Academic Honors and FellowshipsUndergraduate Writers’ Conference
The Undergraduate Writers’ Conference (UWC) is a partnership between USC’s Office of Academic Programs and The Writing Program. The purpose of the event is to share and celebrate writing from current undergraduate students across all fields of study and offer a space to receive feedback from peers and faculty. All participants will submit one piece of writing that represents their best work. Participation in at least two sessions throughout conference day in addition to the awards ceremony is required to remain eligible for prize consideration.
Undergraduate Writers’ Conference: Friday, April 11, 2025
Awards Dinner: Thursday, April 17, 2025
Registration Now Open!
UWC Keynote Address:
Rasheed Newson is the author of My Government Means to Kill Me. The novel was a Lambda Literary finalist for Gay Fiction and was named one of the “The 100 Notable Books of 2022” by The New York Times. His forthcoming novel, There’s Only One Sin in Hollywood, is slated for publication by Flatiron in 2026.
Rasheed is also a television drama writer and producer. He co-developed Bel-Air and worked on The Chi, Animal Kingdom, and Narcos, among other drama series. Rasheed was born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana. He is a graduate of Georgetown University. He currently lives with his husband and their two children in Pasadena.
Featured Panelists:
Nonfiction Panel: A Conversation with Dean Anderson
Emily Hodgson Anderson is Professor of English and Dornsife College Dean of Undergraduate Education at USC. She is the author of two books of literary criticism, Eighteenth-Century Authorship and the Play of Fiction (Routledge, 2009) and Shakespeare and the Legacy of Loss (University of Michigan Press, 2018). She is also author of the newly published cross-over book Shadow Work: Loneliness and the Literary Life (Columbia UP 2025). For five years, she served as the editor-in-chief for the academic journal The Eighteenth Century: Theory and Interpretation (University of Pennsylvania Press).Her academic work has appeared in the journals PMLA, ELH, and Studies in the Novel, among others, and her public-facing writing has appeared in venues such as the Los Angeles Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement, Air/Light, and LitHub.
Poetry Panel: The Anatomy of a Poem with James Ciano
James Ciano’s debut collection of poetry, The Committee of Men, is forthcoming from BOA Editions in May of 2026. James holds an MFA from New York University and he is currently a Provost Fellow at the University of Southern California, pursuing a PhD in Creative Writing and Literature. He has received scholarships from the Vermont Studio Center and The Community of Writers, and his recent poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Blackbird, The Southern Review, Poetry Northwest, Bennington Review, The Greensboro Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Copper Nickel, and The Missouri Review. His reviews and writings on poetry have appeared in The Adroit Journal, Poetry Northwest, and Los Angeles Review of Books. Under editor David St. John, he is an Associate Editor of Swirl & Vortex: Collected Poems of Larry Levis (Graywolf, 2026). Originally from New York, he lives in Los Angeles, California with his family.
Newly Published Panel: A Celebration with Sara Sligar and Ellen Wayland-Smith
Sara Sligar is an assistant professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Southern California. Her first novel, Take Me Apart, was published by MCD/Farrar, Straus & Giroux. It was a Kirkus Best Book of the Year and a finalist for the Ned Kelly Award for Best International Crime Fiction. She holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.Phil. in Modern European History from the University of Cambridge. Her second novel, Vantage Point, was published by MCD/FSG in January 2025.
Ellen Wayland-Smith is the author of two books of American cultural history, Oneida: From Free Love Utopia to the Well-Set Table (Picador 2016) and The Angel in the Marketplace: Adwoman Jean Wade Rindlaub and the Selling of America (UChicago Press, 2020). Her book of collected essays, The Science of Last Things: Essays on Deep Time and the Boundaries of the Self, was recently published by Milkweed Editions (2024). Her essays have appeared in Orion Magazine, The American Scholar, Guernica, Longreads, and the LA Times, among other places. She has been reviewing nonfiction and memoir for The Los Angeles Review of Books and The Millions since 2016.
Juried Workshops:
“Get To Know Your People: A Workshop in Character Development”
Andrew De Silva is an associate professor teaching writing and critical reasoning here at USC. His 2024 short story “Emotional Labor” was anthologized in the Missouri Review Books’ collection Life Support: Stories of Health and Medicine, and his work placed third for Britain’s 2023 Bridport Short Story Prize. His fiction has received support from the Luso-American Development Foundation and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference.
“Scholarly Personal Narrative: Looking Inward in Order to Look Outward”
Taly Matejka holds a PhD from UCLA, where she studied trauma and memory in the context of 20th century American literature. Alongside her scholarly work, she’s long been involved in the entertainment industry in various capacities. Her screenplay for “No Ordinary Hero: The Super Deafy Movie” won awards at the Rome International Film Festival, The Temecula Valley International Film Festival, and the Dov Film Festival in Stockholm. She teaches in USC’s Writing Program.
Rowan Bayne teaches in USC’s Writing Program. He is also Faculty Director of the Readers’ Circle, a volunteer-based editing network of incarcerated authors and USC students, faculty, and staff, run through the Dornsife Prison Education Project. His scholarly interests include sexuality and gender, experiential learning, and 20th-century literature.
“The Writer’s Journal”
Shana Kraynak is an Assistant Professor in the Writing Program at the University of Southern California. She holds a PhD in Literature & Criticism from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, a Masters in Professional Writing from USC, and a bachelor’s degree in writing from the University of Pittsburgh. Outside of academia, Shana enjoys coaching her son’s little league team and watching WWE.
Program Details
USC’s Office of Academic Programs and The Writing Program present the 22nd annual Undergraduate Writers’ Conference on Friday, April 11, 2025. Awards ceremony to follow on Thursday, April 17, 2025.
- Schedule
- Eligibility
- Writing Category Descriptions
- Submission Formatting
- Judging & Prizes
- How to Register
Conference Day Schedule
Friday, April 11, 2025
Location: Tutor Campus Center (TCC) 227
Conference Kick-Off (9:00am-9:30am)
Grab some breakfast and get to know your fellow conference participants before we settle in for the Keynote Address.
Keynote Address featuring Rasheed Newson (9:30am-11:00am)
Join bestselling author, Rasheed Newson, as he shares insights from his career. There will be time for Q & A as well as a raffle of the author’s books for those in attendance.
Nonfiction Panel: A Conversation with Dean Anderson (11:00am-11:50am)
Join us for an intimate conversation with Dean Emily Anderson about the writing and publishing journey of her most recent book, Shadow Work: Loneliness and the Literary Life.
Open Mic (12:00pm-12:50pm)
Share your Writer’s Conference submission or cheer on fellow writers from the audience during this writer’s showcase.
Poetry Panel: The Anatomy of a Poem with James Ciano (1:00pm-1:50pm)
In this poetry session, a poet will walk us through the evolution of a poem, from early inspiration to publication.
Newly Published Panel: A Celebration with Sara Sligar and Ellen Wayland-Smith (2:00pm-2:50pm)
Join us in a celebration of Sara Sligar and Ellen Wayland-Smith’s most recent books. The authors will detail their publishing journey and answer audience questions. At the end, there will be a raffle of their books for those in attendance.
Past UWC Winners Panel (3:00pm-3:50pm)
Previous Undergraduate Writers’ Conference winners will share excerpts from their winning submissions and unique approaches to writing.
Additional Conference Events
Tuesday, April 8, 2025
Juried Workshop “Get To Know Your People: A Workshop in Character Development” (9:00am-10:30am)
Participation in this workshop is upon acceptance by the workshop leader. If you are interested in participating, please indicate your interest on your registration form.
A writing truism is that “character shapes plot.” Plot is created when our characters deeply desire something, and plot moves forward when our characters react to the challenges we build for them. So, whether we write fiction, screenplays, or stage plays, we need to know who our characters are, truly and wholly. We need to envision their childhoods; their talents; their anxieties; their dreams; the teams they root for; the chores they hate doing; the way their parents met. This generative workshop will use several methods to help writers better know their characters, including a zodiac and Enneagram approach used by the writer Crystal Hana Kim.
Wednesday, April 9, 2025
Juried Workshop “Scholarly Personal Narrative: Looking Inward in Order to Look Outward” (1:00pm-2:00pm)
Participation in this workshop is upon acceptance by the workshop leader. If you are interested in participating, please indicate your interest on your registration form.
