Congratulations to the Fall 2024 UIC Library English 161 Student Research Awards winners
Launched in 2020, the UIC Library English 161 Awards recognize excellence in student research that demonstrates best practices in finding, evaluating and synthesizing sources to develop creative and impactful work. The award also calls upon students to describe their research trajectory, reflecting on their process, discoveries and learning experience.
Each semester, instructors from English 161 classes nominate outstanding student papers. To be eligible for the award, students must also write a short essay, reflecting on their research and writing process. Applications are judged by a panel of UIC librarians.
The Library supports student success in English 161 with one or more class sessions on research skills, individual research consultations upon request and an online research guide. The award affirms and supports UIC students' outstanding information literacy and composition.
Congratulations to the Fall 2024 winners!
First Place: Casual Crime: YouTube True Crime as Escapist Entertainment by Ayah Kabbani
Instructor Ryan Nordle said, "Throughout this semester, Ayah has maintained a commitment to diligently researching, writing, reviewing, and revising her work; her consistent efforts are manifest in this exceptional final paper. Ayah's journey with this project has followed the exact steps that we, as 161 instructors, try to outline for all of our students: she began an investigation from a topic of genuine interest, identified the extant research, located the gap, and made a unique contribution to the conversation. What's more, this paper is an attempt to explain and interpret a popular cultural phenomenon and therefore realizes the goal of the humanities. Ayah's writing and argumentation is lucid, thorough, and well-reasoned, even as she navigates the often muddy, superficial, and illogical world of YouTube comment sections. Though she covers a lot of ground in this paper, Ayah concludes by leaving plenty of threads available for other scholars (or herself) to pick up later—I can easily see her writing a series of papers, or a book for that matter, on YouTube true crime, short form media infotainment, interaction with notions of truth across media platforms, etcetera.—which is further testament that her work is a meaningful conversation with other researchers." And a library faculty member judge commented, "I love this paper. Unlike any other paper I read for this competition, the author doesn't just cite other researchers' evidence, but gathers evidence of their own. They also do a great job of narrowing what could be a huge topic to a very particular and fascinating focus. They strike a balance of quoting enough of the source material (the videos) so that any reader can understand what they're talking about. The author says 'I wanted to contribute something new.' And that they did."
Second prize: Animal Dentistry: Are You Caring for Your Pet’s Teeth? by Layla Wang
Instructor Todd Sherfinski said this paper was a "Wonderful example of inquiry leading to research resulting in an engaging conversation."
Third prize: Tiny Teeth, Big Traditions: The Psychology of Children’s Tooth Traditions and Their Role by Areesha Altaf
Instructor Todd Sherfinski said this paper: "Displays depth of research leading to a thought provoking examination of traditions. A library faculty member judge said, "I appreciate that the author drew from sources not just about tooth fairy traditions, but also from research about how children respond to tooth loss."