Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities
The Class of 1879 Prize is awarded by the Humanities & Arts department yearly for excellent work in the culminating project for the Humanities & Arts Requirement. These projects must demonstrate exceptional creativity and skill in conceiving, developing, and expressing a theme within any discipline in the humanities and arts.
History of the Prize
WPI has recognized exemplary work in the humanities and arts since 1872, when the department of English and Modern Languages established an award for the best paper in composition classes. At its reunion in 1900, the Class of 1879 endowed this prize for a paper "on a topic of general interest." The endowment was continued by Spencer Miller 1879, who wanted “to encourage graduates of the Institute to develop the art of clear and lucid English in the discussion of engineering subjects.” The Class of 1879 Prize was then awarded annually to the best term paper in the departments of English, History, and Languages until the adoption of the WPI Plan in 1970. In 1983, the department of Humanities & Arts began to award the Class of 1879 Prize to the best Humanities Requirement Projects.
The Class of 1879 Prize has evolved alongside WPI. Today’s prize-winning projects rarely concern engineering subjects, and some aren’t even traditional essays. But we still honor the spirit of Mr. Miller’s prize, to encourage and reward the highest achievements of human expression.
Details for each year's competition are announced in November/December, with a deadline for submission in January. For information on the competition and how to submit your project for consideration, please contact the HUA office at ext. 5246 or at huaweb@wpi.edu.
Note: Prizes awarded for projects completed the previous year.
Browse Award Recipients
Year | Recipient | Name | Title | Awarded by | Type | Details |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2004 | Steven J. Tufo | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | "Considering the Absurd, Judgment, and Love: Albert Camus' Revolt Against Death," advisor: John Sanbonmatsu |
1983 | JoAnne Shatkin | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | |
1998 | Quach B. Hai | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | "Self-Sponsoring Writing at WPI," advisor: John M. Trimbur |
1993 | Henry R. McTague | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | "Do Animals Have Rights?," advisor: Bettina Bergo |
2008 | Maggie Allard | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | "The Butterfly (animated short)," advisor: Joshua Rosenstock |
1988 | Jeanette M. Cheetham | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | "The Mask: a Window to Understand the Eskimos," advisor: Ruth Smith |
2003 | Griffin R. Bryant | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | "Torment: a Story," advisor: Michelle K. Ephraim |
2016 | Reynaldo Duran | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | "Painting a Bridge Between Past and Future," advisor: W.A. Bland Addison and Kristin Boudreau |
2014 | Jedediah Perron | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | “Going Out With A Bang: The American Supersonic Transport and the Environmental Movement” Major: Aerospace Engineering. Advisor: Thomas Robertson |
1998 | Siu L. Ng | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | "Interwar Progress in Aerial Photographic Mapping," advisor: E. Malcolm Parkinson |
2013 | Damien Cabral | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | "The Origins of Muslim Extremism" , advisor: W.A. Bland Addison |
1992 | Chad L. Council | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | "From Love Comes the Pieces of a Broken Heart - A Play," advisor: Susan Vick |
1987 | Shawn D. Harrison | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | "Niépce, Daguerre and Talbot: the Motives Behind the Men," advisor: E. Malcolm Parkinson |
2003 | Ryan Patrick Jones | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | "Ministry: a Screenplay," advisor: Dean O'Donnell |
2016 | Cody Slater | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | "The Temporal Expression of Consciousness," advisor: Jennifer McWeeny |
2015 | Kimberly Marrion | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | “Ethics, Dementia and Family: An Investigation into the Familial Issues that Arise with Dementia Patients,” major: Architectural Engineering, advisor: Bethel Eddy |
1998 | Ian E. Parmenter | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | "A Work in Progress: a Screenplay," advisor: Dean M. O'Donnell |
2013 | Jesse Lehman | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | "A Discussion of 20th Century Musical Techniques and Their Presence in Karlheinz Stockhausen's Gruppen“ , advisor: Douglas Weeks |
2013 | Shreyas Renganathan | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | "Undeterminism: Materially Realizing Free Will", advisor: Jennifer McWeeny |