Guided by the ethos of the scholarly personal narrative (SPN), this hands-on workshop offers students a framework for blending the genres of the academic essay and creative nonfiction storytelling. Students will be guided through invention and prewriting processes to refine their core values as writers/researchers and to understand how their own lived experiences can be integrated meaningfully with discourse problems in their fields. Participants will leave the workshop with concrete ideas about the central role their own experiences can play in their critical interventions, in their academic majors and beyond.
Juried Workshop “The Writer’s Journal” (2:00pm-3:00pm)
Participation in this workshop is upon acceptance by the workshop leader. If you are interested in participating, please indicate your interest on your registration form.
This workshop will give students an opportunity to discuss their modes, methods, and process for writing. Students will also be given time to write and workshop in their own journals with some guided prompts. The intention of this session is to encourage introspection and purposeful, habitual writing, and also to encourage writers to be comfortable with uncomfortable, which includes celebrating ‘messy’ writing and experimenting with new forms and styles.
Thursday, April 18, 2025
Location: USC Town & Gown Ballroom
Celebration Dinner & Awards Ceremony (6:00pm-8:00pm)
Join us for a celebration dinner with all Undergraduate Writers’ Conference and Undergraduate Research Symposium participants. The most outstanding works will be recognized with First Prizes of $1000 and Second Prizes of $500.
Potential Online Publication
All participants gain automatic consideration for publication in Scribe, the USC Dornsife online journal produced by undergraduates, and Outstanding Academic Papers by Students (OAPS), an academic research libraries program that preserves excellence in student scholarship.
Eligibility
To be eligible, entrants must:
- Be a current undergraduate student at USC,
- Complete an online registration form that includes a 300-500 word Writer’s Statement and submission of one piece of writing in one writing style category, and
- Commit to attend at least two sessions on the day of the Writer’s Conference in addition to the Celebration dinner in order to maintain eligibility for prize consideration.
- No group writing submissions will be accepted.
Writing Category Descriptions
Please submit one piece of writing in one of the four categories offered:
- Fiction and Memoir (30 pages max) – can include short stories, screenplays, excerpts from longer fictional works, memoirs, and personal essays
- Poetry (up to 10 poems, combined 30 pages max)
- Academic Writing (30 pages max) – humanities and journalism
- Academic Writing (30 pages max) – social and hard science as well as business
All submissions may also be considered for the USC Schwarzenegger Institute Award and Sustainability Award when the writing topic aligns with award criteria.
Submissions for the juried workshops will also be considered upon request.
Submission Formatting
Submissions must adhere to the following format parameters:
- Fiction and Memoir (30 pages max) – can include short stories, screenplays, excerpts from longer fictional works, memoirs, and personal essays
- Poetry (up to 10 poems, combined 30 pages max)
- Academic Writing (30 pages max) – humanities and journalism
- Academic Writing (30 pages max) – social and hard science as well as business
- Double-spaced, 12pt font, is the preferred format with the exception of poetry and screenwriting
- Submissions must be in English
- PDF format only
- There is a 1000MB/1GB limit for each submission
Judging & Prizes
Judges are USC faculty members primarily from the USC Writing Program, Schwarzenegger Institute and Office of Sustainability. Each category has a panel of 2-6 judges, who are assigned based on their respective expertise in each of the writing categories.
The judges will award the following prizes:
- First Prize (All Categories): One $1000 First Prize will be awarded in each of the four writing categories.
- Second Prize (All Categories): One $500 Second Prize will be awarded in each of the four writing categories. USC Schwarzenegger Institute Award: The USC Schwarzenegger Institute will also award one $1000 First Prize and one $500 Second Prize to students whose work proposes real-world solutions to serious policy challenges and improves the lives of people and communities with regard to issues in Environment & Energy, or Political Reform & Voter access, or Terminate hate.
- Sustainability Award: One $1000 First Prize and one $500 Second Prize to students whose work addresses understanding the challenges and solutions related to climate change and other environmental issues that impact the well-being of people and the planet. In line with President Folt’s vision for a more sustainable USC, we encourage submissions related to sustainability and sustainable solutions, including topics such as (but not limited to): biodiversity loss, environmental pollution, climate change, environmental justice and sustainable design.
Prize Claims
An Undergraduate Writers’ Conference Prize is disbursed as a stipend in the spring as a check issued to the student. This may affect student financial aid packages. Students are encouraged to email the Financial Aid Office through the askUSC portal to discuss the potential effects of a Prize. The award could adversely affect students with Pell grants and/or loans.
Join us for the 2025 Undergraduate Writers’ Conference!
Registration Now Open!
Remember to mark your application as complete and hit the green “SUBMIT” button. You will receive an email confirmation upon successful submission.
Upcoming Dates & Deadlines
Prize Recipients
Each year, the Undergraduate Writers’ Conference awards First and Second prizes for outstanding work in each of the four writing categories. Additional recognition includes Honorable Mentions and awards from the USC Schwarzenegger Institute and Office of Sustainability.
| Student Name | Year | Award Category | Award Type | Project Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anders Johnson | 2024 | Sustainability Award | Second Place | Breaking Barriers: Empowering Youth for Climate Solutions |
| Mariam Astvatsatrian | 2024 | Sustainability Award | Honorable Mention | From Antagonist to Protagonist: The Solar Revolution and the Star that Shines Brighter Than All |
| Lindsay King | 2024 | Sustainability Award | First Place | The Impact of Rapid Urbanization on Cultural Well-Being in Rural Towns: A comparative analysis of development in Rishikesh, India and Nosara, Costa Rica. |
| Kyra Horton | 2024 | Schwarzenegger Institute | Honorable Mention | Help as Resistance: Daily Tools for Living a Life Rooted in Community |
| Grace Okafor | 2024 | Schwarzenegger Institute | Second Place | Exploring the Complex Relationship Between Fire and Indigenous Communities |
| Nivea Krishnan | 2024 | Schwarzenegger Institute | First Place | Ranking Reforms: Evaluating the Feasibility of Federal Ranked Choice Voting Implementation |
| Ziying Li | 2024 | Poetry | Honorable Mention | A Fraud's Guide to Inheritance |
| Jonathan Hayden | 2024 | Poetry | Second Place | Convalescence |
| Henry Romain | 2024 | Poetry | First Place | Heterophenomenology |
