Meet the 2025 Rushton Journal of Undergraduate Humanities Research Best Essay Prize winners
Congratulations to Elizabeth Woelkers, Adeline Navarro and Jane Valente for outstanding research and writing, featured in volume two of the Rushton Journal of Undergraduate Humanities Research. Elizabeth Woelker’s essay, “Shadows and Seduction: Exploring the Duality of Night in Romeo and Juliet,” earned her the Best Essay Prize. Adeline Navarro and Jane Valente each earned honorable mentions for their respective essays, "Political Posters, Periperformativity, and Power: An Analysis of the Connections Between an Activist Movement's Image and Sound" and "The Implications of Jack Kerouac’s Modern Flâneur in On the Road." Adeline is a second-time awardee; she won the inaugural Rushton Journal Best Essay Prize for her 2024 essay, "Double Consciousness, Mirrors, and the Children Within Them: A Conceptual Reading of W. E. B. Du Bois's 'As the Crow Flies.'" Their papers reflect the best of humanities research, each exploring questions about the human condition through careful analysis of cultural works and using this analysis to better understand the social, political, cultural, and economic contexts in which the works were produced.
We asked Elizabeth, Adeline and Jane to share a little about themselves and their research projects. Their answers offer a glimpse of each author's unique perspectives on their work and together reflect a shared joy in their experiences at Wayne State University, a deep curiosity about the world around them, a palpable eagerness to learn from their professors and their peers, and a willigness to stretch their boundaries. Their answers have been lightly edited for style and clarity.
First, would you like to tell us a little bit about yourself?
Elizabeth Woelkers
I returned to university after a five-year break, and I’m now a double major in English and Linguistics who will be graduating in a few weeks. I’m a Michigander (born and raised!), and I live in my hometown of Marine City. Outside of my schoolwork, I spend my time herding my two-year-old, enjoying oil painting and writing, and spoiling my dog, Mochi.
Adeline Navarro
I’m from the Eastside! I obtained my bachelor's, in December 2024 (yay). I was a double major in English and Philosophy, with a minor in Creative Writing. I’ll be heading back to Wayne State in the fall for a master’s in Philosophy (woo). I plan to attend law school in the future and complete a Ph.D. in Philosophy. Reading is obviously my favorite extracurricular activity!
Jane Valente
I recently graduated from Wayne State in 2024 with a bachelor's in Education with a concentration in English and a minor in French. I'm currently teaching high school English in East Pointe, Michigan.
What have you enjoyed most about being a Wayne State student?
Elizabeth Woelkers
There are a lot of answers to that question, with most being hinged on my experience as a transfer student. I came to Wayne from a well-known, not well-liked private school and had to adjust to the reality that I clearly had actually not experienced higher education before. My first few classes were definitely an academic culture shock; I was actually intellectually challenged and exposed to new perspectives that definitely helped shape who I am today. Every class experience I’ve had has led to growth, so I definitely feel like I’m getting my money’s worth.
Adeline Navarro
I’m deeply appreciative of the English and Philosophy professors at WSU. They’ve shared countless hours with me helping me sharpen my own writing and thought processes, as well as encouraging me to always challenge myself.
Jane Valente
I really enjoyed my time at Wayne State and am very happy applying all that I've learned in my career path now. My favorite memory at Wayne State was my semester abroad spent in Lille, France where I took courses in English, French, and even Dutch. Getting to see such beautiful places, meeting wonderful people, and learning about other cultures and languages allowed me to become a more open-minded and courageous student and teacher.
Can you tell us a little bit about your goals for your essay?
Elizabeth Woelkers
This paper was written for Dr. Jaime Goodrich’s ENG 5150 Shakespeare class. To be completely frank, my goals were pretty low only because this was the first big paper I was writing after a five year break from University. But when I started to look in the general direction I wanted to go for this paper, it quickly steamrolled into some very lofty goals, most of which were accomplished and others which may still become a reality down the road.
Adeline Navarro
I began with the following questions: Is the sound of a movement as important as its looks? When it comes to political posters, can the two be separated? Do chants emerge from images? Are the chants periperformative speech acts? What is the periperformative? Is a periperformative speech act doing the same work as the look of the movement? Is a periperformative speech act an emotive? Or, an emotional habitus?
Jane Valente
I wrote my essay for Dr. Elizabeth Evan's ENG 5992/4991 course, "Moving with the Moderns, a Senior Seminar on Mobility in Literature and Culture of the 20th and 21st Centuries." This course opened my eyes to how movement impacts thinking and writing in abstract ways.
What can you tell us about your research process?
Elizabeth Woelkers
My research always starts with a close reading of the source text, which for this paper was Romeo and Juliet. I annotate and note anything that catches my attention, which is usually some broad observation. For this, it was that most of the significant scenes happen at night. This then led to a question, then to research, then another question, then more research, and then finally, a discussion with Dr. Goodrich about why I couldn’t find much scholarship on “night scenes” in the play. After getting a lot of suggestions and guidance, I finally came to my actual topic and started the whole process over again. It’s very time-consuming and chaotic but well worth the investment. I had to pull research from a lot of different kinds of scholarship outside of literature and literary analysis; religion, social norms, and cultural history of medieval England were the big ones for this paper.
Adeline Navarro
First, a ton of reading, backtracking, and documentary watching. Second, so much of my research process (at least the synthesizing part) is done by talking with other people, i.e., other classmates, my professors, and my friends. It’s so helpful to get other perspectives; the paper really came to fruition in those conversations and also unfurled into something so much larger than itself, i.e., a line of inquiry that I still want to pursue a year later.
