This award is named in honor of Audre Lorde (1934-1992), a self-described “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet." The prize is given annually by the Augustana Women's and Gender Studies Program, and is designed to recognize excellence in women's and gender scholarship at the undergraduate level. This award was previously known as the Mary Wollstonecraft Writing Award.
Winners from 2024
Sinning as Empowerment: Reclaiming God as a Black, Queer Woman in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, Bethany Abrams
Exploring the Stereotypes of Gender and Sexuality in Ballet and its Impact on the Dance Community, Ava Jackson
The Future Is Here, Kazi Uzayr Razin
Navigating Nepal’s Legal Requirements For Transgender Inclusion Beyond Labels, Krisha Silwal
Escaping from Myth: Denver’s Reclamation of Love in Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Lainey Terfruchte
We All Bleed The Same Blood, Sarah Welker
Winners from 2023
Kathleen Hanna: An Investigation into Riot Grrrl, Elena Haffner
“Yellow Fever” + Pornhub Statistics: A Sociological Sickness, Patricia Plachno
Hosts/Saints/Witches: Women and Food under Catholicism in Love Medicine, Blake Traylor
Winners from 2022
Bisexuality in 21st Century Media, Bethany Abrams
Coming Out as a Queer Latinx, Giselle Barajas
At the Dinner Table, Briana L. Kunstman
Flippin' Medicine: Reflection and Action in Medical Education, Alison Lawrence
Coming Out Culture and LGBTQ+ Teachers, Maddie Schaefer
She Ain't Sorry, Gavinya Wijesekera
Winners from 2021
Zeroed Out, Moreen Akomea-Ampeh
Asexual Protagonists: What Their Patterns Reveal About the Representation of Asexuality in Current Literature, Jaclyn Hernandez
Injustice Anywhere is a Threat to Justice Everywhere: Why Mass Incarceration is a Feminist Issue, Too, Vanessa Iroegbulem
ABVD., Briana L. Kunstman
My Intangible Orb of Dreams: An ADHD Introspection, Audre Lewis
Treatise, Scripture, Manifesto: Reckoning With "Love Cake", Lalini Shanela Ranaraja
Why the Binary?: Cisnormativity in Athletics, Iliana Smiser
"Queer Even in Safe Spaces: Homeless, Shelter Failures, and the Queer Community", Kara West
Winners from 2020
Masked Marginalization, Moreen Akomea-Ampeh
The Morphology of Sex: Tracking Change in the Sex Discourse at Augustana College, Robert E. Burke
The Bloody Truth, Elizabeth Fulkerson
Embracing écriture inclusive Students Respond to Gender Inclusivity in the French Language Classroom, Rebecca Lynn Garbe
Not Queer Enough: How Current Medical School Curriculum is Failing the LGBT+ Community, Vanessa C. Iroegbulem
I'm So Lucky to Know You, Melody Konrad
Winners from 2019
Disrupting the Androcentric Prison System, Amber Hanke
Homeland, Reimagined in The Woman Warrior, Tran Le
Give Name to the Nameless So It Can Be Thought, Lalini Shanela Ranaraja
Winners from 2018
Female Underrepresentation in STEM, Erin Cygan
The Power of Queer Representation in the Media, Jack Harris
A Transformative Tragedy, Cassandra Karn
Gender and Sexuality Portfolio Post One: An Introduction to the Special Interest Topic of Motherhood, Valeria Denise Melo
Winners from 2017
Where Do Women Stand? Attitudes Towards Female Political Participation in India and the US, Grace Anne Carlson
Being the Other Woman: Watanabe’s Unrequited Love for Naoko in Norwegian Wood, Giselle Carter
María de Zayas and the Art of Breaking Free, Erin Cygan
From Weak Woman to New Woman and Back: The Long Struggle to Legitimize Women Athletes in the U.S., Rashaun DeBord
“Man, Don’t Feel Like a Woman”: Christian Scriptural Interpretations, the Binary Gender System, and How They Can Lead to Misogyny and Homophobia, Alyssa Froehling
Reproducing the Capitalist Patriarchy in the Evangelical Christian Sexual Purity Movement: A Feminist Christian’s Concern and Hope, Hannah K. Griggs
Salvation Through Community and Protest, Hannah K. Griggs
What a Fat Girl Wants, Briana Lee
The Whole World to Please, Elena Leith
Winners from 2016
Fictional Survivors and Real Life Survivors: Fede Alvarez’s Evil Dead as a Slasher Film and Unnecessary Depictions of Sexual Violence, Alyssa Froehling
Indian Women’s Uplift Movements and the Dangers of Cultural Imperialism, Hannah K. Griggs
Parallels and Foils between the Men and Women in the Icelandic Family Sagas, Rebecca Knapper
Music and the Migrant: A Transnational Account of Cumbia, Irene L. Mekus
The Public vs. The Private, Elise "Alice" G. Roberson
Thecla Penetrates the Popular Perception, Leah Jo M. Shelton
Winners from 2015
The Multiple Victims of Rape, Maureen Azar
Visibility Feminism, Alyssa Froehling
Motherhood in The Feast of St. Nicholas, Rukmini Girish
The Hidden "Homo" in "Rip Van Winkle:" A Queer Theory Reading, Rebecca Knapper
Mayan Women’s Organized Weaving Projects in the Guatemalan Highlands: Narratives of Struggle and Resistance, Maggie Richardson
Dear Augustana, Alice Roberson
The Representation of Women and Gender in Warner Bros. Cartoons: A Performance of Satire, Eliza Wells
The Rise and Fall of Female Stereotypes in Looking for Alaska, Alina Zabolotico