AMCS Director Paige McGinley, on behalf of the prize committee, has announced the American Culture Studies Harvey Undergraduate Writing Prize winners for 2023.
In the traditional paper format category, the winner is Sarai Steinberg, for her essay “Tackling the Taboo: HelloFlo’s Viral “First Moon Party” Advertisement," nominated by Phil Maciak. The prize committee was especially impressed with Sarai’s ability to critically and creatively contextualize the history of advertising surrounding women’s menstrual products, and demonstrate the manner in which HelloFlo’s Viral “First Moon Party” ad subverted long-standing stigmas about them.
In the alternative format category, the winner is Hannah Jon, for her project “UN/BURY: Unburying the Memory of Demolition in St. Louis," nominated by John Early and Noah Cohan. The prize committee was especially impressed with Hannah’s vision for marking the existing St. Louis landscape with reminders of its buried histories via a series of billboard designs that would provoke passersby to think about the structures destroyed, people displaced, and histories covered over in the name of development.
Congratulations, Sarai and Hannah!
