Published on July 31, 2020

Dear Readers,

Welcome to this 2019-2020 special edition of Artifacts! Throughout the academic year, the Campus Writing Program, the Department of English Composition Program, and the Writing Center support and celebrate MU’s students and their writing in a variety of ways. In lieu of our annual Celebration of Student Writing, where students from writing classes across campus gather to present their work, this special edition offers a selection of outstanding student writing from a range of classes and disciplines. 

Two of the essays highlighted in this edition of Artifacts are the winners of the English Department’s Mahan First-Year Writing Award, which recognizes the excellent work produced by students in English 1000. This year, the Composition Program awarded the first prize to Jayda Moss’s essay entitled “Literacy’s Effect on Black Women: A Personal Narrative.” Moss offers an analytical reflection on reading Zora Neal Hurston after years of being disappointed by the lack of characters she could identify with in the books she loved. The second-prize essay is Michelle Gershkovich’s “Rushin to Learn English,” (to be published soon) a personal narrative about entering the American education system as a multilingual speaker of English as a second language. 

We are also pleased to present three other varied entries from students across campus which all received the Artifacts Award. Grace Wiley’s poster entitled “Beef cattle fertility: Correlation discovered between length of sperm tail mitochondrial sheath and fertility rates” provides a robust example of undergraduate research on the university campus in correlation with international partnerships. In conversation with Grace’s poster, Delaney Sisk’s essay entitled “The Misleading Nature of Scientific Publications” challenges traditional science methodology which depicts a straight path to publication, but rather highlights the twists and turns of the scientific process. The final philosophical essay by Paul Odu entitled “The Burqa Ban: A Discourse on Post-Secular Religious Freedom” examines the legal and ethical ramifications of France’s Burqa ban. 

We hope you enjoy the students’ fabulous work.

Sincerely, 

The Editors

Campus Writing Program
Writing Center
Department of English Composition Program