With the help of faculty mentors and editors, the winners worked to produce, edit and revise their work, producing a varied collection of writing in different genres including research essays, a song, video essays, and more. At the celebration, four of the six winners presented their work and gave brief speeches about their creative processes, research methods and how they wanted their projects to change people’s understanding of diversity, equity and inclusion.

Jo Bogart presented her work, “Women in Myth and Their Stories Retold: A Beginner’s Guide to Medusa.” As a double major in creative writing and classical studies, Bogart hopes to continue researching classical representations of female figures in mythology and develop a body of creative work that corresponds with that research. An Elon College Fellow, Jo ultimately hopes to dive into more obscure characters and stories from Greek mythology and work on decolonizing the original stories through a dual effort in research and creative writing.

Maleah Proctor, a political science and policy studies major, presented her work, “Reinterpreting Lincoln,” which focused on the historical misrepresentation of major political figures. 

When asked about her motivation for writing “Reinterpreting Lincoln,” Maleah explained that “for a lot of the complexities in history, you have to look deep to find [the truth], and I don’t think that’s the way it should be…people should be able to know the basis of history without being a Ph.D. student. I hope that more resources come out that are accessible for [žĂžĂČČ] students.”

Mayhew and Kumar also presented their winning pieces at this year’s Phoenix Rhetorix celebration. In a video essay entitled “Race and Gender Representation in Marvel Entertainment,” Braxton Mayhew used his love for Marvel comics to address minority representation in pop culture and dive into Marvel’s history of inclusionary efforts. Having never before made a video essay, Braxton found the experience to be challenging but ultimately fulfilling.

Kumar, a music production major, used his passion for writing and music to produce a song titled 10 Years where he addresses systemic racism in America.

When talking about his inspiration for this project, Shreyas explained that he drew from his own personal experiences with racism and wanted to promote awareness of these issues: “My inspiration for writing ’10 Years’ was primarily just the general racial violence and divide America is facing…During my research for this project, I discovered that the racially-motivated hate crime rate has increased within the last decade, hence the title: ‘10 Years.’ I wrote the song from my own perspective regarding not just the racial violence in my country, but also racism I have experienced myself.”

The First-Year Writing Program at Elon sponsors the Phoenix Rhetorix Journal. Information about how to submit work for the 2023-24 journal is available on the website. This year’s Phoenix Rhetorix journal will publish work that focuses on what it means to be human and the distinctly human act of writing in a new era of AI-generated content. The submission deadline for Spring 2024 is May 27. For updates on the contest and other departmental initiatives, follow the Elon English Department’s .

The contest, sponsored by the American Studies Program, asked students to address the legacy of Thomas Jefferson in relation to COVID-19 vaccinations. The three winners of the contest, endowed by the late Philip L. Carret, were recognized by the American Studies Committee on April 12, 2022.

This year, students were invited to respond to the following prompt:

Despite being skeptical of many medical practices in his time, Thomas Jefferson embraced experimental medicine in the fight against smallpox, one of the deadliest diseases in human history. As a 23-year-old, Jefferson traveled to Philadelphia and participated in an experimental smallpox inoculation procedure. Later, as president, he defended and promoted the discovery of a smallpox vaccine despite its tepid reception by the public.

Like the smallpox vaccination campaign during Jefferson’s day, COVID vaccinations have had a slow reception in the United States. As of September 2021, 80 million eligible Americans, many of whom embrace Jefferson’s ideals such as democracy, personal liberty and resistance to tyranny, still have not been vaccinated despite the availability of three powerful vaccines. What might Jefferson’s writings have to tell us about why people embrace or resist vaccinations, and what are the similarities and differences between Americans’ vaccination sentiments today and during Jefferson’s time?

Waggener received the first place award for his essay, “Liberty in a Pandemic,” winning the $1,000 prize and an all-expenses-paid trip to Thomas Jefferson’s home in Monticello, Virginia. When asked about how his views on Jefferson might have changed after completing his research, Waggener said, “I was surprised at how Jefferson had a flexible view of the constitution and how he saw the law as a means to an end and not an end in itself. I feel that this is something that people have forgotten today.”

Santiago was awarded second place for her essay, “Jefferson, the U.S., and Vaccination Sentiments Then and Now.” Santiago spoke about why she decided to enter the contest this year saying, “I wanted to catalog the dynamics I have witnessed taking place during the pandemic within the U.S. and comment on how bipartisanism affected the COVID situation here.

“Before researching, I knew close to nothing about Jefferson, and with research, I found I thought of him more favorably. For being a man of his time, he was a futurist, which I respect,” Santiago added.

A second-time Carret Essay Contest winner, Ethan Porter won third place this year for his essay, “The Founding Fathers Believed in Vaccines and 42 Percent of Republicans Can’t Believe It.” This being his third time entering the Carret Contest, he said, “I find it interesting to see how Jefferson continues to be connected to the modern day. This prompt, I felt, was relevant to Jefferson considering his stance on incolutations, then vaccines, while he was alive…I enjoyed looking up various statistics on vaccination rates.”

After being recognized, the three winners were invited to present their essays on Student Undergraduate Research Forum (SURF) Day on April 26. There, they shared their research findings with students, faculty and staff.

The Carret contest is an annual event and will open for submissions during the 2022-2023 academic year! Any questions, about this year’s contest or otherwise, can be forwarded to Erin Pearson, coordinator of the American Studies Program (epearson7@elon.edu).

For more information on this year’s prompt, visit the American Studies Department website.