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Best Essay in an Upper-Division English Course, 2008-2009
"Politics of Food in Contemporary Nigeria" by Sophie
Vranian (click
here to read the essay)
Professor Jonathan Haynes's Citation:
Sophie Vranian's essay "Politics of Food in Contemporary Nigeria,"
written for English 170: Contemporary African Literature and Film,
was the unanimous choice of the judges for best upper-level essay.
A study of the ways in which food figures in Sefi Atta's recent
novel Everything Good Will Come, the essay illustrates Sophie's
skill and flair as a literary critic, which allows her to deal with
the novel in all its literary complexity. It also puts fully on
display her education as a Global College student, which has given
her an acute and practiced ability to find her way around foreign
cultures and a sophisticated, interdisciplinary understanding of
how societies work, in all their complexity. The passion for social
justice that comes through clearly in everything Sophie says or
writes, and is in fact palpable even when she's just sitting there
in class biding her time, is also integral to a Global College education,
but I expect she already had that passion before she came to LIU.
I like to see this award as a celebration of the connection between
the English Department and Global College, which we hope will grow
deeper and stronger. Her essay also demonstrates, in its wonderful
clarity and incisiveness, that Sophie Vranian is smart as hell.
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