| Juno Wolfe | 2024 | Fiction and Memoir | Honorable Mention | 2,450,000 |
| Ife Olarewaju | 2024 | Fiction & Memoir | Second Place | The Take-Care Hours |
| Joyce Chen | 2024 | Fiction & Memoir | First Place | My God Is The Future |
| Amy Nam | 2024 | Academic Writing: Humanities & Journalism | Honorable Mention | “I’m talking WAP, WAP WAP”: Ratchetness, Redefining, and Reclaiming |
| Sophia Sturgeon | 2024 | Academic Writing: Humanities & Journalism | Second Place | How to Plant Marigolds: The Formation of Identity in The Bluest Eye |
| Thordar Han | 2024 | Academic Writing: Humanities & Journalism | First Place | Born With a Wooden Spoon: The Life and Legacy of U Han Tin |
| Giulia Cafe Aoude | 2023 | Sustainability Award | Honorable Mention | The Unspoken Aspect of Sustainability: The media impact on the public misconception of sustainability |
| Ahad Aijaz Kajani | 2023 | Sustainability Award | 2nd Prize | The Corruption, Contamination, and Conservation of Our Skies; A Resolution for the Plight and Restoration of the American City |
| Will Erens | 2023 | Sustainability Award | 1st Prize | America, Incorporated: A Navajo Tale of Energy and Power |
| Emilee LeVeque | 2023 | Schwarzenegger Institute | Honorable Mention | HOW TO IMPROVE THE STATE GRANT PROGRAMS IMPACT TOWARDS BENEFITTING PRIORITY POPULATIONS: An Analysis of Land Use, Housing, and Transportation Policy in California and the impacts towards Priority Populations |
| Emerson Damiano | 2023 | Schwarzenegger Institute | 2nd Prize | A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Deep-Sea Mining |
| Anna Molnar | 2023 | Schwarzenegger Institute | 1st Prize | Driving Away from the Car: How to balance transportation demand and supply in Los Angeles for improved efficiency and sustainability?" |
| Yi-Ann Li | 2023 | Poetry | Honorable Mention | Kintsugi: poems celebrating breaking and remaking |
| Emma Ashley | 2023 | Poetry | 2nd Prize | Moment of Contact |
| Safira Khan | 2023 | Poetry | 1st Prize | The Willingness to Open |
| Cat Broderick | 2023 | Fiction & Memoir | Honorable Mention | Ancestral Rights |
| Megan Dang | 2023 | Fiction & Memoir | 2nd Prize | Soul Town |
| Max Nichol | 2023 | Fiction & Memoir | 1st Prize | Up on the Hill |
| Stella Horns | 2023 | Academic Writing: Social & Hard Sciences & Business | Honorable Mention | The Green and the Grün: A Comparative Analysis of United States and German Environmental Movements |
| Ammar Dharani | 2023 | Academic Writing: Social & Hard Sciences & Business | 2nd Prize | The Evolution of the Ginan: Or, When Poets Became Prophets and Prophets Became Poets |
| Sarah Kim | 2023 | Academic Writing: Social & Hard Sciences & Business | 1st Prize | The Invisible Crisis: A Historical Analysis of National Trauma and Changes in Psychosocial Healing in South Korean Society |
| Yu Li | 2023 | Academic Writing: Humanities & Journalism | Honorable Mention | Confronting Horror: Visually Representing the Abortion Procedure in Audrey Diwan’s Happening |
| Jonathan Hayden | 2023 | Academic Writing: Humanities & Journalism | 2nd Prize | Breaking out of the Machine and Becoming Byron: Little Language in Virginia Woolf’s The Waves |
| Aastha Jani | 2023 | Academic Writing: Humanities & Journalism | 1rst Prize | For My Chosen Family: An Ode to The Love I Know Best |
| Mariam Matta | 2022 | Creative | 1st Prize | Kin to Nectar and Thorns |
| Tricia Lim Castro | 2022 | Creative | 2nd Prize | The Forward to My Dance |
| Cameron Baker | 2022 | Creative | Honorable Mention | When the God of Love Returns |
| Giacomo Green | 2022 | Analytical | 1st Prize | Why Africa? |
| Neelia Abadi | 2022 | Analytical | 2nd Prize | “Stop Acting Like a Girl” - An Exploration of Pain Bias in the Medical Field |
| Benjamin Katz | 2022 | Analytical | Honorable Mention | How Jewish Talk Shapes Judaism |
| Emma Taulli | 2022 | Professional Writing/Moral Reasoning | 1st Prize | He has stripped me of my life’s work’: Profit Over Personhood in the Music Industry |
| Madeleine Nations | 2022 | Professional Writing/Moral Reasoning | 2nd Prize | A letter to General Tod D. Walters, Commander, U.S. European Command and NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe: Russia’s Black Sea Fleet |
| Joel Lee | 2022 | Professional Writing/Moral Reasoning | Honorable Mention | Beyond the Species: Kant, Marx, and the Preservation of the Will |
| Yunkyoung Jeong | 2022 | Research | 1st Prize | Lifestyle or Politics: The Struggle over Sexuality in the Third World Women’s Alliance |
| Himani Boompally | 2022 | Research | 2nd Prize | Heads or Tails:The Contribution of Religion and Reason to “Scientific Racism” in the Colonial Asylums of Bengal |
| Melody Gui | 2022 | Research | Honorable Mention | The Evolution of the National Front in France: Is it Neo-Fascist? |
| Diana Cantini | 2022 | USC Schwarzenegger Institute | 1st Prize | Policy Memo to Olaf Scholz on Nord Stream 2 and Ukraine |
| Sophia Gross | 2022 | USC Schwarzenegger Institute | 2nd Prize | The Irony of our Constitution's Ambiguity |
| Mane Berikyan | 2022 | Sustainability | 1st Prize | Dictators are Bad for the Environment |
| Olivia Ellegard | 2022 | Sustainability | 2nd Prize | The Climate Clock: A Reminder That "Accuracy" Doesn't Matter |
| Sam Fredericks | 2022 | Sustainability | Honorable Mention | A Retro Revival: How Dated Devices Could Lead to an Environmental Disaster |
| John-Paul Petrash | 2007 | Professional Writing / Moral Reasoning | Honorable Mention | Memorandum |
| Chuong Nguyen | 2007 | Professional Writing / Moral Reasoning | 2nd Prize | The Cost of Self-Esteem and the American Girl |
| Shahin Berenji | 2007 | Professional Writing / Moral Reasoning | 1st Prize | Analysis of the Supreme Court Case American Insurance Association vs. Garamendi (2003) |
| Emily Ansara Baines | 2007 | Creative Writing | Honorable Mention | Adventures in Wonderland |
| Suh Yung (Amy) Han | 2007 | Creative Writing | Honorable Mention | Collected Poems |
| Bryan Carberry | 2007 | Creative Writing | 2nd Prize | Touched by God |
| Diana Arterian | 2007 | Creative Writing | 1st Prize | Collected Poem |
| Hrishikesh Joshi | 2007 | Research Essay | Honorable Mention | Tacit Knowledge, Schrödinger, and the Revolution in Biology |
| Jamie Kagihara | 2007 | Research Essay | 2nd Prize | Murses |
| Allison Norman | 2007 | Research Essay | 1st Prize | From Lions to Logos: Heraldry, Social Class, and Accessorizing the Middle Ages from Arthurian Romance to American Popular Culture |
| David Slagle | 2007 | Analytical Essay | 2nd Prize | The Contemporary Filmic Aura |
| Henry Wu | 2007 | Analytical Essay | 1st Prize | A Ghost Story |
| Allison Norman | 2008 | Research Essay | 1st Prize | Hear, my Lords: Marriage in Twelfth-Century France and Women as Teachers in the Letters of Heloise and the Lais of Marie de France |
| Jessica Kim | 2008 | Research Essay | 2nd Prize | Beam Me Up, Scotty: Into the World of Fan Fiction |
| Monica Bennett | 2008 | Research Essay | Honorable Mention | Home Literacy Practices: A study of the self-reported practices and literacy of children in urban Los Angeles |
| Irene Campos | 2008 | Professional Writing / Moral Reasoning | 1st Prize | The Inkblot: Interpreting the Diverse World of Psychology |
| Brian Braunlich | 2008 | Professional Writing / Moral Reasoning | 2nd Prize | For his business memo to Mr. William Clay Ford, Jr., Ford Motor Company about "Declining Ford Automotive Sales Trends" |
