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Click on the contest year to view the winners & their essays for that year.
Please note that all essays are the property of The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity and may not be published elsewhere without written permission from the Foundation. All views and opinions expressed in the winning essays are those of the individual writers. The Foundation does not necessarily share these views.
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998
1997
1996
1995
1994
1993
1992
1991
1990
2004
First Prize
Leslie Barnard
Forty-three Cents
Pomona College, Claremont, CA
Second Prize
Peter Erickson
The Burden of Lightness
University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Third Prize
Dan Carlin
Chasing Images of the Dead: The Unreality of the Iraq War in American Media
Washington University, St. Louis, MO
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Honorable Mentions
Ayelet Amittay
The Problem of Empathy: Over-Identification in Claude Lanzmann's "Shoah"
Brown University, Providence, RI
&
Lauren Smith
Looking Out of a Cubicle--And Finding a Conscience: The Independent Moralist in Bosnia and Modern America
University of Texas, Austin, TX
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2003
First Prize
Aleksandr (Sasha) Senderovich
Tatyana's Glory: or the Birth Pangs of a Civil Society.
The Ethics of Normalcy in Present-day Russia
University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA
Second Prize
Sarah Watkins
Healing the Wounds of Genocide:
A Case Study of the Gacaca Court System in Rwanda
Indiana University Southeast, New Albany, IN
Third Prize
Katherine Bair
From Nurturing Terror to Raising Hope
Youngstown State University, Warren, OH
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Honorable Mentions
Alexandra Rahr
Are Holocaust Memorials Ethical?
Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia
&
Brittany Perham
The Statue of Grief
Tufts University, Somerville, MA
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2002
First Prize
Courtney Martin
The Ethics of Transformation
Barnard College, New York, NY
Second Prize
Yvette Cabrera-Rojas
Questioning the Arrival at the Station of Departure
University of Louisville, Louisville, KY
Third Prize
Ian Jankelowitz
From Oppressed to Oppressors:
The Ethical Issues of Post-Holocaust Jewry in Apartheid South Africa
University of Nevada-Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV
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Honorable Mentions
James Adomian
From Carthage to The City of God:
Augustinian Free Will and the Romance of Aeneas and Dido
Whittier College, Whittier, CA
&
Aaron MacLean
On the Combing of Hair in Herodotus
St. John's College, Annapolis, MD
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2001
First Prize
James D. Long IV
Deaths in Paradise: Genocide & the Limits of Imagination in Rwanda
College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA
Second Prize
Kelly A. Daley
Suicide and Public Speaking
Mount Saint Mary College, Newburgh, NY
Third Prize
Arielle S. Parker
The Moral Need to Regard the Extraordinary Nature of Humanity
Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
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Honorable Mentions
Kelin A. Emmett
If This Is A Man
Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
&
Jennifer C. Slagter
Acknowledging the Wounds: Sethe's Ethical Dilemma in 'Beloved'
Trinity Christian College, Palos Heights, IL
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2000
First Prize
Alexa R. Kolbi-Molinas
The Secret of Redemption-Memory & Resistance: A Lesson for the 21st Century
Smith College, Northampton, MA
Second Prize
Matthew D. Mendham
Replication & Repugnance: Leon Kass on Human Cloning
Taylor University, Upland, IN
Third Prize
Minh P. Doan
To Make Boundaries Converge
Berea College, Berea, KY
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Honorable Mentions
Daniel A. Brook
Beyond Teaching Tolerance
Yale University, New Haven, CT
&
Brett E. Gross
The Ethical Challenges of the New Millennium
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN
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1999
First Prize
Sami F. Halabi
The Bosnian Women
Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS
Second Prize
F. Jason Costa
The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission & the Case of Stephen Biko
Emory University, Atlanta, GA
Third Prize
Angela Leddy
Papa's Medals
State University of New York-Cortland, Cortland, NY
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Honorable Mentions
Abigail Krauser
The Ethics of Contradiction
Columbia University, New York, NY
&
Stefan Schulz
Challenging the Innocence of the Scientific Mind
Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, CA
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1998
First Prize
Laura Overland
Their Lives in Our Hands: Fulfilling Our Ethical Obligations to the Terminally Ill Enrolling in Research Studies
University of Missouri - Kansas City, Kansas City, MO
Second Prize
Quanganh Richard Tran
To Bridge the Divide
University of California - Irvine, Irvine, CA
Third Prize
Megan Zuercher
Recovering Radical Innocence: Ethical Reflections on 'To Kill a Mockingbird'
College of the Ozarks, Point Lookout, MO
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Honorable Mentions
Lincoln Penn Hancock
Bad Faith and the Ethics of Truth
Guilford College, Greensboro, NC
&
Richard Kemp
Enforcing the Darkness: Ethics and War
University of Maryland - Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD
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1997
First Prize
Tamara Duker
Ethics and One February Morning
Duke University, Durham, NC
Second Prize
Bridgett Taylor
Lost in the Maze: The Ethics of the Labyrinth in the 'Garden for Forking Paths'
