Best Essay and Create Work in Medical Humanities Competition

2023 Winners

Best Essay - Creative Category

• 1st prize: Madison Zhao, “Subtleties: A Look into Mental Health Support in Asian American Families”
• 2nd prize: Audrey Nguyen, “Language: The Broken Backbone of Healthcare”
• Honorable mention: Nikita Singh, “Mr. Toad and the Scarce Allocation of Care”

2022 Winners

Best Essay – Creative Category

• 1st prize: Meghna Yennu, "This Holy Water".
• 2nd prize: Manshi Patel, "Elements of ED".
• Honorable mention: Aishani Gargapati, "Family Caregiving Across Oceans".

Best Essay – Critical Essay Category

• 1st prize: Ynez Kerley, "Caring & the Abject".
• 2nd prize: Annika Nambiar, "Cultural Branding of the Humble Fly".

2021 Winners

Best Essay – Creative Category

• 1st prize (tied): Conor Rork, “Another’s Shoes: Narratives of Empathy and Medicine” (Prof. Li, MDHM 201)
• 1st prize (tied): Allison Taffet, “Jefferson Davis: A Hospital Forgotten” (Prof. Bailar, MDHM 430)
• 1st prize (tied): Mabel Tang, “Breathe Easy” (Prof. Li, MDHM 201)

Best Essay – Critical Essay Category

• 1st prize (tied): Nellie Chen, “The Weight He Carried” (Prof. Brennan, RELI 335)
• 1st prize (tied): Sally Yan, “To Protect and Exploit: Schistosomiasis, COVID-19, and Biopolitics in China” (Prof. Mitchell, ANTH 380)
• Honorable Mention: Jason Lee, “Half Yin, Half Yang: Xie Jianshun and Intersexuality in 1950s
• Taiwan” (Prof. Li, MDHM 201)

2020 Winners

Best Essay – Creative Category

• 1^st prize: Emma Every, for her essay “Hospice: The House Between Worlds”
• 2^nd prize: Yunee Park, for her essay, “Pretty”

Best Essay – Critical Essay Category

• 1^st prize: Lily Wieland, for her essay, “Optimism, Despair, and ‘Balanced Hope’”
• 2^nd prize: Rishab Ramapriyan, for his essay, “Coming face-to-face with death in When Breath Becomes Air”
• Honorable Mention: Neha Tallapragada, for their essay, “Being Transgender in America”