| Naira Kuzmich | 2008 | Creative Work | 1st Prize | Inheritance (short story) |
| Janet Thielke | 2008 | Creative Work | 1st Prize | Camelot, Georgia (short story) |
| Anthony Marra | 2008 | Creative Work | 2nd Prize | When She Looked Into the Sea (short story) |
| Tera Vale Ragan | 2008 | Creative Work | 2nd Prize | Poems |
| Yulia Tsukerman | 2008 | Creative Work | Honorable Mention | Poems |
| Melissa Niiya | 2008 | Creative Work | Honorable Mention | Audubon |
| Andrew Horning | 2008 | Analytical Essay | 1st Prize | The Thin Read Line |
| Colin Dwyer | 2008 | Analytical Essay | 2nd Prize | One More Betrayal: Storytelling as Character Development in Paradise Lost |
| David (Brandon) Fite | 2009 | Research Essay | 1st Prize | Quis Hoc Vult?: An Exploration of the Role of Pope Urban II and the Causes behind the Commencement of the First Crusade |
| Stefanie Demetriades | 2009 | Research Essay | 2nd Prize | Parallels and Paradoxes: Western Intervention in Middle Eastern Governance |
| Regina Pritchett | 2009 | Research Essay | Honorable Mention | Highly Publicized: The Role of Public Space in the Generation of Social Capital |
| Nicolette Omoile | 2009 | Professional Writing / Moral Reasoning | 1st Prize | The Intersectionality of Sasha Fierce: A Look into Beyonce Knowles, Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It) |
| Kunal Bambawale | 2009 | Professional Writing / Moral Reasoning | 2nd Prize | Funny but Futile: Why Racial Humor is a Joke |
| Andrew Pouw | 2009 | Professional Writing / Moral Reasoning | Honorable Mention | Viral Panic: The Paranoid Style in Microbiological Discourse |
| Hannah HyunYoung Kim | 2009 | Creative Work | 1st Prize | Listen |
| Taylor Friedman | 2009 | Creative Work | 2nd Prize | Special |
| Cody Marion | 2009 | Creative Work | Honorable Mention | Heat |
| Andrew Ramirez | 2009 | Creative Work | Honorable Mention | Moving On |
| Jason Lipshin | 2009 | Analytical Essay | 1st Prize | Hollywood Extras: "Seeing" and "Being Seen" in Pre-Stonewall Gay and Lesbian Cinema |
| Anthony Catalano | 2009 | Analytical Essay | 2nd Prize | The Insufficiency of Tradition: The Plotinian and Irenaean Attempts to Refute the Gnostic Claims |
| William Sohigian | 2009 | Analytical Essay | Honorable Mention | Law and Order: Special Victims Unit An Incomplete Rape Discourse |
| David Livingston | 2010 | Research Essay | 1st Prize | Carbon Statecraft: Russia's Attitude, Capacities and Future Under the Kyoto Protocol |
| Daniel Wu | 2010 | Research Essay | 2nd Prize | Reimagining the Figueroa Corridor: Growth Politics, Policy, and Displacement |
| Colin Dwyer | 2010 | Research Essay | Honorable Mention | Identity, Fractured into Fundamentals: Post-Colonialism and its Application in The Reluctant Fundamentalist |
| Sarah Ghulamhussain | 2010 | Research Essay | Honorable Mention | The Voice of a Generation |
| Andrea Chin | 2010 | Professional Writing / Moral Reasoning | 1st Prize | Aging in Place and Fall Prevention: Home Modification Policy Recommendations |
| Michael Kianmahd | 2010 | Professional Writing / Moral Reasoning | 2nd Prize | Michael on Business: A New Paradigm for Business Blogging |
| Gary Yao | 2010 | Professional Writing / Moral Reasoning | Honorable Mention | Coffeehouse Urbanism: Giving a Jolt to the March Toward True Walkability |
| Joshua Lang | 2010 | Professional Writing / Moral Reasoning | Honorable Mention | Notes from Cuba: The Importance of Primary Care |
| Janet Thielke | 2010 | Creative Work | 1st Prize | How To Save Your Son From the World |
| Andrew Ramirez | 2010 | Creative Work | 2nd Prize | A Man Dies Happy |
| Timothy Clayton | 2010 | Creative Work | 2nd Prize | How to Become the Brother of a Drug Addict |
| Melissa Rae Sipin | 2010 | Creative Work | Honorable Mention | Her Eyes Round Like Coconuts (A Short Story Collection on the Immigrant Experience of Alienation and Otherness) |
| Sarah Hawley | 2010 | Creative Work | Honorable Mention | Looking Down |
| Charles Furman | 2010 | Analytical Essay | 1st Prize | Dueling With Censorship: Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series' Pastiche of Dubbing |
| Hrishikesh Joshi | 2010 | Analytical Essay | 2nd Prize | On Frege's Theory of Sense and Reference |
| Patreeya Prasertvit | 2010 | Analytical Essay | Honorable Mention | Deck the Halls with Boughs of Folly: Camelot's Unfortunate Victory |
| Stephen Lamb | 2011 | Research Essay | 1st Prize | "Wicked and Diverse Opinions": Controlling Heresy in the Henrician Reformation |
| Zara Lukens | 2011 | Research Essay | 2nd Prize | The Political, Social, and Institutional Causes of the Disparity between Water System Effectiveness in Uruguay and Argentina |
| David Branch | 2011 | Research Essay | Honorable Mention | The Subway to the Sea |
| Gregory Woodburn | 2011 | Research Essay | Honorable Mention | Twain Marks of Memory: Time, Loss, and Their Intersection in Mark Twain's Two Autobiographies |
| John (Charlie) Mach | 2011 | Professional Writing / Moral Reasoning | 1st Prize | mpact of Hospice Care on Healthcare Costs and Patients' Quality of Life |
| Madison Ainley | 2011 | Professional Writing / Moral Reasoning | 2nd Prize | Authority through Relevancy: On Modernizing the United Nations Security Council Membership Structure |
| Luia Yen | 2011 | Professional Writing / Moral Reasoning | Honorable Mention | An Argument in Favor of Corporate Social Responsibility |
| Sarah Boots | 2011 | Creative Work | 1st Prize | The Poetry of Science |
| Taylor Friedman | 2011 | Creative Work | 2nd Prize | Frozen Cherry Custard |
| Lesley Wasserman | 2011 | Creative Work | 2nd Prize | Captive in Communes of Charlatans Confined in the Company of Callow Animals |
| Paige Cohen | 2011 | Creative Work | Honorable Mention | What We Hang on the Walls |
| Charles Green | 2011 | Creative Work | Honorable Mention | Death in Texas |
| Colin Dwyer | 2011 | Analytical Essay | 1st Prize | Who and What Art Thou?": The Question of the Child in Peter Pan |
| Jason Lipshin | 2011 | Analytical Essay | 2nd Prize | Casual Labor: How Farmville Converges Consumption, Production, and Play |
| Tiffany Yang | 2011 | Analytical Essay | Honorable Mention | Oscillations of Race and Memory: The Stained Path to "A More Perfect Union" |
| Lauren Maldonado | 2012 | Research Essay | 1st Prize | On Piero della Francesca's "Madonna del Parto": Contextualizing the Modest Mediator and her role in Childbirth in Fifteenth-Century Italy |
| Erik Peterson | 2012 | Research Essay | 2nd Prize | Genocide, Identity, and the State: The Role of Societal Manipulation in Conflict |
| Alexander Gertel | 2012 | Research Essay | Honorable Mention | The Need to Make Periodic Board Recertification Mandatory for Grandfathered' Specialists |
| Jasneet Aulakh | 2012 | Research Essay | Honorable Mention | Blood for Blood: 1984 India |
| Nancy Benner | 2012 | Professional Writing / Moral Reasoning | 1st Prize | Are Chemicals Making Americans Fat? What You Should Know About the Obesogen Debate |
| Isabelle Feldhaus | 2012 | Professional Writing / Moral Reasoning | 2nd Prize | Stopping Corporate Drivers of the Noncommunicable Disease Epidemic: Nestlé Supermarkets in Brazilian Slums |
| Allegra Tepper | 2012 | Professional Writing / Moral Reasoning | Honorable Mention | Mo' Women, Mo' Problems: How Showtime Found its Niche Among the Broads |