Jane Valente
For this essay, I enjoyed researching concepts familiar to me like Baudelaire in the newly renovated Paris and the car-centered infrastructure of capitalistic America. With the aid of my professor and peers, I blended these concepts with material I had recently learned about in the course such as the mental, emotional, economic, and historical realities of modern mobility and how this is depicted in various pieces of literature.
What skills did you find important, or did you discover in yourself in the research and writing process?
Elizabeth Woelkers
Absolutely the benefit of revision and peer review. This was the first paper that I wanted as many eyes on it as possible before turning it in. I probably harassed at least four of my closest friends and several professors to give me feedback, which was incredibly invaluable. It pushed me to really think through my writing and the revisions I made.
Adeline Navarro
Patience! I found myself overwhelmed by all the archival material and current material on the AIDS crisis and ACT UP. I kept thinking to myself, this paper cannot be accomplished in less than 20 pages, then in less than 100 pages. Juggling this undertaking alongside four other classes and working felt like too much; I almost switched my topic to something that seemed more achievable.
However, there was a moment when I was watching Fast Trip, Long Drop (1994), a documentary by Gregg Bordowitz, and Jean Carlomusto, an AIDS video activist, spoke about how editing footage from protests was exciting at the beginning of the crisis because they had a special energy, but it later came to be a sort of burden because as she’d look at the material, she’d see her friends who had passed, i.e., they were a ‘record of loss.’
My entire mindset shifted; it really put the matter into perspective for me, and I became grateful for the amount of work I had to do. By working on this project, I acted as a sort of witness to this loss and helped to keep the people in the footage/photos/interviews alive.
What was the most surprising or interesting discovery in your research?
Elizabeth Woelkers
I kind of touched on this before, but it surprised me that there wasn’t much scholarship on my observations to begin with. It really felt like tripping over a large lump of gold while walking through a Meijer, except no one else is really noticing it and the alarms don’t go off when you take it to your car. I feel like I contributed a unique argument and analysis to a pretty big field of literature, which is a pretty big source of pride for me.
Adeline Navarro
This doesn’t necessarily answer the question, but I remember being so surprised that I was writing a paper about people, activism, linguistics, and aesthetics. I think there is a major misconception that English majors just write close readings of literature and poetry, and this paper is proof that it is so much broader than that!
What were some of the challenges in the research process for you?
Adeline Navarro
The first challenge would be navigating the ethics of attempting to make a theoretical argument about speech used by real people rather than fictional characters. At the beginning of the semester, Dr. Jonathan Flatley had asked questions like “What relationship can an aesthetic practice have to an urgent health crisis?” and “How did ACT UP bring people together?” I was incredibly interested in this intersection of collectivity, joy, and grief. But of course, I wanted to make sure I was writing conscientiously, given that this time was fraught with so many complex emotions and death. There was also the difficulty of writing about ACT UP without asserting an implication that the AIDS crisis itself is over. In short, I wanted to do it justice, given its striking materiality.
The second challenge would be relying primarily on the work of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, as she was my professor’s graduate advisor. I think these types of relationships add a certain pressure because they make visible the relationships that we often forget about when we’re working on papers – a beautiful thing – but definitely a thing that adds a different kind of emotional weight to a final paper.
Why did you decide to submit to the Rushton Journal?
Elizabeth Woelkers
This is solely because Dr. Goodrich suggested that I should. Before, I didn’t even know the Rushton existed or that I could submit work for publishing as an undergrad. As someone with serious imposter syndrome it took a while to go for it, but I’m glad I did. I never would have done it without Dr. Goodrich though and I’m incredibly thankful for her guidance and support.
Adeline Navarro
My professor encouraged it, and I was lucky to be published in the inaugural issue of the Rushton Journal, and the feeling of seeing my own work in a journal was incredibly affirming, especially as a first-generation student. I wanted the chance to experience it again!
Jane Valente
I'd like to thank Dr. Elizabeth Evans for encouraging, not just me, but every single one of her students to submit their essay to the Rushton Journal. After attending the initial release party for the Journal last year with my class, I was able to see what an amazing job the writers and editors have done showcasing their incredible talent. I feel very proud to now be a part of that process.
What advice would you give to a student in the humanities who was also interested in research?
Elizabeth Woelkers
Literally, talk to your professors. I really feel like so many students (both in and out of humanities) don’t utilize their professors. They are there to guide you and are one hundred percent the most valuable resource you will have at Wayne. I’ve found all of my professors to be incredibly accommodating, understanding, and helpful, plus having access to their help is part of your tuition. It’s okay to ask for help!
Adeline Navarro
Dr. Flatley told my class, “You need to figure out what question you are asking before anything else.” As simple as it sounds, this provided me with lightning clarity… and I find myself often repeating it.
Most importantly, I would say you should constantly reflect on the path you are taking to answer that question, i.e., think intentionally about your citational practices, because deciding who, what, and when you cite is essential to preventing the reproduction of academic hierarchies. As theorist Sara Ahmed says, “Citation is feminist memory”; it is political and powerful. As students, our involvement is especially important.
You can read all three of the winning essays in the second volume of the Rushton Journal of Undergraduate Humanities, curated, designed, and edited by the fall 2025 cohort of English 5695: Publishing Practicum. Generous funding from the Edmund and Norma Rushton Endowment for American Studies supports the student-run journal. In recognition of the outstanding research and writing featured in the journal, the Humanities Center established the Best Essay prize. Two Honorable Mention prizes are also awarded, thanks to a generous donation from a Wayne State faculty member of the Academic Senate. More information, and more wonderful undergraduate student research writing can be found on the journal’s homepage at DigitalCommons @WayneState.