Undergraduate Awards Fall 2025

Virginia Rucker Walter Scholarship   

This award acknowledges an outstanding English major. It is named for Virginia Rucker Walter, who was an undergraduate at UGA in the 1980s. Virginia Walter was killed by a drunk driver before she was able to graduate, but her family presents this prize in honor of her memory and in celebration of her love of literature.  

Winner: Samantha Smallwood

Samantha is an English major from Snellville, Georgia, graduating this spring with a certificate in British-Irish Studies, an area of emphasis in Studies in the Novel, and a Studio Art minor. Her research interests mainly draw from textual renderings of visuality and aesthetic structures, such as sculptures, paintings, drawings, and written text, from the works of Shakespeare to those of D.H. Lawrence, James Joyce, and Virginia Woolf.

 

Joshua David Brown Memorial Scholarship   

Every year, this scholarship is awarded to an outstanding rising junior in English. Joshua Brown’s father writes, “Joshua loved the University of Georgia and the English Department. He considered it a privilege to study under the incredible professors there.  It is the Brown family's hope that the award will continue to make it possible for students to pursue their dreams in writing and expression.”

Winner: Oliver Stone

Oliver is a rising junior from Savannah, Georgia majoring in English and Anthropology with a minor in Linguistics. He is passionate about interdisciplinary studies in the humanities, as well as creative writing and literary theory. He plans to pursue a PhD in English and hopes to achieve a career in academia. Outside of Park Hall, he enjoys playing music and spending time outdoors.

Undergraduate Essay Prizes   

The Undergraduate Essay Prizes are supported by the Robert E. Park Memorial Fund.

Essay focused on primary materials:

Winner: Ryan Bohn, “Social Metempsychosis in the ‘Cyclops’ Episode”

Ryan is a senior at UGA studying English, with an area of emphasis in Studies in the Novel, and Linguistics. His research investigates the intersections between literature, politics, and science in late 19th century and 20th century American literature. This fall, Ryan will be attending Penn State to pursue a MA/PhD in English literature. 

Honorable Mention: Samantha Smallwood, “‘The Touch of Him’ in Lady Chatterley’s Lover”

Essay using secondary sources:

Winner: Newton Seamount, “Building the Reading Experience: Book Page Architecture, Architecture in Books, and the Morgan Picture Bible”

Newton is an undergraduate majoring in Art History and English with an emphasis in Medieval Literature and minoring in Studio Art. He is interested in many topics, particularly the material nature of books, stories, and culture across history. When not studying he can be found drawing, making fictional worlds, reading about Polar exploration, or repairing books in the Main Library basement.

Anita Morrison Thomas Essay Award 

Named in honor of English alumna Anita Morrison Thomas, this fund supports an award to the student author of the best essay devoted to a culturally diverse and/or female author. 

Winner: Litong (Eve) Zhu, “The Chinese Novel: History and Theory"

Eve is an international student from Shanghai, China. She has a special passion for postcolonial studies, from literature to history and politics. In her spare time, she reads history books, listens to geopolitics podcasts, and designs Call of Cthulhu campaigns.

Elizabeth A. Kraft Award

This award provides a monetary award for undergraduates or masters students to support research within the department, focusing on the period of 1640 to 1832. When creating this award, Dr. Kraft says, “I want students to think imaginatively about the eighteenth century, which is, after all, the time period during which both the University of Georgia and the United States of America were born.” 

Winners: Annabella Opipari and Gavin (Seth) Wright 

Annabella is a graduating third-year English and history double major. Her current research focuses on Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and whether she can be characterized as a proto-feminist in light of her less-studied writings; in the future, she hopes to attend law school. Outside of her studies, Annabella is a Group Leader for the Athens Area Puppy Raisers (Dawgs Raising Dogs) and is currently raising black poodle Lizzie for the Guide Dog Foundation

Seth is a second-year English major from Cedartown, Georgia. His research focuses on radical, anti-institutional literature within the Jacobin and Romantic movements. In his free time, he enjoys debating at the Demosthenian Literary Society and playing piano.

Digital Humanities Prize   

The Digital Humanities Prize is awarded to an outstanding student project at the intersection of English studies and electronic technologies. It is supported by the Robert E. Park Memorial Fund.

Winner: Rachel Weber

The H. Grady Hutcherson Memorial Scholarship   

H. Grady Hutcherson, a Double Dawg (BSED Science Education, 1949; MA English, 1951), began teaching in Park Hall in 1951 and retired in 1991. He and Mary Hutcherson (AB English, 1951) were married in 1955 and had two sons, both of whom attended UGA. Grady died in 1996, and Mary decided to honor her late husband’s work by establishing the H. Grady Hutcherson Memorial Scholarship in English.

Winners: Mianna Lotshaw, Oliver Stone, and Flora Trameri

Prigge Family Scholarship

William Prigge (AB/MA English, 2014) enjoyed many academic successes in the English Department and now lives in New York, pursuing his dream in the publishing industry. The purpose of the Prigge Family Scholarship Endowment Fund, endowed by his parents Bill and Melissa Prigge, is to provide scholarship support for students in the Department of English who demonstrate excellence in literary studies. 

Winner: Mia Guiliano