Regina Futcher Wins 2020 Undergraduate Paper Prize


The winning essay submitted for the GSWS Undergraduate Paper Prize this year is "Hustlin' and Bustlin' in the 70s:  Sex-Related Advertisements in the Pittsburgh Alternative Press Publication Gay Life,” written by Regina Futcher for a course taught by GSWS faculty member P.J. Patella-Rey.  The prize is $200.  According to the judges for the prize, “Combining detailed archival research, close analysis of print media, and strong writing, this essay connects analysis of image and text in queer print media to the ways in which their circulation exposed zones of danger, safety, and possibility."


Honorable mention goes to  Lauren Frank’s essay  "Identity, the Self, and Sexual Communities:  Self-Identification Perspectives on the Leather Community,” written for a course taught by GSWS faculty member Dr. Frank Karioris.  According to the judges for the prize, “This writer thought deeply about theories of identity and then applied them thoughtfully and critically to the ways in which ‘leather’ works to bind, exclude, and generate social worlds.”