Thanks to the generosity of the Curley family and in loving memory of Jordan Curley, an undergraduate major in our department, the Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies is pleased to host the Jordan Curley Memorial Writing Prize each year. Jordan exhibited determination, a love of learning, and empathy for others during her time at NYU and along with Leslie and Greg Curley, we celebrate her and our current students' ability to communicate through writing.
The prize is awarded for an outstanding piece of work produced for an MEIS course by an undergraduate student each year. Any kind of course-related work is eligible: essays, term papers, creative writing, poetry, or videos, including original work in a language other than English. In commemoration of the year of Jordan's birth, the first prize is set at $1992. Two honorable mentions are also awarded, in the amount of $300 each. Nominations may be made either by students themselves or faculty members. However, only one piece per student can be nominated each year.
The exact details of the competition are announced in the Fall semester and prizes are given in the Spring.
Past Winners
2023
First Prize:
Shriya Chitale, “The Ottoman State and Prostitution”
Honorable Mentions:
Axl Cheng, “The Making of a Sino-Muslim Identity in Imperial China”
Wafa Nomani, "How Societal Expectations of Women are Portrayed in Turkish Cinema and Literature" [in Turkish]
2022
First Prize:
Amisha Vyas, “Found in Translation: An Analysis of Dara Shukoh’s Majma-ul-bahrain”
Honorable Mentions:
Naya Idriss, “Letter to Baba” [in Arabic]
John Kallas, “Chronotopic Palestine: How Mahmoud Darwish writes Siege in Exile”
2021
First Prize:
Grace Samaritano, “In Defense of the Victims, In Defense of the Earth: Nature, Politics, and the Collective in Mahmoud Darwish’s “Penultimate Speech."
Honorable Mentions:
Natasha Roy, “Women, Symbols, and the Veil as Feminist Agency”
Richard Seeno, “The Arab and the West,” [in Arabic]
2020
First Prize:
Patrick Seaman, "Blind Men on the River Bank"
Honorable Mentions:
Niharika Sinha, "Truth is a Woman's Sole Defense”
Yujing Zhang, “My Endless Amazement” [short video].
2019
First Prize:
Cordelia Kwon, “Absence Presence: The Photography of Contemporary Palestinian Artists”
Honorable Mentions:
James Duffy, “Iran-Iraq War and the Role of Sectarianism”
Benjamin Lotto: “Why Did I Study Arabic?" [in Arabic]