Castleton State College, Castleton, VT
Third Prize
Mark Reeder
Defending Morality?: Ethics Through a Cracked Windshield
University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH
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Honorable Mentions
Matthew Donohue
The Journey to the Rim of Tomorrow
Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR
&
Janet Lin
Stu and the Ethics of Humanity
Amherst College, Amherst, MA
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1996
First Prize
Kim Kupperman
Of Borders, Infidels and the Ethic of Love
University of Maine - Machias, Machias, ME
Second Prize
David Greven
The Wanderer in a Dark Wood: An Ethical Dilemma
Hunter College of the City University of New York, New York, NY
Third Prize
Jeanette Rosenfeld
'Love Your Neighbor as Yourself': Nonviolent Resistance in Le Chambon
Barnard College, New York, NY
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Honorable Mentions
Virginia Henriksen
Silence
Buena Vista University, Storm Lake, IA
&
Chong-Min Hong
The Fragility of Goodness
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
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1995
First Prize
Andrea Useem
Towards a Civil Society: Memory, History and The Enola Gay
Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
Second Prize
Courtney Brkic
In the Times of Darkness: The Responsibility of the Individual
College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA
Third Prize
Nadia Yakoob
The Horizon
University of California - Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
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Honorable Mentions
Monica Eiland
The Legacy of Anne Frank: An Ethical Perspective
University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
&
Marjorie Huang
Overcoming Obstacles to Creating an Ethical
Society: The Moral Responsibility of 'Humanitarian Intervention'
Tufts University, Medford, MA
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1994
First Prize
Win Travassos
Tearing Down the Lazaretto
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Second Prize
Robert Westerfelhaus
Dancing with Shadows: The Dangers of Responding to Evil
Ohio Dominican College, Columbus, OH
Third Prize
Rebecca Shelton
Raising the Shield of the First Amendment
University of Missouri - Kansas City, Kansas City, MO
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Honorable Mentions
Julie Cantor
Women's Rights as Human Rights: A Discussion of Violence from Philosophy to Policy
Stanford University, Stanford, CA
&
Rachel Maddow
AIDS: Responding to Dehumanization
Stanford University, Stanford, CA
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1993
First Prize
Jendi B. Reiter
Who Killed Superman?
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Second Prize
Aaron Thompson
Technology, Literature, and Ethical Growth
Otterbein College, Westerville, OH
Third Prize
Carrie Miller
American Community and the 'Eclipse of the Public'
Claremont McKenna College, Claremont, CA
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Honorable Mentions
Thomas Murphy
Justice - For Whom? Reflections on the Persian Gulf War
University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
&
Juan M. Plascencia, Jr.
Letters from Prison: The Ethics of the Political Prisoner
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
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1992
First Prize
Kimlyn Bender
The Mask: The Loss of Moral Conscience & Personal Responsibility
Jamestown College, Jamestown, ND
Second Prize
Karen Ho
Ethics Education Toward a More Moral Society
Washington University - St. Louis, St. Louis, MO
Third Prize
Thao Dinh Vo
To Remain Unique: Identity, Memory and Ethics
Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
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Honorable Mentions
David Eaton
The Dialectic of Autonomy and Paternalism
Trinity University, San Antonio, TX
&
Allison Handler
Bridges
Williams College, Williamstown, MA
&
Donna McKereghan
Teaching Morality in Our Pluralistic Society
Eastern Washington University, Cheney, WA
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1991
First Prize
Peggy Brophy
Public Sins and Private Needs
Colby-Sawyer College, New London, NH
Second Prize
Meredith L. Kilgore
Ethics and War in the Persian Gulf
University of Hawaii - Manoa, Honolulu, HI
Third Prize
Jason Hodin
Ethics
Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT
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Honorable Mentions
Chris Newman
Individual Rights and the Common Good - Conflicts and Solutions
St. John's College, Annapolis, MD
&
Laura Elaine Pogliano
Ransoming Morality: The Problem of Language
College of St. Francis, Joliet, IL
&
Steven Christopher Wrenn
The Moral Significance of the Story
Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA
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1990
First Prize
Amy Jessica Rosenzweig
Ethics: Choices and Challenges - Issues of Conscience in Jewish Literature
Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 8
Second Prize
Steven Jeffry Allen
The Meaning of Ethics Today - A Critical Structure for Evaluating Modern Ethics
Edgewood College, Madison, WI
Third Prize
Stephen Fairchild
Implementation of Corporate Ethics in America - Choices & Challenges of Our Leaders
Claremont McKenna College, Claremont, CA
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Honorable Mentions
Paula C. Rhode
The Relationship between Ethics and the Law
University of Tampa, Tampa, FL
&
Jonathan D. Springer
Black and White in the Land of Israel/Palestine - Toward an Ethic of Care
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
&
Daniel P. Thero
Human Destruction of Tropical Forests and the Consequent Extinction of Species -
A Modern Ethical Challenge
Siena College, Loudonville, NY
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