About the Boothe Prize
The Boothe Prize recognizes and rewards outstanding expository and argumentative writing by first-year students in the Writing and Rhetoric and Thinking Matters Programs. One first-place and one honorable mention prize are awarded to outstanding essays from each academic quarter at an annual award ceremony in May.
Each first place winner receives a certificate, a copy of The Riverside Shakespeare and $350. Each honorable mention winner receives a certificate, a copy of The Riverside Shakespeare and $200. The winning essays are published annually in Boothe Prize Essays: Excellence in Writing at Stanford and are available online through this website.
The Boothe Prizes have been made possible by the generosity of the late D. Power Boothe, Jr. and his wife Catie. Mr. Boothe was a graduate of the Stanford class of '31.
BOOTHE PRIZE ESSAYS FOR 2014-2015
Thinking Matters Winners for 2014-2015
- Victoria Yeow (Winner, Spring 2014): “Representations of and Relationships with Evil in Paradise Lost and Faust” Instructor: Nate Olson
- Joy Wang (Honorable Mention, Spring 2014): “A Unified Consciousness in a Divided Brain: An Interpretation of Split-Brain Phenomenology” Instructor: Karola Kreitmair
- Angelica Previte (Winner, Fall 2014): “Colossus: Cryptography and the First Programmable Computer” Instructor: Pete Mohanty
- Pierce Freeman (Honorable Mention, Fall 2014): “The Constitution in a Digital Age” Instructor: Rahul Chaudhri
- Eli Shayer (Winner, Winter 2015): “On the Ethics of Negotiating Drug Prices through Medicare Part D” Instructor: Nate Olson
- Ann Graham (Honorable Mention, Winter 2015): “Belief Among the Non-Religious-Flashing Lights, Electric Guitars, and Jesus” Instructor: Anna Corwin
Integrated Learning Environment Winner for 2014-2015
- Max Morales (Winner, 2014-2015): “The Heart of Their Discontent: An Examination of the Roots of Student Protest at Stanford University in the 1960s” Instructor: Marcelo Aranda
BOOTHE PRIZE ESSAYS FOR 2013-2014
Thinking Matters Winners for 2013-2014
- Jason Risch (Winner, Spring 2013): "Defending Orestes: Society and Restorative Justice" Instructor: Anne Pollok
- Ansh Shukla (Honorable Mention, Spring 2013): "The Sounds of [Stop-Motion] Cinema: Bringing Epstein's Photogenieto a Visually Constrained Medium" Instructor: Inga Pierson
- Alexander Barron, Ariel Bobbett, Jay Moon, Srichana Muppidi (Winner, Fall 2013): "Utopia, Inc." Instructor: Jelena Batinić
- Ruizhe (Thomas) Zhao (Honorable Mention, Fall 2013): "The Enigma: Forfather of Modern Crytography" Instructor: Simon Rubinstein-Salzedo
- David Zimmerman (Winner, Winter 2014): "Newton on Absolute Motion: In Relation to Descartes and Copernicus" Instructor: Rahul Chauduri
- Jack Takahashi (Honorable Mention, Winter 2013): "Cost-Effective Decisions with Patened Pharmaceuticals" Instructor: Karola Kreitmair
Integrated Learning Environment Winner for 2013-2014
- Noah Friedman (Winner, 2013-2014): "McMarx's: Surplus Value and the Brilliant Capitalist Farce of the Food Industry"
BOOTHE PRIZE ESSAYS FOR 2012-2013
Thinking Matters Winners for 2012-2013
- Arun Debray (Winner, Spring 2012): "Surprising Manifestations of Incompleteness" Instructor: Dan Giberman
- Ikshu Neithalath (Honorable Mention, Spring 2012): "Alienation from God in Kieslowski's Decalogue I and V" Instructor: Amos Bitzan
- Beatrice Gerrard (Winner, Fall 2012): "Soviet Montage: Sketches from the Life of Lev Turovsky" Instructor: Amos Bitzan
- Jonas Kemp (Honorable Mention, Fall 2012): "Achieving Agency Through Fortune?" Instructor: Anne Pollok
- Rosemary Steinbach (Winner, Winter 2013): "Prescription Stimulants and the Argument Under the Carpet" Instructor: Nicole Martinez-Martin
- Kara Fong (Honorable Mention, Winter 2013): "The Dehumanizing Dangers of Biblical Interpretation" Instructor: Kathleen Tierney
Boothe Prize Essays for 2011-2012
Thinking Matters Winners for 2011-2012
Each year's Boothe Prize book is available as a PDF.
- Lynelle Ye (Winner, Spring 2011): "Poetic Justice in The Master and Margarita" Instructor: Tomas Matza
- Sunny Huang (Honorable Mention, Spring 2011): "The Contemporary Ornament" Instructor: Matthew Daube
- Natasha Tamate Weiss (Winner, Fall 2011): "The Paradoxical Marking of Blacks Through Storytelling" Instructor: M.G. Renu Cappelli
- Pedro Henrique Chamelette Sanzovo (Honorable Mention, Fall 2011): "The Illegitimacy of the Early American Republic" Instructor: Amanda Greene
- Ellen Sebastian (Winner, Winter 2012): "Saving Appearance in Determining Physical Truth: A Necessary Prerequisite?" Instructor: Jacqueline Feke
- Nicholas Cheung (Honorable Mention, Winter 2012): "Culture and Counter-Culture During the Axial Age" Instructor: William Carter
