Boyette Memorial Award for First-Year Writing

The Purvis E. Boyette Memorial Award

The Purvis E. Boyette Memorial Award Fund was established as an endowed fund in 1988 through the generosity of friends and family of the late Professor Purvis E. Boyette. The income from this fund is to be used for prizes in a freshman English essay contest.

Purvis E. Boyette was an Associate Professor in the English Department at the time of his sudden death in 1987. Mr. and Mrs. Birdsong, parents of one of Professor Boyette's students, and his mother, Mrs. Lena W. Boyles, provided the seed money for this fund, which was added to by many others. This fund is actually the endowment for an award which had been made annually by the English Department for several years. The department faculty voted to name this prize the Purvis E. Boyette Memorial Award in honor of their highly-respected colleague, after his untimely death.

Fall 2022 Boyette Prize Winners

First Place: Cameron Brown, "Carcinogenic State: Louisiana's Role in the Injustices of Cancer Alley" (written for Dr. Linda Shkreli)  

Second Place: Alec Riley, "From Hanoi to Harvard: Capturing the Complexity of the Vietnam War" (written for Dr. Matthew Paul Smith)  

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Past Winners 

Spring 2022 Boyette Prize Winners

First Place: Ava DuBois, "The Downfall and Discreditation of 'Girlboss': Feminism Viewed Through the Lens of Elizabeth Holmes' Fraud" (written for Dr. Ebony Perro) 

Second Place: Victoria C. Guest, "Incorporating Somatic Practices and Theory on the High School Dance Team" (written for Dr. Mary Glavan) 

Fall 2021 Boyette Prize Winners

First Place: Maya Boyer, "Women’s Intuition: How and Why the Stigmatization of Intuitive Thought Puts Women at Risk" (written for Dr. Matthew Sumpter)

Second Place: Maya Lukeman, "Ethical Consumption Is a Myth" (written for Dr. Isa Murdock-Hinrichs) 

Spring 2021 Boyette Prize Winners

First Place: Olivia Barnes, "Boy Bands and Female Sexuality: Girls are Horny Too" (written for Dr. Laura Marks)

Second Place: Destiny Lewis, "Racial Capitalism: How Capitalism Denies Black Bodies in the Fashion Industry" (written for Dr. Matthew Sumpter)

Honorable Mention: Anna Johnson, "A Moment of Silence is Worth a Thousand Words: Appreciating and Understanding Alternatives to Conventional Classroom Advocacy" (written for Dr. Mary Glavan)

Fall 2020 Boyette Prize Winners

First Place: Kristen Jumes, "Lights, Camera, Anxiety: Comparing 1940s Child Stars and Modern Child Vloggers" (written for Dr. Ebony Perro) 

Second Place: Bella Marbaise, "Fake and Filthy: How Social Media has Ruined American Elections" (written for Dr. Steven Gin) 

Spring 2020 Boyette Prize Winners

First Place: Emma Damato, "The Intersection of Race and Public Health: An Analysis of COVID-19 in Queens, New York" (written for Dr. Patricia Burns) 

Second Place: Sydney Richardson, "Slaughtering Factory Farms" (written for Dr. Linda Shkreli) 

Fall 2019 Boyette Prize Winners

First Place: Arienne Huskey, "The “Black Brute”: Police Rhetoric" (written for Dr. Ann Marie Womack)

Second Place: Jenica Baron, "Roses, Representation, and Respectability: The Inner Workings of Reality TV Romance" (written for Dr. Laura Marks)

Spring 2019 Boyette Prize Winners

First Place: Hayley Fier, "Anorexia: A Western Culture-Bound Syndrome" (written for Dr. Elizabeth Kalos-Kaplan)

Second Place: Sasha Culvahouse, "Take Me to Your Leader" (written for Prof. Isa Murdock-Hinrichs) 

Fall 2018 Boyette Prize Winners

First Place: Sarah Hill, "The Effectiveness of Digital Activism: An Analysis of the Controversial #MeToo Movement" (written for Dr. Steven Gin)

