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Awards & Prizes

 The George C. Casey Prize

Amy, Ashley, KaseyThe George C. Casey Prize awards $300 for the best undergraduate essay on any topic relating to the situation of gender and society. Papers written in any course, in any department or program within the university are eligible. Papers may not exceed 4,000 words, excluding notes and bibliography, and must be accompanied by a memo from the instructor of the course for which the paper was written attesting to the student's enrollment. 

George C. Casey Prize recipients include:

2022 - Morgan Frost - "'I Am Equal to Anybody': White Feminism at Home & in the Workforce in the Mid- to Late-1900s"

2022 - Max Lubber - "No More Gender Trinary: The Danger of a 'Non-Binary Aesthetic'"

2021 - Lydia Weir - "Reasonable Accommodations: Biopolitics and Disclosure of AccessibleNU at Northwestern University"

2020 - Hannah Green - "Embodying Racism: How Radical Disparities in Infant Mortality Demand an Expanded Understanding of Reproduction"

2019 - Emma McDonnell - "Building an Affective Repertoire around the Abortion Task Force"

2018 - Kira Nutter and Emma Flanders - "Gendered Pitch: A Study of Habitual and Optimum Pitch in Relation to Gender"

2017 - Wesley Levers - "Capitalist Imperatives XXX: Genre Hybridity and Music in Pornographic Films."

2016 - Rebecca Ehrmann

2014 - Karen Chen

2014 - Paige Rotondo

2013 - Elyssa Cherney

2012 - D'Laney Gielow

2011 - Caitlin Johnson

2010 - Brittany Smith

2009 - Elizabeth Coffin-Karlin

2008 - Cora Leech

2007 - Poornima Yechoor 

2006 - Corey Robinson

The Betty Jo Teeter Dobbs Prize

The Betty Jo Teeter Dobbs Prize is given to an outstanding senior thesis written in the Gender & Sexuality Studies Program. 

Dobbs Thesis Award recipients include:

2022 - Sarah Eisenman - "'I still kinda don’t feel like enough': Trans*normativity, whiteness, and the diversity genderqueer & non-binary identities"

2020 - Maya Glenn - "Black Queer Women's Articulations of Masculinity and Femininity on YouTube"

2019 - Mattlyn Cordova - "Walking the Borderlands: A Framework of Trans* Latinx World-Making in Film"

2017 - Molly Benedict - "Formation of Gay Identities in Amman: Inclusive Spaces for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Individuals."

2016 - Sarah Moss - "Recuperating Monique Wittig through the 'Site of Action'."

2015 - Bea Sullivan-Knoff, for her thesis: "Shaping Bodies, Shaping Society: German Trans Law, the Effects of Socialization and Sex-Amending Legislation on Body Image and Health in the Trans Community."

2014 - Elyssa Cherney, for her thesis: "Kumari Worship in a Global World: Transnational Feminism and Nepal's Living Goddess." 

2012 - Maggie Birkel, for her thesis: "Sin City South: Women's Sexuality in Unexamined Social Histories of New Orleans, 1965-1975" and Jennifer Piemonte, for her thesis: "Competing Norms: An Investigation of Sexual Scripts and the Double Standard in the College Campus Hookup Culture." 

2011 - Samantha Turner, for her thesis:  "Can't Get No Satisfaction: Feminist Responses to the Biomedicalization of Female Sexual Dysfunction."

2010 - Margaret Pke, for her thesis entitled "Something To Get Off My Chest: Bras & Binders in the Construction of Genders."

2009 - Ashley Keyser, for her thesis entitled "Songs of Exceeding the Self: Mark Doty's Queer Visionary Poetics"

2008 - Katherine Gorringe, for her thesis entitled “When She Sings, I Hear Revolution: Radical Feminist Demands on Women in Popular Music, 1969-1973.”

2007 - Jessica Mathiason, for her thesis entitled "Trans Hollywood Blockbusters and the Genital Reveal."

2006 - Abigail Rogosheske, for her thesis entitled "Pineapples and Politics: Ugandan Women and the Road to Empowerment."

2005 - Thanh Nguyen, a senior History/Gender Studies Major, won both the 2005 George C. Casey Prize for best undergraduate essay and the 2005 Dobbs Prize her thesis, entitled "Beyond Borders: Brides, Grooms, & Brokers in Viet-Dai Marriages."

The Rae Arlene Moses Leadership Award

In honor of her career-long dedication to women at Northwestern, the Gender & Sexuality Studies Program, along with its affiliates and friends, established the Rae Arlene Moses Leadership Award in Gender & Sexuality Studies. The award is presented each spring to a graduating senior who has fostered initiatives and demonstrated leadership, both within the classroom and in co-curricular activities sponsored by the Gender & Sexuality Studies program. 

Moses Leadership Award recipients include:

2022 - Pamela Chen

2021 - Kenny Allen and Amy Prochaska

2020 - Adam Davies

2019 - Brock Colyar and Neil Dixit

2018 - Sophie Spears and Yamari Lewis

2017 - Jenna Perlstein

2016 - Tristan Chiruvolu

2015 - Elizabeth Bohl

2014 - Tessa Owens

2013 - Camille Beredjick and Tristan Powell

2012 - Cat Hammond

2011 - Jodi Savitz

2010 - Chistine Stiehl and Margaret Pike

2008 - Sharlyn Grace

2007 - Julie Keller and Jessica Mathiason

2006 - Corey Robinson

2005 - Annie Lee

Honors in Gender Studies

Gender & Sexuality Studies majors can choose to write a thesis in their senior year. Outstanding theses are awarded honors by the Gender & Sexuality Studies Honors Committee.

2022 honors thesis included:

2020 honors theses included:

2019 honors thesis included:

2018 honors theses included:

2017 honors thesis included:

2016 honors thesis included:

2015 honors theses included:

2014 honors theses included:

2013 honors theses included:

2012 honors theses included:

2011 honors theses included:

2010 honors theses included:

2009 honors thesis was:

2008 honors theses included:

2007 honors theses included:

All of these excellent theses are available for reading in the Gender & Sexuality Studies library.