Boothe Prize: Thinking Matters

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 2019-2020

Thinking Matters Winners for 2019-2020

• David Ludeke (Honorable Mention, Winter 2020): "Genetics, Race, and History: Cultural Hubris in Western Investigations of the East African Running Phenomenon." Instructor: Melissa Ko
• Gautam Manohar (Winner, Autumn 2019): "Common Core Math Standards Should Stay in Elementary School Classrooms." Instructor: Shay Brawn.
• Mohamed Osman (Honorable Mention, Autumn 2019): "No One Will Be Safe in the Dark." Instructor: Marie Burks
• Lucy Sandeen (Winner, Winter 2020): "Child Soldiers: Ambiguities in Morality, Responsibility, and Culpability." Instructor: Kristyn Hara
• Parth Sarin (Honorable Mention, Spring 2019): "The Law on Terror: How the US Supreme Court Aids in the Creation of the Muslim Enemy." Instructor: Nicole Martin
• Melina Solis (Winner, Spring 2019): "Death by Innovation: The Risk of Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems." Instructor: Lexi Neame

Integrated Learning Environment Winner for 2019-2020

• Alana Mermin-Bunnell (Winner, 2019-2020): "Frida Kahlo: Cropped Hair, Queen Futurity." Instructor: Kim Beil

Boothe Prize Essays for 2018-2019

Thinking Matters Winners for 2018-2019

• Natalie Adams-Menendez (Honorable Mention, Spring 2018): "Religion, Radicalization, and Rumiyah: ISIS’ Jihadist Recipe" Instructor: Katie Lennard
• JR Ereyi (Winner, Fall 2018): "Minstrelsy and the Evolution of the Plantation Tradition" Instructor: Katie Lennard
• Cass Kramer (Winner, Winter 2019): "Bipolar Warfare and Ideological Circumscription: The Cold War and the Peloponnesian War" Instructor: Kristyn N. M. Hara
• Kevin Li (Honorable Mention, Winter 2019): "The Inherent Injustice in Differential Medical Treatment on the Basis of Incarceration Status" Instructor: Marie Burks
• Wilder Seitz (Honorable Mention, Fall 2018): "Beyond 'Philosophical Training Grounds': A Brief Inquiry into Art, Truth, and Philosophy Through Plato’s Dialogues" Instructor: Becky Richardson
• Zakaria Sharif (Winner, Spring 2018): “What Are You? Transracialism, Rachel Dolezal, and the Racial Spectrum” Instructor: Erin Johnston

Boothe Prize Essays for 2017-2018

Thinking Matters Winners for 2017-2018

• Sylvia Choo (Winner, Spring 2017): “Bone Marrow Donation: Will Lack of Donor Compensation Suck the Bone Marrow Supply Dry?” Instructor: Jehnna Ronan
• Antigone Xenopoulos (Honorable Mention, Spring 2017): “Erdogan’s Turkey & Its Prophecy: The Role of Democratic Norms in Curbing Exceptional Power” Instructor: Brian Coyne
• Liliana J. Taylor (Winner, Fall 2017): “Boxes Still Here, Piano Covered in Dust” Instructor: Tara Dosumu Diener
• Max Moss (Honorable Mention, Fall 2017): “Can Empathy Give Us Truth?” Instructor: Erin Johnston
• Caroline Ghisolfi (Winner, Winter 2018): “A Subjective Approach to Auditory Saliency” Instructor: Sean Hallowell
• Jacob Umans (Honorable Mention, Winter 2018): “Santa Clara Immunity and Gut Microbiome in Allergies (SIGMA) Prospective Cohort Study” Instructor: Kristyn Hara

Boothe Prize Essays for 2016-2017

Thinking Matters Winners for 2016-2017

• Lisa Fu (Winner, Spring 2016): "Reading the Hands: Holding On to Our Lives" Instructor: Anna Corwin
• Federico Derby  (Honorable Mention, Spring 2016): "A Fault in our Democracy: Examining Peru’s Unsuccessful Transition to Citizen-Centered Governance" Instructor: Rahul Chaudhri
• Alessandro Hall (Winner, Fall 2016): "Against Representation: An Aesthetic Response to Paul Bloom’s Critique of Empathy" Instructor: Zenia Kish
• Minh-Anh Day (Honorable Mention, Fall 2016): "Raindrops" Instructor: Chenshu Zhou
• Ravi Harinder Veriah Jacques (Winner, Winter 2017): "The Individual, Family and State in To Live and Blind Shaft" Instructor Chenshu Zhou
• Eli Freeman (Honorable Mention, Winter 2017): "NICU Allocation Based on Utilitarianism" Instructor: Tara Dosumu-Diener

Integrated Learning Environment Winner for 2016-2017

• Benjamin Anderson (Winner, 2016-2017): "The Will to Provide Nietzsche, Poverty, and the Ethics of Compassion" Instructor: Lisa Hicks

Boothe Prize Essays for 2015-16

Thinking Matters Winners for 2015-2016

• Zhaolin Ren (Winner, Spring 2015): “The Limits of Idealism: Lessons from the Millennium Villages Project on the Role of Foreign Intervention in Promoting Health, Wealth and Well-Being in Africa” Instructor: Sarah Ives
• Erin Pang (Honorable Mention, Spring 2015): “Hidden” Instructor: Bronwen Tate
• Matthew Wigler (Winner, Fall 2015): “Constitutional Constipation: A Dearth of Deliberation” Instructor: Lauren Hirshberg
• Erik Ubel (Honorable Mention, Fall 2015): “Discovering Freedom in Ethical Dilemmas: An Existentialist Reading of Antigone” Instructor: Valerie Kinsey
• Susannah Meyer (Winner, Winter 2016): “The ‘Feminine’ Ideal” Instructor: Stephen Spiess
• Kit Ramgopal (Honorable Mention, Winter 2016): “Arguing for a Bioconservative Approach to Regulation of Anti-Love Bio-technology” Instructor: Karola Kreitmair

Integrated Learning Environment Winner for 2015-2016

• Zoë Bohn (Winner, 2015-2016): “On the Genealogy of Femininity: A Nietzschean Approach to Feminism” Instructor: Peter Mann

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

See also: PWR's Boothe Prize Page