Sweetland and the English Department Writing Program offer prizes for student writers in LSA. Sweetland’s prizes include: the Prize for Outstanding Writing Portfolio, the Matt Kelley Prize for Excellence in First-Year Writing, and the Prize for Excellence in Upper-Level Writing. Instructors nominate student writing for each of the prizes. These prizes are awarded annually in the winter term.
First-Year Writing Prizes
Download the 2020 First-Year Writing Prizebook (pdf)
Matt Kelley Prize for Excellence in First-Year Writing
Grace Brown, “An Open Letter to Bill Donohue, President of the Catholic League: Concerning Your Editorial on the Equality Act”
Nominated by Genta Nishku, COMPLIT 122
Jackson Mott, “Life Sucks, And Then You Die”
Nominated by Cat Cassel, LSWA 125
Excellence in Multilingual Writing
Hao Chen, “Reasons for Digital Piracy Behavior and Strategies to Stop It”
Nominated by Allison Piippo, WRITING 120
Kyungrae Lee, “Do Not Take Anything Slightly”
Nominated by Scott Beal, WRITING 120
Excellence in the Practice of Writing
Alyssa Huang, “Huángruìxīn”
Nominated by Gina Brandolino, WRITING 100
Dallas Witbeck, “I am a Twig in a Nature of Drawing: The Story of Finding my Major”
Nominated by Hannah Webster, WRITING 100
Upper-Level Writing Prizes
Download the 2020 Upper-Level Writing Prizebook (pdf)
Excellence in Upper-Level Writing (Social Sciences)
Max Steinbaum, “D.C. Dog Fight: Principle and Pragmatism of the Bush-era Supreme Court”
Nominated by Jacob Walden, POLSCI 319: Politics of Civil Liberties and Civil Rights
Maryellen Zbrozek, “The Plastic Problem: What are Scientists doing to Reduce their Environmental Footprint?”
Nominated by Julie Halpert, ENVIRON 320: Environmental Journalism – Reporting about Science, Policy and Public Health
Excellence in Upper-Level Writing (Sciences)
Alice Sorel, “Cerebral Organoids: Promising New Window into Neurodevelopment”
Nominated by Jimmy Brancho, WRITING 400: Writing and Research in the Sciences
Franco Tavella, “Gene editing for the 21st century: CRISPR/Cas9 and Prime Editing”
Nominated by Qiong Yang, BIOPHYS 450/550: Intro to Biophysics Laboratory
Excellence in Upper-Level Writing (Humanities)
Jinan Abufarha, “عنوان”
Nominated by Christine Modey, WRITING 300: Seminar in Peer Writing Consultation
Davis Boos, “A Second Exile: Mario Benedetti’s Absence in English”
Nominated by Marlon James Sales, COMPLIT 322: Translated Wor(l)ds
Dana Nichols was awarded the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts’ Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education award. This award recognizes faculty members who are exceptionally dedicated to the educational experiences of undergraduates, and who demonstrate this dedication through achievements and innovations in their own and others’ classrooms or academic programs.
Louis Cicciarelli received a Transfer Connections Awards for Mentor of the Year as an outstanding mentor to transfer students during the 2016-2017 school year. Transfer Connections brings together incoming transfer students with former transfer student and faculty mentors to support their transition to UM.
Jimmy Brancho was lead author on an article entitled “Urea-glass preparation of titanium niobium nitrides and subsequent oxidation to photoactive titanium niobium oxynitrides” in 
David Karczynski published two books, “Smallmouth: Modern Tactics, Tips and Techniques” (Stackpole Press) and “From Lure to Fly: Fly Fishing for Spinning and Baitcast Anglers” (Lyons Press).
Christine Modey, with co-editors David Schoem and Ed St. John, has published a new compilation of essays on integrative and engaged pedagogies entitled “Teaching the Whole Student,” from Stylus Press. She presented at the East Central Writing Centers Association conference in March with her collaborator Jeff Austin from Skyline High School in Ann Arbor: “Everything Counts: Accounting for the Emotional Labor of Community Building in Writing Centers.” She also presented her recent research on peer writing center session reports at the International Writing Center Association conference in Chicago.
Simone Sessolo was invited in November 2017 to join as affiliate faculty in the Program in Digital Studies. His article “Writing the Selfie” has been accepted for publication in the journal _Prompt_.
This summer, Sweetland lecturers Ali Shapiro (L) and Gina Brandolino (R) will teach a course for the Telluride Association Summer Program (TASP), an intensive, six-week program for high school juniors. Ali and Gina’s course, “Just Comics,” explores notions of social justice within the narratives (and the meta-narrative) of comics.
