The Three Generations Prize for First-Year Writing
Spring 2022
Lian Liu, '25
First Place, Spring 2022
Essay
"The Depature"
Judges' Comments
Lian Liu's paper, "The Departure", was inspired by the German artist's book Ohne Wolken by Clemens-Tobias Lange. Judges were captivated by the unusual voice Lian chose to write the paper in ("you"), which draws the reader in and takes us on an imaginary journey above the clouds. Offering her own reflection on an ancient Chinese poem about the sorrows of departure, Li Sao by Qu Yuan – which opens and closes the artist’s book – Lian reflects on her own love for her mother, and in so doing, melted our hearts!
Hannah Chiou, '25
First Place, Spring 2022
Essay
"The Persistence of Bad Blood: Responsibility and Guilt in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study"
Judges' Comments
Hannah Chiou's paper, "The Persistence of Bad Blood: Responsibility and Guilt in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study," examines the collective memory of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment as a lens into ongoing cultural debates about race and healthcare. Judges particularly admired Hannah’s interdisciplinary approach, as she analyzed the connections between Bill Clinton's 1997 public apology for the study and David Feldshuh’s Miss Evers' Boys, a 1995 play based on the events. As Hannah deftly argues, both the speech and the play divert blame away from white governmental and medical institutions, thus obscuring the structural basis of racial inequalities in healthcare.
