception."
- Jason Glick (Honorable Mention), "Trading Land for Cultural Power: Anazaldua's and Cardenal's (Re)constructions of Mestiza Identity."
Autumn 2002
- Andre de Alencar Lyon (Winner), “Traversing the Gap Between Reality and the Individual in Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse”
- Liang Dong (Honorable Mention), “State and Empire: (De)Construction of the National Identity.”
Winter 2003
- Luke Lindley (Winner), “A Heap of Broken Images: Conflicting Narratives of Nature in Milton's 'Lycidas.'”
- Honorable Mention: Brian Caliando, “Don't Spazz: It's Not Rational and It's Not Moral”