"More than Marks" Winners

1st Place: Daniel Vieyra

"Good Guys and Gospel: The Stories, Godlessness and Christ Figure as a Means of Redemption in Cormac McCarthy’s ‘The Road’"

Cormac McCarthy’s 2006 novel The Road is both exquisite and punishing, immersing the reader in a bleak post-apocalyptic world where humanity is reduced to what Shakespeare once called a “poor, bare, forked animal,” as survivors stagger in the night trying to find abandoned caches of canned food and to escape roaming gangs of cannibals. This winning paper not only sits with that bleakness, but also cracks it open like a nut to find the meaning within that void. Daniel Vieyra tells us, via McCarthy, that we are more than poor, bare, forked animals by virtue of the meaning we carry within us. But that meaning no longer comes from a transcendent source of divine certitude. In our broken world, it comes from language: from the words we speak and the stories that enter our bodies and our souls. Using the philosophical model of semantic internalism, along with elegant and nuanced close readings of McCarthy’s prose, Vieyra locates meaning in humanity rather than in a transcendent divine, imbuing us all with a tremendous power that is, paradoxically, as fragile as our mortal bodies. He warns us that “things in this world may exist as a result of our believing and articulating them,” a timely reminder of the immense power that lies in the language we use and the stories we tell.

2nd Place: Julia Sherritt

"Improving Section 162.1to Account for Women's Physical and Digital Safety"

Julia Sherritt submitted this policy brief in a second-year Women and Gender Studies course. The brief is directed to the Minister of Legislative Affairs and calls for an amendment to the legislation governing revenge porn, particularly in online spaces. Sherritt uses clear, direct language that concisely and compellingly explains the failures of current Canadian laws that classify revenge porn as an act of voyeurism. As she explains, such a classification imposes extra and superfluous hurdles on the complainant that have little to no bearing on current, digital venues; these extra hurdles lead to increased legal costs on the part of victims who choose to come forward, further disadvantaging them and dissuading them from taking legal action. After laying out the stakes, Sherritt proposes an amendment that would classify revenge porn as a sexual assault offense rather than voyeurism, using feminist theory as her intellectual scaffolding. She told the committee that she’s proud of her first-ever policy brief, and that the writing and revision process has shown her the potential she has as a writer, which she calls “a good reminder to be proud of our drafts because it shows the progress and triumphs in academic writing.” An excellent reminder for us all.

3rd Place: Raisa W. Tayib

"K-Pop Idols are not your Friends: How Identity Curation, Parasocial Relationships in the BTS Fandom, and Financial Gain Intertwine in the Attention Economy"

Raisa W. Tayib wrote this essay for her first-year CCT course. In only eight pages, she distinguishes the unique factors that characterize the role of fans in K-pop profit models: specifically, the creation of a fan culture where fans are not merely targets of pop music advertising but also generators of that advertising, whether through social media campaigns or through spending their own money on real-world promotional materials such as billboards. Why do K-pop fans go to these lengths? Because of the fine-tuned strategies used in K-pop marketing, such as what Tayib terms “calibrated amateurism”—creating a persona that figures pop idols as regular folks—and a depiction of these idols as what she calls “blank, perfect slates upon which fans can project their desires.” In a characteristically sharp and weighty phrase, Tayib describes this process as “farm[ing] emotional capital for financial capital,” and her paper concisely and deftly identifies the “relational labour” undergirding a system that only superficially endorses authenticity. 

1st Place: Kacper Mykietyn

"Street's Striking Coincidence In Defense of Rational Reflection Explanation"

Committee Remarks:

In their unanimous decision to award this paper the top prize, the committee characterized it as a rigorous, careful, and sure-footed examination of Sharon Street's discussion of normative realism which makes use of a tone that is somehow engaging and personal, while formal and professional. The committee also appreciated the clarity and concision of the author’s writing.

2nd Place: Zuhair Ahmed

"Multispecific Drug Design: Advances in Event and Occupancy-Driven Pharmacology" 

Committee Remarks:

Committee members observed that this was a remarkably well-researched paper and noted that it used erudite language to present its argument regarding both the potential and limitations of multispecific technologies.

3rd Place: Maria Sillano

"Standpoint Theory in Feminist Practice" 

Committee Remarks:

In their assessment of this essay, Committee members described it as an engagingly written and elegantly nuanced discussion of the political implications of using standpoint theory in feminist discourse; they also praised its sophisticated command of academic writing strategies.

1st Place: Kaitlyn Harris  

"Weeping Willow"

 Committee Remarks:

This was a very well written and interesting examination of modernist poetry supporting a view that only through experimentation and a willingness to disregard conventions can poetry truly thrive. The author examines the uses made of ambiguity and apparently nonsensical imagery in modernist poetry, working sure-footedly through texts by Stein, Breton, Sagawa, and Mallarme. They show how these and other Modernist works are intended to "create a distinct mood, inviting the reader to experience rather than understand." The paper is clearly and elegantly written. Overall, this is an engaging and sophisticated explanation of how modernist poetry defies the standard conventions of grammar and syntax as a means of conveying meaning.

2nd Place: Asma Behery 

"Developmental Portrait: Growth Through Adversity in Higher Education - Developing Confidence, Persistence, Emotion Regulation, and Value for My Personal Goals"

Committee Remarks:

An intriguing examination of a personal journey exploring the transitional experiences of a student through their first 3 years at UTM. The approach follows a reflective methodology model on the well-known DEAL approach. The author brings theory and practice together in a very thorough and detailed manner: the applications of the various theories to the author's life are clear and impressively laid out. This extends through the author's university voyage, showing how things changed over time and how the author has used their reading to reflect on and understand those changes and hence, their own life. This use of well-contextualized theory as a means of understanding their growth and development throughout their time at UTM makes for an interesting story of personal growth that should be inspiring for any reader.

1st Place: Rachel Stubits

"Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hEDS): A Review"

Committee Remarks:

This essay is an erudite and well-researched account of Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, covering the current state of research on possible causes, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment, and doing so in a clear, coherent manner, with the effective utilization of both prose and tables. In addition to presenting the scientific context, the author also makes clear the personal and emotional struggles involved in living with and studying this disorder, which makes the essay a powerful reading experience and one that conveys a sense of urgency for further study of this condition.

2nd Place: Veronika Sizova

"The Monster in the Looking Glass: Reflections of the Creature in Frankenstein’s Heroines"

Committee Remarks:

This is an articulate and creative examination of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, taking a novel interpretive approach by making an insightful connection between the struggles of Frankenstein’s monster and the struggles that three of the novel’s female characters face as they cope with being marginalized in a patriarchal society. The author notes that the monster ultimately “lacks a coherent gender role”; nonetheless, this very ambiguity enables it to shed light on the status and behavior of the female characters, just as, by the same token, they shed light on it.

3rd Place: Myia Hellmer

"Tonian Macroalgae Fossils from the Dolores Creek Formation, Canada."

Committee Remarks:

This is a well written paper on the evolution of green algae and their rise to dominance during the Cambrian. The paper is sound in terms of its methodology and clearly represents a formal undergraduate research project. This paper is a clear and well written analysis of a new type of algae, thus making an original contribution to knowledge in the field. The paper’s findings have the potential to impact current understandings of the timing of algae and land plant diversification.