| Rebecca Kantor | 2012 | Creative Work | 1st Prize | Introducing the Rapturous Rhonda Rhodes! |
| Brenda Yang | 2012 | Creative Work | 2nd Prize | Anna's Syndrome (short story) |
| Anthony Decapite | 2012 | Creative Work | 2nd Prize | The Divide (screenplay) |
| Sarah Ingerson | 2012 | Creative Work | Honorable Mention | UnPretty (poetry collection) |
| Ruth Madievsky | 2012 | Creative Work | Honorable Mention | Up in Flames (short story) |
| Nicholas Farmer | 2012 | Analytical Essay | 1st Prize | The Quirky Adventures of Margot and Her Little Pink Glove |
| Lindsey Smith | 2012 | Analytical Essay | 2nd Prize | Zozobra: The Reassuring Death of the Other |
| Michael Onorati | 2012 | Analytical Essay | Honorable Mention | An Invader of Privacy: Gene Hackman in "The Conversation" |
| Ambrose Soehn | 2013 | USC Schwarzenegger Institute | 1st Prize | Why Providing Every Student a Quality Music Education Makes So Much Sense |
| Kim Vu | 2013 | USC Schwarzenegger Institute | 2nd Prize | Learning to Choose Who Decides and How to Decide about Advanced Directives |
| Nahel Kapadia | 2013 | USC Schwarzenegger Institute | Honorable Mention | Palliative Care: An Alternative to Physician-Assisted Suicide |
| Marissa Roy | 2013 | USC Levan Institute - Overall | 1st Prize | The UN's 8 Millenium Development Goals and the Legal Status of Distributive Justice |
| Candice Tardif | 2013 | USC Levan Institute - Social Justice | 1st Prize | Allergic Inmates: Unheard and Unsafe |
| Uriel Kim | 2013 | USC Levan Institute - Professional Ethics | 1st Prize | No More Pointing Fingers: Science and Regulation Needed for Fingerprinting's Future |
| Paige Sorrentino | 2013 | USC Levan Institute - Personal Ethics | 1st Prize | Dante's Inferno--Canto 12.5 |
| Francesca Bessey | 2013 | USC Levan Institute - Global Ethics | 1st Prize | Free To Die: The Sexist Paradox of Women's Suicide Terror |
| Roza Petrosyan | 2013 | Research Essay | 1st Prize | Voiceless Heroes: Female Resistance during the Armenian Genocide |
| Jordan Nowaskie | 2013 | Research Essay | 2nd Prize | Post-Porn Culture: The Effects of Sexual Media on Social Relationships, Identities, and Desire |
| Evan Cohen | 2013 | Research Essay | Honorable Mention | Hemodynamic Pressure Sensors as a Diagnostic Tool in Physiological Monitoring |
| Nithya Kubendran | 2013 | Research Essay | Honorable Mention | Hemodynamic Pressure Sensors as a Diagnostic Tool in Physiological Monitoring |
| Nicholas Kosturos | 2013 | Research Essay | Honorable Mention | The 16 Years Crisis: Security, Geopolitics, and Conflict in the Arctic |
| Jason Finkelstein | 2013 | Research Essay | Honorable Mention | The 16 Years Crisis: Security, Geopolitics, and Conflict in the Arctic |
| Kelsey Bradshaw | 2013 | Research Essay | Honorable Mention | The 16 Years Crisis: Security, Geopolitics, and Conflict in the Arctic |
| Vellore Adithi | 2013 | Professional Writing / Moral Reasoning | 1st Prize | Beyond Victimhood, Relief, and Bare Life: Assessing the Pitfalls and Perils of Humanitarianism in Global Development |
| Maheen Sahoo | 2013 | Professional Writing / Moral Reasoning | 2nd Prize | Kant and Hume: A Tale of Two Philosophers |
| Emily Holmes | 2013 | Professional Writing / Moral Reasoning | Honorable Mention | Commodifying Humanity: The Ethics of an Open Market for Human Organs |
| Eric Weintraub | 2013 | Creative Work | 1st Prize | La Laguna |
| Sean Fitz-Gerald | 2013 | Creative Work | 2nd Prize | The Boogeymen |
| William Hagberg | 2013 | Creative Work | Honorable Mention | Collection of poems (Untitled) |
| Hayden Bennett | 2013 | Creative Work | Honorable Mention | Furniture Music |
| Adam Phillips | 2013 | Analytical Essay | 1st Prize | Neon Cowboy: A Brief History and Analysis of The Man with No Name As Seen in Hammett, Kurosawa, Leone, and Nicolas Winding Refn's Film Drive |
| Amanda Griffiths | 2013 | Analytical Essay | 2nd Prize | Ends and Meanings: Si guarda al fine and Machiavellian Virtue |
| Nichole Delaura | 2013 | Analytical Essay | Honorable Mention | Countercultural Noir |
| Lauren Taymor | 2014 | USC Schwarzenegger Institute | 2nd Prize | Solving the Plastic Problem |
| Joshua Hwang | 2014 | USC Schwarzenegger Institute | 1st Prize | Outdoor Air Pollution: From Evidence to Comprehensive Action |
| Grace Carballo | 2014 | USC Levan Institute - Social Justice | Honorable Mention | N/A |
| Anessa Ibrahim | 2014 | USC Levan Institute - Social Justice | 2nd Prize | Words Hurt: The Harmful Discourse of Grutter v Bollinger |
| Thomas Armstrong | 2014 | USC Levan Institute - Social Justice | 1st Prize | Internal Migration in China: An Investigation of Hukou and State Social Policy |
| Kristen Nakashioya | 2014 | USC Levan Institute - Professional Ethics | Honorable Mention | Terrorism and the Media: Rolling Stone's Boston Bomber Cover |
| Katherine Zopatti | 2014 | USC Levan Institute - Professional Ethics | 2nd Prize | Children in the Courtroom as Witnesses |
| Brian Lentz | 2014 | USC Levan Institute - Professional Ethics | 1st Prize | Medicine Demands More Than an Oath |
| Morgan Cheeks | 2014 | USC Levan Institute - Global Ethics | Honorable Mention | The Swiss Healthcare System: A Consumer-Driven Alternative to Employer-Based Health Insurance |
| Engie Salama | 2014 | USC Levan Institute - Global Ethics | 2nd Prize | Traditional Medicine, Pharmaceutical Patents and Intellectual Property Rights in India: Exploring Islamic Law & Moral Rights |
| Matthew Prusak | 2014 | USC Levan Institute - Global Ethics | 1st Prize | The Need for Economic Engagement with North Korea |
| Catherine Gavin | 2014 | Research Essay | Honorable Mention | Aural Sex: The Sound of the Female Orgasm in Pornography and Popular Music |
| Candice Tardif | 2014 | Research Essay | 2nd Prize | Joining at the Front: British Women's Literary Responses to the First World War |
| Oriah Amit | 2014 | Research Essay | 1st Prize | Putting Women on the Map: Regendering the Road in Literature and Film |
| Claire Baugher | 2014 | Professional Writing / Moral Reasoning | Honorable Mention | Case Summary |
| James Luhrs | 2014 | Professional Writing / Moral Reasoning | 2nd Prize | Media Morte En Vida Sumus: A Historical, Psychological, and Literary Analysis of Public Attitudes on Grief and Mourning |
| Matthew Prusak | 2014 | Professional Writing / Moral Reasoning | 1st Prize | The Need for Economic Engagement with North Korea |
| Mia Galuppo | 2014 | Creative Work | Honorable Mention | Higher Brain Function |
| Carrie Moore | 2014 | Creative Work | Honorable Mention | Euola |
| Monina Varela | 2014 | Creative Work | 2nd Prize | The Incredible Winter of Watauga County |
| Orli Robin | 2014 | Creative Work | 1st Prize | Twirl |
| Allegra Tepper | 2014 | Analytical Essay | Honorable Mention | Lizzie in Real Life: Social and Narrative Immersion through Transmedia in The Lizzie Bennet Diaries |
| Rabia Kaiser | 2014 | Analytical Essay | Honorable Mention | Untitled |
| Brian Lentz | 2014 | Analytical Essay | 2nd Prize | Modern Implications of Nazi Human Experimentation: The Hippocratic Oath and Hypocrisy in Medicine |
| Yihui (Ashley) Yang | 2014 | Analytical Essay | 1st Prize | Dear Female Chauvinist Pigs: You're Not Actually Men |
| Haylie Chu | 2015 | USC Schwarzenegger Institute | Honorable Mention | Proposal to Change the Regulations of Bottled Water to Reflect EPA's Standards of Tap Water |
