2013 Prize Winner:

This year's Presidential Master's Prize for Best Graduate thesis on a Comparative Topic goes to Tavid Mulder of the University of Washington, for his thesis, “Terror and Totality: Realism in Juan José Saer’s Glosa.”

A study of an understudied Argentinian novel entitled Glosa by Juan José Saer (1937-2005), Tavid Mulder's "Desencuentros of Postdictatorship Argentina: Realism, History and Subjectivity in Juan José Saer’s Glosa" offers an insightful political reading of a seemingly non-political novel narrating an apparently banal conversation between two friends in the city of Santa Fé. In its thoughtful engagement with the question of realism, Mr. Mulder's essay has valuable implications for the comparative theory of the novel. The committee was impressed by Mr. Mulder's polished prose, lucid close readings, and careful attentiveness to historical context.

2013 Presidential Undergraduate Prize Committee:
Nergis Erturk (Chair), Penn State University,
Tarek El Ariss, University of Texas - Austin,
Barry McCrea, Yale University