2010 | Kassondra Hickey | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | “Interactive Media Art,” advisor: Joseph Farbrook |
1992 | Lily Lau | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | "The Monster in the Closet of Our Souls: The Gothic and Wuthering Heights," advisor: Joel Brattin |
2021 | Robbie Oleynick advisor: Laura Eckelman | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | "Scoring A Silent Sky" |
1987 | Edward C. Hein | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | "A Psychological Assessment of Lee Iacocca," advisor: Patrick P. Dunn |
2003 | Gregory I. Ratner | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | "The Outcomes of the 'Record War': History of the Record Industry, 1930-1955," advisor: Michael M. Sokal |
2016 | Benjamin Huchley | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | "Online Avatars: An Expression of the User's Self," advisor: Jennifer McWeeny |
2014 | Charlotte Reames | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | “Gender Roles in Morocco” Major: Biology and Biotechnology. Advisor: W. A. Bland Addison |
1997 | Jeffrey L. Bayko | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | "The Road to Jensenism (1923-1969)," advisor: Michael M. Sokal |
1997 | Janet L. Brennan | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | "A Consideration of Consciousness Explained," advisor: Roger S. Gottlieb |
2010 | Craig Mitchell | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | “The John Hancock Tower,” advisor: M. David Samson |
1992 | Kevin M. Parker | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | "The Society of Friends - Antislavery Pioneers," advisor: Steven C. Bullock |
2021 | Kalina Bonofiglio advisor: Joe Aguilar | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | "Blue Sky Society" |
1987 | Richard D. June | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | "William Carlos Williams' Paterson: the Voice of a Nation," advisor: Laura J. Menides |
2002 | Kimberly Johnstone | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | "The United States Supreme Court: The 2000 Presidential Election," advisor: JoAnn Manfra |
2015 | Paulo Carvalho | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | “Developing and Composing for a Robotic Organ,” major: Biomedical Engineering and Robotics Engineering, minor: Electrical and Computer Engineering, advisor: Scott Barton |
1997 | Daniel Murphy | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | "The American Dream: Has it Become Unreachable," advisor: William A. Baller |
2010 | Mortada Najem | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | “Human Applicable Cloning: the Islamic Debate,” advisor: Bethel Eddy |
1991 | Eric R. Bell | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | "Reagan Administration Foreign Policy Toward Dictatorships: A Comparative Study" |
2021 | Alison Drapeau advisor: Lindsay Davis | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | "Proposing Universal Policy to De-Feminize Childcare" |
2007 | Rebecca C. Baron | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | “A Change in Expectations: Staging of Dueling in Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet and Hamlet,” advisor Michelle Ephraim |
1986 | Chrysanthe Demetry | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | "Healing and Growing: American Civil War Fiction," advisor: John Zeugner |
2002 | Amanda A. Roberts | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | "Sequencing within the Short Story Collection: An Experiment in Design and Practice," advisor: John Trimbur |
2014 | Bohao Li | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | “Lee Teng-hui and a New Taiwanese Nationalism” Major: Computer Science. Advisor: Jennifer Rudolph |
1996 | Greg Amiro | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | "The Rock n' Roll Renaissance," advisor: Douglas G. Weeks |
1991 | Matthew R. Bontell | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | "The Flood: A Suite for Brass Quartet" |
2007 | Craig D. DiGiovanni | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | “The Planning and Implementation of Denazification in Post War Germany,” advisor David Dollenmayer |
1986 | Robert Provost | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | "African Percussion," advisors: David McKay and Richard Falco |
2002 | Benjamin K. Sandofsky | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | "The Shawl: The Study and Application of David Mamet's Filmmaking Theories," advisor: Dean O'Donnell |
2017 | Aviv Brest | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | “An Ethical Framework for the Genetic Engineering of Animals,” advisor: John Sanbonmatsu |
1996 | Andrea Kodys | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | "Promises, Policies and Goals: The U.S. Occupation of Haiti, 1915-1934," advisor: James Watters |
2019 | Carla Duarte | Class of 1879 Prize for Outstanding Projects in the Humanities | Winner | Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Undergraduate | “Saudade: A story of Identity,” advisor: Katharine McIntyre |