| Dat Pham | 2015 | USC Schwarzenegger Institute | 2nd Prize | Malnutrition in the United States and How to Improve the SNAP Program |
| Thomas Winschel | 2015 | USC Schwarzenegger Institute | 1st Prize | The Importance of Humanities to Humanity |
| Mark Lee | 2015 | USC Levan Institute - Social Justice | Honorable Mention | Hypermasculine Homosexual Heterosexuals |
| Cameron Espinoza | 2015 | USC Levan Institute - Social Justice | 2nd Prize | Laicite and Liberalism: Militant or Modest Separation? |
| Madison Harris | 2015 | USC Levan Institute - Social Justice | 1st Prize | Why Air Quality is a Race Issue |
| David Zhang | 2015 | USC Levan Institute - Professional Ethics | Honorable Mention | Is the "Right to be Forgotten" Ruling Ethical |
| Mathew Goldstein | 2015 | USC Levan Institute - Professional Ethics | 2nd Prize | Picked Off: Baseball's Discriminatory Latin-American Practices |
| Jordan Bidwell | 2015 | USC Levan Institute - Professional Ethics | 1st Prize | Professor, Would You Share Your Thoughts on Beta-Blockers? |
| Lisa Dorrington | 2015 | USC Levan Institute - Moral Decision-Making | Honorable Mention | Interpreting the Ethicality of Occupation Therapy Practice |
| Ryan Townsend | 2015 | USC Levan Institute - Moral Decision-Making | 2nd Prize | Don't Free Willy: The Case for Captive Orcas |
| Paxton Hall | 2015 | USC Levan Institute - Moral Decision-Making | 1st Prize | The Black Island of USC: What It Means to Be African American at an Elite University |
| Francesca Bessey | 2015 | USC Levan Institute - Global Ethics | Honorable Mention | Mothers Made Midwives: A Bottom-Up Solution for Top-Down Disempowerment |
| William Orr | 2015 | USC Levan Institute - Global Ethics | 2nd Prize | Reckless and Indiscriminate: The Impact of Japanese Bombing in the Second Sino-Japanese War on Pre-World War II American Morality |
| Engie Salama | 2015 | USC Levan Institute - Global Ethics | 1st Prize | TRIPS and India: Navigating Intellectual Property Rights for Antiretroviral Therapy Affordability |
| Patrick Cleland | 2015 | Research Essay | Honorable Mention | From Farce to Art: Sources and Evolution of the Shakespearian Twin Trope |
| Francesca Bessey | 2015 | Research Essay | 2nd Prize | Asteroids Know No Borders: International Solutions for an International Menace |
| Nicholas Farmer | 2015 | Research Essay | 1st Prize | Where One Font Sent the World into an Uproar, a New Font Seeks Redemption: Enter Comic Neue |
| Denni Chen | 2015 | Professional Writing / Moral Reasoning | Honorable Mention | From Bronze Soldier to Cyber Crimes Conflicts between Estonia and Russia |
| Sean Elezra | 2015 | Professional Writing / Moral Reasoning | 2nd Prize | The Test of Times: Interpreting New York Times v. Sullivan Amidst Social, Political Unrest |
| Matthew Prusak | 2015 | Professional Writing / Moral Reasoning | 1st Prize | The Gorilla Economy': The Emergence of the Rwandan Development Model |
| Remaya Campbell | 2015 | Creative Work | Honorable Mention | Openly Black, a memoir in freeverse |
| John Foraker | 2015 | Creative Work | 2nd Prize | Using |
| Monina Varela | 2015 | Creative Work | 2nd Prize | The Things We Did In Texas |
| Carrie Moore | 2015 | Creative Work | 1st Prize | Playing Possum |
| Orli Robin | 2015 | Analytical Essay | Honorable Mention | The Fading and Falling Women of Israel: An Exploration of Rama Burshstein's Fill the Void |
| Janella Lee | 2015 | Analytical Essay | 2nd Prize | The Women Made Them Do It: The Fallacies and Truths Behind Shakespeare's Villainous Women in Hamlet and Macbeth |
| Maria Fish | 2015 | Analytical Essay | 2nd Prize | The Tragedies of Others: Images, Power and Politics |
| Proanne Liao | 2015 | Analytical Essay | 1st Prize | The Margins of a City |
| Mingkun Chen | 2016 | USC Schwarzenegger Institute | Honorable Mention | Tacit Tactics From Values to Actions |
| Jennifer Bailey | 2016 | USC Schwarzenegger Institute | 2nd Prize | Mental Illness Among the Homeless and Incarcerated of Los Angeles |
| Alex Teboul | 2016 | USC Schwarzenegger Institute | 1st Prize | Choosing Profits Over Patient Health With Direct-to-Consumer Advertising of Prescription Medication |
| John Hochschild | 2016 | USC Levan Institute - Social Justice | Honorable Mention | Reducing Implicit Bias in the American Judicial System |
| Sivakami Ananthasingam | 2016 | USC Levan Institute - Social Justice | 2nd Prize | Civilian Heath Care in War-Torn Regions: A Look into Violence Against Women in Sri Lanka and Iraq |
| Jennifer Smart | 2016 | USC Levan Institute - Social Justice | 1st Prize | Space for Aces: Finding a Home in a Sexual World |
| Julianna Paul | 2016 | USC Levan Institute - Professional Ethics | Honorable Mention | Forgetting to Care: Declining Empathy Rates in Medical Students |
| Christina Nursalim | 2016 | USC Levan Institute - Professional Ethics | 2nd Prize | Interventions to Stop Medicine from Being Racist: Solving Racial Healthcare Disparities |
| Emily Livermore | 2016 | USC Levan Institute - Professional Ethics | 1st Prize | Film's Construction of a White Male World |
| Ariana Aboulafia | 2016 | USC Levan Institute - Moral Decision-Making | Honorable Mention | The Minority Rule: A Thoreauian Guide to the Proper Practice of Civil Disobedience |
| Mingkun Chen | 2016 | USC Levan Institute - Moral Decision-Making | 2nd Prize | Tacit Tactics from Values to Actions |
| Max Kapur | 2016 | USC Levan Institute - Moral Decision-Making | 1st Prize | Hall v. Florida: A Cauldron of Scientific Jurisprudence? |
| Miranda Drolet | 2016 | USC Levan Institute - Global Ethics | Honorable Mention | Liberated Queer, Repressed Muslim: the Problem with Pinkwashing Palestine |
| Lilly Taing | 2016 | USC Levan Institute - Global Ethics | 2nd Prize | The Effects of the Western Garment Industry on Cambodia and Cambodian Women |
| Diana Ciraulo | 2016 | USC Levan Institute - Global Ethics | 1st Prize | The Price of Bleaching the Great Barrier Reef: A Moral and Economic Assessment |
| Chloe Borenstein-Lawee | 2016 | Research Essay | Honorable Mention | Unsung Heroes: Jewish Women and Non-Violent Holocaust Resistance in France |
| William Orr | 2016 | Research Essay | 2nd Prize | From Shangri-La to Silver Screen: The Myth of Precision Bombing and the Doolittle Raid |
| Jennifer Bailey | 2016 | Research Essay | 1st Prize | Mental Illness Among the Homeless and Incarcerated of Los Angeles |
| Yume Nishi | 2016 | Professional Writing / Moral Reasoning | Honorable Mention | Crumpling Bad Hospitals with Evidence-Based Design |
| Max Kapur | 2016 | Professional Writing / Moral Reasoning | 2nd Prize | Hall v. Florida: A Cauldron of Scientific Jurisprudence? |
| Jane Kim | 2016 | Professional Writing / Moral Reasoning | 1st Prize | Maternal Health in Nigeria |
| Alexa Aman | 2016 | Creative Work | Honorable Mention | The Names of Their Fathers |
| Nathaniel Gualtieri | 2016 | Creative Work | 2nd Prize | The Keeper of Half-Missing Men |
| Monina Varela | 2016 | Creative Work | 1st Prize | Belly |
| Sydney Fishman | 2016 | Analytical Essay | Honorable Mention | Fake Guns, Real Money: Conspicuous Consumption and Identity Building in Virtual Communities |
| Scott Huhn | 2016 | Analytical Essay | 2nd Prize | Does Uber Have and IPO Problem? |
| Gabriella (Rica) Maestas | 2016 | Analytical Essay | 1st Prize | The Margins of a City |
| Holly Bard | 2017 | USC Schwarzenegger Institute | 2nd Prize | Kalama Harris Presidential Playbook |