Second Place: Jada Jones, "Black Mamas’ Lives Matter: The Severe Racial Disparity in Maternal Mortality Rates" (written for Prof. Matthew Griffin) 

Spring 2018 Boyette Prize Winners

First Place: Drew McGowan, "A Lot of Noise About Deafness" (written for Dr. Adriane Bezusko) 

Second Place: Sydney Wong, "WARNING: Contains Socially Modified Organisms" (written for Dr. Elizabeth Kalos-Kaplan) 

Fall 2017 Boyette Prize Winners

First Place: Austin Mankin, "In Defense of Bad English" (written for Dr. Bernadette Guthrie)

Second Place: Ben Weston, "Power" (written for Prof. Megan Holt) 

Spring 2017 Boyette Prize Winners

First Place: Quinn Anderson, "Bleeding in Public: Menstrual Needs Among the Homeless" (written for Dr. Laura Marks)

Second Place: Abigail Merrill, "Swimming in the Men’s Lane: Sexism in the 2016 Rio Olympics" (written for Dr. Ann Marie Womack)

Fall 2016 Boyette Prize Winners

First Place: Luka Bair, "City of a Million Shards”: Neighborhood Barriers and Sectarian Division in Baghdad" (written for Prof. Isa Murdock-Hinrichs)

Second Place: Nicholas Genna, "Diversity or Disaster: Only at Tulane. Only in New Orleans" (written for Dr. Ann Marie Womack)

Spring 2016 Boyette Prize Winners

First Place: Madeleine Procopio, "The Real Call of Duty: A Need for Change in Supreme Court Precedents Surrounding Violent Video Games" (written for Dr. Patricia Burns)

Second Place: Hannah Craig, "Learning Nothing Would Have Been Better: Why Abstinence Only Sex Education is Harming Children in the United States" 

Fall 2015 Boyette Prize Winners

First Place: Hamilton Beard, "Overweight, Sleep-Deprived, and Distracted: Preventing the Worst of the Social Media Zeitgeist" (written for Prof. Alexander Ruch) 

Second Place: Michelle Delaney, "Safer on the Streets: A Look into Inmates’ Treatment in Women’s Prison" (written for Prof. Teresa Villa-Ignacio)

Spring 2015 Boyette Prize Winners

First Place: Anders Bright, "Baseball in Latin America: Old Story, New Face" (written for Prof. Richard Godden)

Second Place: Robbie Kaufman, "Stop and Think, Don’t Stop and Frisk" (written for Dr. Alice Kracke) 

Fall 2014 Boyette Prize Winners

First Place: Stevie Riley, "Psychiatry and Mental Health – Are They Mutually Exclusive?" (written for Prof. Chris Monier) 

Second Place: Matthew Doane, "No Means Yes?”: Changing Rape Culture on College Campuses" (written for Dr. Laura Marks)

Spring 2014 Boyette Prize Winners

First Place: Kaitlin Bushkoff, "Disney Is "A Very Inclusive, Forward-Thinking Company," but Are They?: The Presence of Homosexuals in Disney Animated Films" (written for Dr. Cory Nelson)

Second Place: Gracie Markland, "The Unofficial Acceptance of Cheating" (written for Dr. Ruch)

Fall 2013 Boyette Prize Winners

First Place: Evan Cole, "The Stalking Cat’s Pajamas: An Argument for Excluding Dennis Avner from The Monstrous Encyclopedia of the Monsters" (written for Prof. Richard Godden)

Second Place: Sebastian Mueller, "Watching In: Self-Surveillance in the Contemporary United States" (written for Dr. Patricia Burns)

Spring 2013 Boyette Prize Winners

First Place: Daniel Etzioni

Second Place: Caranina Palomino, "The Anti-Epidural Movement: Mommy-Bullying and Women’s Rights to Pain Management" (written for Dr. Anne Marie Womack)

Fall 2012 Boyette Prize Winners

First Place: Mysia Dye, "Bioterrorism: Are We Really Safe?"

