Winners from the Class of 2029
Seriously Funny: The Role Political Satire Should Play in a Healthy Democracy (Ted Tarter)
As comedians increasingly serve as political educators, and politics devolves into a form of mass entertainment, Ted Tarter's TEDtalk sounds an alarm about the potential dangers of political satire in a democracy, positing that "satire has become the most powerful way to get young Americans engaged with politics-- yet we... have allowed it to leave us uninformed, detached, and cynical." Weaving academic perspectives on the role of political satire in democracy into his own narrative of navigating the political humor appearing on his social media feeds, Ted argues that if political satire is to strengthen, rather than erode, democracy, it must be as a first step toward deeper, more informed political engagement. With his departing message, Ted entreats his readers to "be entertained-- but also be engaged, [b]ecause the danger is not satire itself, it is mistaking satire for the politics it aims to make better."
Hélène Bezukova as the Extension of the Great Man (Natalie Massengill)
Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace is a masterpiece of 19th century literature, and its more than 1300 pages have provided food for thought for generations of scholars and readers. In just a few short pages, Natalie Massengill makes a new discovery in that well-trodden ground by developing a novel, nuanced, and elegant reading of one of the book’s more controversial characters, Hélène Bezukova. Natalie argues that Tolstoy explicitly and implicitly connects the socialite to Napoleon, and that in doing so, “Her existence expands the great man’s reach to the opposite corner of the novel, connecting peace with war, social institutions with medicine and military theory.” What is at stake in Tolstoy’s critique, as Natalie describes, is a condemnation of the idea that an individual can control or impose structure on the chaotic force that is history. In this essay, Natalie makes a convincing argument to read Hélène as “the other half of the great man in War and Peace,” and to center her as a powerful element in Tolstoy’s philosophical project.