| Austin Reagan | 2017 | USC Schwarzenegger Institute | 1st Prize | Climate Resilience in the Arctic Fishing Industry |
| Alya Omar | 2017 | USC Schwarzenegger Institute | 1st Prize | Climate Resilience in the Arctic Fishing Industry |
| Max Hill | 2017 | USC Schwarzenegger Institute | 1st Prize | Climate Resilience in the Arctic Fishing Industry |
| Maryalice Peng | 2017 | USC Levan Institute - Social Justice | Honorable Mention | The Legal Whore Stigma: Punishing, Not Protecting Prostitutes |
| Garrett Nance | 2017 | USC Levan Institute - Social Justice | 2nd Prize | How Judge Bias Contributes to Racial Disparities and What Can Be Done to Help |
| Preethi Chaudhari | 2017 | USC Levan Institute - Social Justice | 1st Prize | Economic Mobility in Higher Education: A Right or a Privilege? |
| Fiona Sequeira | 2017 | USC Levan Institute - Professional Ethics | Honorable Mention | The True Future of Tech: Why Women Must Forget the Glass Slipper and Shatter the Glass Ceiling |
| Logan Austin | 2017 | USC Levan Institute - Professional Ethics | 2nd Prize | The Commodification of Love in the American Cinema |
| Calvin Boyd | 2017 | USC Levan Institute - Professional Ethics | 1st Prize | The Architecture of Captivity: The Inescapable Dilemma of Design |
| Olivia Cordell | 2017 | USC Levan Institute - Moral Decision-Making | Honorable Mention | (Mis)Casting Race at USC: A Self-Perpetuating Ethical Dilemma |
| Christina Nursalim | 2017 | USC Levan Institute - Moral Decision-Making | 2nd Prize | The Call for More Orphan Drug Research Funding |
| Adrian Lurie | 2017 | USC Levan Institute - Moral Decision-Making | 1st Prize | Tweens in Transition |
| Laila Naraghi | 2017 | USC Levan Institute - Global Ethics | Honorable Mention | Organic Farming, Biopiracy and the Neem Tree, and Plant-Based Diets: How the "Green Movement" Exploits Women in Developing Nations |
| Bailee Ahern | 2017 | USC Levan Institute - Global Ethics | 2nd Prize | The Radicalization of Western Women: Adopting Gender-Specific Methods to Combat ISIL |
| Trevor Kehrer | 2017 | USC Levan Institute - Global Ethics | 1st Prize | Opening Pandora's Box |
| Morgan Mamon | 2017 | Research Essay | Honorable Mention | Ibn Khald?n in Translation: An Examination of J?l in Franz Rosenthal's Muqaddimah |
| Jacob Silverman | 2017 | Research Essay | 2nd Prize | "I Looked and Looked but Failed to See What So Terrified You": Agency and the Double Self in Junot Díaz's This Is How You Lose Her |
| Bethany Balchunas | 2017 | Research Essay | 1st Prize | Codifying Exoticism: Race and French Colonial Policy in West Africa, 1910 to 1918 |
| Jennifer Smart | 2017 | Professional / Moral Reasoning | Honorable Mention | How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Forget the Bomb |
| Blair Thoman | 2017 | Professional / Moral Reasoning | 2nd Prize | Acquisition of Consent in Harmony Korine's Kids |
| Soobin Kim | 2017 | Professional / Moral Reasoning | 1st Prize | Bus Shelters in Los Angeles |
| Will Drickey | 2017 | Creative Work | Honorable Mention | Parabellum |
| Karen Garcia | 2017 | Creative Work | Honorable Mention | Metamorphosis |
| Nathaniel Gualtieri | 2017 | Creative Work | 2nd Prize | Imperfect Machines |
| Xueyou Wang | 2017 | Creative Work | 1st Prize | Stories about my father |
| Max Kapur | 2017 | Analytical Essay | Honorable Mention | Four Glimpses of Han in Lisa Lee's Fiction |
| Anastasia Barbato | 2017 | Analytical Essay | 2nd Prize | Technically Feminine: A Study of the Role of the Female Android in Fritz Lang's Metropolis |
| Antonia Matias-Bell | 2017 | Analytical Essay | 1st Prize | Compression, Expansion, Magic, and Loss: Digitization in Museums |
| Alexandra Demetriou | 2018 | USC Schwarzenegger Institute | 2nd Prize | Seeking a cure for Governmentitis |
| Sebastian Walter Young | 2018 | USC Schwarzenegger Institute | 1st Prize | Blackouts and Bills |
| Oliver Dare | 2018 | USC Levan Institute - Social Justice | 1st Prize | The Surveillance Game: How to Hide from Surveillance Seekers in the Modern Era |
| Laura Russell | 2018 | USC Levan Institute - Professional Ethics | 1st Prize | Linguistic Conmen: Issues and Ethics on the Witness Stand |
| Brianna Johnson | 2018 | USC Levan Institute - Moral Decision-Making | 1st Prize | "Mother, May I Come?": Angela Merkel and the 2015 European Refugee Crisis |
| Robert Tseng | 2018 | USC Levan Institute - Global Ethics | 1st Prize | Linkage between business ethical values and access to capital: Comparative analysis of Kyrgyzstan, China, and the United Stat |
| Alejandro Schugurensky | 2018 | Research Essay | Honorable Mention | Charter Schools and the Growing Opportunity Gap in California |
| Alanna Schenk | 2018 | Research Essay | 2nd Prize | Arctic Stewardship: Treaties and Regimes |
| Hanna Fahsholtz | 2018 | Research Essay | 2nd Prize | Arctic Stewardship: Treaties and Regimes |
| Lauren Brackmann | 2018 | Research Essay | 2nd Prize | Arctic Stewardship: Treaties and Regimes |
| Rosebud Campion | 2018 | Research Essay | 1st Prize | Forging the Folk: The Development of a National Musical Identity in Edwardian England |
| Sonali Seth | 2018 | Professional / Moral Reasoning | Honorable Mention | "The Library Cad of Morning Glory High" Memorandum |
| Mary Hickman | 2018 | Professional / Moral Reasoning | 2nd Prize | Spanish Politics and Religious Monuments: The Case of the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba |
| Olivia Steinkamp | 2018 | Professional / Moral Reasoning | 1st Prize | Wandering Thoughtfully Through the 21st Century: The Evolution of Benjamin's Flaneur |
| Diana Postolache | 2018 | Creative Work | Honorable Mention | scrap metal & white space |
| Jensen McRae | 2018 | Creative Work | 2nd Prize | Requiem for Bundy |
| Kanak Kapur | 2018 | Creative Work | 1st Prize | In the Kitchen |
| Garrison Hall | 2018 | Analytical Essay | Honorable Mention | A Theoretical Analysis of Gonzales v. Carhart |
| Max Kapur | 2018 | Analytical Essay | 2nd Prize | "When I Turn into a Leaf and Empty Myself": Trees, Transcendence, and the Ecopoetic Imagination in Contemporary Korean Poetry |
| Angelina Sophonpanich | 2018 | Analytical Essay | 1st Prize | Hearing History: Iterations of Modern Identity Politics in Philip Metres' "Sand Opera" and Monica Ong's "Silent Anatomies" |
| Diana Kruzman | 2019 | USC Schwarzenegger Institute | 1st Prize | A Toxic Breeze |
| Hannah Hunt | 2019 | USC Schwarzenegger Institute | 1st Prize | "Senator, We Run Ads": Facebook Advertisements and Political Microtargeting |
| Chandler Zausner | 2019 | Research Essay | Honorable Mention | The Manga is the Message: Redrawing Social Boundaries for Japan's Hikikomori Youth |
| Dustin Chi Kan Wong | 2019 | Research Essay | Honorable Mention | Creating an LA Metro Rider's Experience |
| Aarohi Mahableshwarkar | 2019 | Research Essay | 2nd Prize | Malnutrition in India: A Case Study of Rural and Urban Regions |
| Rae Lan | 2019 | Research Essay | 2nd Prize | Malnutrition in India: A Case Study of Rural and Urban Regions |
| Lillian Dyre | 2019 | Research Essay | 2nd Prize | Malnutrition in India: A Case Study of Rural and Urban Regions |
| Anna Lipscomb | 2019 | Research Essay | 1st Prize | Taste of Asia: Gastrodiplomacy in Thailand, South Korea, and Taiwan |
| Mai Mizuno | 2019 | Professional/Moral Reasoning | Honorable Mention | Orange Juice with a Side of Police Brutality |