Second Place: Scott Spiegel, "From White Picket Signs to 140 Characters: Activism is as Strong as Ever" (Written for Dr. Srdjan Smajic) 

Spring 2012 Boyette Prize Winners

First Place: Ashley Richardson, "High Heels: Are They Worth It?" (written for Dr. Emily Wicktor)

Second Place: Dayton Hunn, "Democracy’s Dilemma" (written for Prof. Patience Moll) 

Fall 2011 Boyette Prize Winners

First Place: Carly Asher, "Ethics and War: Maintaining America’s Constitutional Responsibilities in Times of Conflict" 

Second Place: Max Seidman, "Maintaining Austenticity" (written for Dr. Daniel Mangiavellano) 

Spring 2011 Boyette Prize Winners

First Place: Nora Maria Fuller, "Monsters and Metaphors: Ken Dahl's Radical Reorientation of the Personal Experience of Illness Through Comics" (written for Prof. Travis Tanner)

Second Place: Andrew Jones, "Soul Force through Food: Gandhi’s Relevance to the Modern Food Industry" (written for Prof. Patience Moll) 

Fall 2010 Boyette Prize Winners

First Place: Hokan Holmquist, "Sophocles and the Supreme Court: Honoring the Fallen and Free Speech" (written for Dr. Patience Moll)

Second Place: Jessica Hatch, "What Wasn’t The Hipster?"

Spring 2010 Boyette Prize Winners

First Place: Jari Honora, "Scapegoating the Past, Sacrificing the Present: The Pains of Racial Passing" (written for Dr. R. Foy)

Second Place: Peter Tzioumis, "The Importance of Family" (written for Dr. R. Foy) 

Fall 2009 Boyette Prize Winners

First Place: Josh Micley, "Life & Times of Okonkwo: A Reexamination of Things Fall Apart"

Second Place: Emily Rodkin, "East Meets West" (written for Dr. Tom O'Connor) 

Spring 2009 Boyette Prize Winners

First Place: Sarah Bobker, "The Dangers of Unrealistic Cultural Ideals" (written for Dr. Tom O'Connor)

Second Place: Lauren Vosseller, "More than Just Mardi Gras" (written for Prof. R. Foy)

Fall 2008 Boyette Prize Winners

First Place: Andrew Goltzer, "Turning 
a
 Blind 
Eye" (written for Dr.
 Cat
 Gubernatis 
Dannen)

Second Place: Abigail Readinger, "Brush Strokes from Emotion and Experience" (written for Dr. Ryan McBride)

Spring 2008 Boyette Prize Winners

First Place: James Tekkipe, "The Search for Natural Law" (written for Prof. Madaline Herlong) 

Second Place: Jennifer Marks, "Female Deliverance" (written for Prof. R. Foy) 

Fall 2007 Boyette Prize Winners

First Place: Logan Holzman, "The Right to a Family" 

Second Place: Reed Wendorf-French, "The
 Outcome
 of
 the
 Confusion
 of
 Tongues" 

Spring 2007 Boyette Prize Winners

First Place: Anna Whalen, "Ponga!" (written for Dr. Livingston) 

Second Place: Anna Whalen, "The Calming of the Storm" (written for Dr. Livingston) 

Fall 2006 Boyette Prize Winners

First Place: Katherine Ellison, "Trapped in Translation" 

Spring 2006 Boyette Prize Winners

First Place: Carol MacDonald, "New Orleans Economic Development: Always Low Prices, Always Low Income" 

Second Place: Matt Dunham, "The Reality of the American ‘Dream’" 

Spring 2005 Boyette Prize Winners

First Place: Sarah Yazdain, "Art of the Holocaust: A Glimpse of Hell" 

Second Place: Anna Cowan, "The Role of the Macabre in the Cultural Performance of New Orleans"  

Fall 2004 Boyette Prize Winners

First Place: Thomas Boothby

Second Place: Arianna Dart, "Performance in New Orleans: A Closer Look at the City’s Haunted Tours"