Graduate Award Winners

Manahil Bandukwala

Title: Sixteen Months

Adjudicators' comments:

In 16 concise and elegant paragraphs, this work ruminates on the experience and sensation of love. It’s written as prose poetry, circling round its topic in a series of short enigmatic bursts. The writing, although complex and carefully worked, never feels labored or heavy, and its tropes and images often display striking ingenuity. An impressive, imaginative and often evocative text.

Click here to see Manahil's work Graduate Creative Writing Award Prose and Poetry - Manahil Bandukwala

Elianne El-Amyouni

About the award:

This scholarship is awarded annually to full-time PhD student based on academic excellence.                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Hannah Gardiner

Title: Love and Labour in Song of Songs

Adjudicators' comments:

“Love and Labour in Song of Songs” sets for itself an ambitious goal, which led to an enriching discussion of the ways that love, consummation, and consumption are entwined within the Song of Songs. The text engages the critical conversation of the text and creates its own space within the scholarship. In that space, the paper allows a keen consideration of language and word choice to build into a beautiful argument about interconnectedness and dependence.

Alison Purnell

Title: Caius Martius and the Politics of the Body Politic

Adjudicators' comments:

This essay reconsiders the role of the tribunes Brutus and Sicinius in William Shakespeare's /Coriolanus/, vis-a-vis the populace for whom they speak, and the play's protagonist. Whereas a main line of scholarship has till now read the Roman masses as a "voiceless" throng in /Coriolanus/, and the tribunes themselves as scoundrels, [AUTHOR] here argues that the tribunes effectively channel public expressions of revolt into an authoritative voice to answer the patrician class. The paper elegantly integrates a broad range of current historical and literary scholarship with fine-grained rhetorical, philological, and textual analysis, to make an original, compelling contribution to the ongoing scholarly conversation around this play.

Click here to see Alison's work Beltz Essay Prize, PhD - Alison Purnell

Máire Slater

Title: “Where Words Fail, Music Speaks” 

Adjudicators' comments:

“Where Words Fail, Music Speaks” offers a complex argument, with significant grounding in rhetorical studies and cognitive science, that explores aspects of music in a structural model not unlike those we use to talk about figuration. Indeed, this essay shows we might even find figuration itself, chiasmus and antimetabole commonly making an appearance in some traditions. Further, the essay argues for not only important theoretical refrains, but also praxis through application in music therapy.

Maab Alkurdi

Title: “Iachimo: The Foolish Man Speaking Well”

Adjudicators' comments:

This essay is unique in its thesis since the author has set out on a mission to persuade the audience into accepting Iachimo’s skill at persuasion. What ensues is a balancing act between the rhetorical style of the author and that of Iachimo, both of whom employ multiple strategies to achieve their goal. The reader is compelled to agree with the author that Iachimo is a skillful rhetorician, thereby cementing the author’s abilities in this art form as well.  

Máire Slater

Title: "Wrapped Around My Wrist”

Adjudicators' comments:

The Bracelet project is distinguished by its imbrication of narrative, critical design, art, and autobiography. The essay and the made-objects operate in harmony, amplifying one another, and producing both text and bracelets that are equally thought-provoking and emotionally compelling. The thought, care, and craft that went into this project resulted in an exemplary piece of communication design and practice, richly deserving of this award.

Click here to see Máire's work Graduate Professional Communication Award - Máire Slater

Stefani Starivlah

Title: Optimizing Asynchronous Communication from the Bedroom to Big Tech through Kairos

Adjudicators' comments:

“Optimizing Asynchronous Communication from the Bedroom to Big Tech through Kairos” is a thoughtful application of rhetorical theory to business communication, specifically in the agility required by the ever-shifting circumstances of remote communication during the pandemic.

Lara El Mekkawi

About the award:

This award is given to a graduate student on the basis of academic excellence and merit of professionalization activities. 

Dakota Pinheiro || Sabrina Sgandurra

Zachary Pearl

About the award:

This scholarship is awarded to a full-time graduate student based on academic excellence.

Aleksander Franiczek

About the award:

This scholarship is awarded to a full-time graduate student based on academic excellence.

Humaira Shoaib

Adjudicators' comments:

The TA Award for Excellence in Teaching goes to Humaira Shoaib for her work as a Teaching Assistant for engineering communication courses at UWaterloo. Ms. Shoaib is a natural mentor and brings considerable experience from past teaching in post-secondary contexts. Not only does Ms. Shoaib provide students with detailed critical feedback, but she does so in encouraging and motivating ways. Humaira’s teaching portfolio, importantly, emphasizes providing thoughtful student support and encouraging student excellence. 

Maša Torbica

Adjudicators' comments:

Maša Torbica has delivered sophisticated and inspirational teaching to diverse students across the disciplines and developed courses that anyone would be fortunate to experience. Sensitive to the needs of multiple learning styles, Maša created inclusive and empowering learning environments. Maša constructed flexible pedagogical frameworks that employed low-stakes, scaffolded learning tasks and meticulously structured teaching to guide grateful students, who in large numbers wrote glowing praise of their experiences.

Shannon Lodoen || Zachary Pearl

About the award:

The scholarship will be awarded to a graduate student on the basis of scholastic excellence and a demonstrated interest in English Language and Literature, Rhetoric and/or Digital Media. 

Jinsol Kim

About the award:

This scholarship is awarded annually to a full-time graduate student based on academic excellence.