| Noor Alwani | 2019 | Professional/Moral Reasoning | Honorable Mention | Does Humanitarian Action Prolong Conflict? |
| Manushri Desai | 2019 | Professional/Moral Reasoning | 2nd Prize | Disability Rights in LDCs: Increasing accountability and transparency of USAID through DPOs |
| Yi Youn Kim | 2019 | Professional/Moral Reasoning | 1st Prize | Killing Affirmative Action Won't Fix Harvard's Prejudiced Admissions |
| Yijing Luo | 2019 | Creative Work | Honorable Mention | Trembling Through |
| Simran Jehani | 2019 | Creative Work | Honorable Mention | The Skimmer Short Film |
| Jensen McRae | 2019 | Creative Work | 2nd Prize | Manic Pixie American Dream |
| Zoe Correa | 2019 | Creative Work | 2nd Prize | Nena |
| Kanak Kapur | 2019 | Creative Work | 1st Prize | Girls: Poems |
| Annie Ly | 2019 | Analytical Essay | Honorable Mention | Analysis of Jacobean Witchcraft Plays: Witchcraft as a Mechanism of Resolution |
| Adam Karelin | 2019 | Analytical Essay | Honorable Mention | The Portrayal of Russian Messianism through Binary Contrasts in Vasily Grossman's Hell of Treblinka |
| Laura Russell | 2019 | Analytical Essay | 2nd Prize | It's Life or Death: The Legal Dangers of Expletive "It" |
| Amanda Douglas | 2019 | Analytical Essay | 2nd Prize | Artemesia Gentileschi's Susanna and the Elders: A Missing Link in Poussin's Chain of Artistic Lineages |
| Jack Strauss | 2019 | Analytical Essay | 1st Prize | It's All Part of the Plan: The CCP's Playbook for Homogenizing Chinese Society |
| Alexis Areias | 2020 | USC Schwarzenegger Institute | 2nd Prize | A Proposal to Eliminate Gerrymandering in Texas |
| Jacob Lester | 2020 | USC Schwarzenegger Institute | 1st Prize | Air Pollution in the United States: Pertinent Trends and Policy Prescriptions |
| Jason Collines | 2020 | Research Essay | Honorable Mention | Becoming Graceful Figures: The Gothic and Moral Epistemology in the Nineteenth-Century British Novel |
| Nika Shroff | 2020 | Research Essay | 2nd Prize | A Holistic Approach to Treating Obstetric Fistulas: Beta-testing 'RESTORE' in the Gumla District of Jharkhand, India |
| Mahima Chillakanti | 2020 | Research Essay | 2nd Prize | A Holistic Approach to Treating Obstetric Fistulas: Beta-testing 'RESTORE' in the Gumla District of Jharkhand, India |
| Mihir Kumar | 2020 | Research Essay | 2nd Prize | A Holistic Approach to Treating Obstetric Fistulas: Beta-testing 'RESTORE' in the Gumla District of Jharkhand, India |
| Manushri Desai | 2020 | Research Essay | 2nd Prize | A Holistic Approach to Treating Obstetric Fistulas: Beta-testing 'RESTORE' in the Gumla District of Jharkhand, India |
| Ellen Murray | 2020 | Research Essay | 1st Prize | Aesthetic Decolonization: Magic Realism and Rewriting Postcolonial Trauma in Briar Grace-Smith's Purapurawhet? |
| Kurtis Weatherford | 2020 | Professional/Moral Reasoning | Honorable Mention | Coming Down from the Mountains: John Major and the Decision to Intervene in Iraq |
| Hailey Robertson | 2020 | Professional/Moral Reasoning | 2nd Prize | Leveraging Freedom Against Motherhood: A Case Study of U.S v. Summer Thyme Creel and Sterilization as a Sentencing Mitigation Factor |
| Catherine Knox | 2020 | Professional/Moral Reasoning | 1st Prize | Implementing Ethics in Transboundary Water Management |
| Ryan Nhu | 2020 | Creative Work | Honorable Mention | Blown: Fragments |
| Shirin Herzig | 2020 | Creative Work | Honorable Mention | yet here we are (alive) |
| Lela Ni | 2020 | Creative Work | 2nd Prize | The Art of the In-Between |
| Joseph Debaerien | 2020 | Creative Work | 1st Prize | Bus Stop Poems |
| Dara Phung | 2020 | Analytical Essay | Honorable Mention | Exclusionary Zoning: An Illness of Many Symptoms |
| Megan Ritchie | 2020 | Analytical Essay | 2nd Prize | Politicizing Scots: An Exploration of the Use of Dialect in Literature |
| Lucy Allen | 2020 | Analytical Essay | 1st Prize | Totally Free: Pleasure and Liberation in The Living End |
| Finley Davis | 2021 | USC Schwarzenegger Institute | Honorable Mention | Reforms to the issues of prison gerrymandering in the state of Louisiana |
| Pratik Thakur | 2021 | USC Schwarzenegger Institute | 2nd Prize | Improving Health in South Los Angeles by Reducing Local Oil Development |
| Natalie Briones | 2021 | USC Schwarzenegger Institute | 1st Prize | Long Lines, Crowded Places: Early Voting Access in Texas |
| Elizabeth Nguyen | 2021 | Research Essay | Honorable Mention | A Review on the Role of iPSCs and Chimera-Based Approaches to Pancreatic Islet Transplantation in Treatment for Diabetes Mellitus |
| Rosa Noriega-Rocha | 2021 | Research Essay | 2nd Prize | The racial formation of fresa ville: the ongoing racialization and objectification of Indigenous farmworkers in Watsonville |
| Nika Shroff | 2021 | Research Essay | 1st Prize | A Community-Centric Approach to Typhoon Preparedness and Risk Management: Beta-testing Bayanihan' in Catanduanes, Philippines |
| Cameron Levine | 2021 | Research Essay | 1st Prize | A Community-Centric Approach to Typhoon Preparedness and Risk Management: Beta-testing Bayanihan' in Catanduanes, Philippines |
| Mihir Kumar | 2021 | Research Essay | 1st Prize | A Community-Centric Approach to Typhoon Preparedness and Risk Management: Beta-testing Bayanihan' in Catanduanes, Philippines |
| Manushri Desai | 2021 | Research Essay | 1st Prize | A Community-Centric Approach to Typhoon Preparedness and Risk Management: Beta-testing Bayanihan' in Catanduanes, Philippines |
| Mahima Chillakanti | 2021 | Research Essay | 1st Prize | A Community-Centric Approach to Typhoon Preparedness and Risk Management: Beta-testing Bayanihan' in Catanduanes, Philippines |
| Mia Speier | 2021 | Moral Reasoning/Professional | Honorable Mention | The Question of Intervention: Obama, Qadhafi and Operation Odyssey Dawn |
| Keon Sanaie | 2021 | Moral Reasoning/Professional | 2nd Prize | Condemn the Monster, Condone the Art |
| Alexis Pinela | 2021 | Moral Reasoning/Professional | 1st Prize | Window into Wiradjuri Life |
| Ryan Nhu | 2021 | Creative Work | Honorable Mention | Spare Change |
| Lela Ni | 2021 | Creative Work | 2nd Prize | The Radius of Grief |
| Alia Atkins | 2021 | Creative Work | 1st Prize | Another Other |
| Emma Taulli | 2021 | Analytical Essay | Honorable Mention | Nature Trumps Nurture: The Individual as Property Under Capitalism in Orphan Black |
| Sydney Gamble | 2021 | Analytical Essay | 2nd Prize | Constructive Criticism and the Counter-Work |
| Maya Reyna | 2021 | Analytical Essay | 1st Prize | I'd Rather Live Through "La Chona" Than Laud "Choral" |
| Thordar Han | 2024 | Academic Writing: Humanities & Journalism | First Place | Born With a Wooden Spoon: The Life and Legacy of U Han Tin |
| Cooper Brown | 2024 | Academic Writing: Social Hard Sciences and Business | First Place | Confronting Mind-Body Dualism in Contemporary Japanese Medicine: An Integrated Biomedical-Biopsychosocial Approach to Mental Health |
| Alfonso Aguilar Vazquez | 2024 | Academic Writing: Social Hard Sciences and Business | Second Place | The Indigenism Policy: the Ideological Foundation for the Marginalization of Indigenous People in the Mexican Political System |
| Lindsay King | 2024 | Academic Writing: Social Hard Sciences and Business | Honorable Mention | The Impact of Rapid Urbanization on Cultural Well-Being in Rural Towns: A comparative analysis of development in Rishikesh, India and Nosara, Costa Rica |