Jonathan Singleton, a doctoral student in the English Department in Syracuse University's College of Arts and Sciences, received the Mary Hatch Marshall Essay Award at the Syracuse University Library Associates annual Spring Luncheon held on May 1. His winning essay is titled “Religion, Radicalism, and Sympathetic Reading in Gaskell's Mary Barton.”
Mary Hatch Marshall joined the faculty of Syracuse University in 1948 and became the first woman at Syracuse to achieve the rank of full professor in the College of Liberal Arts. During her tenure, she was one of the founding members of the Library Associates. She also helped establish the Honors Program, serving as its first director. Professor Marshall retired from full-time teaching in 1970 and was awarded emeritus status. She promptly began a second career in adult education, offering courses through the Humanistic Studies Center at University College until 1993.
To honor and help perpetuate Mary Hatch Marshall's scholarly standards and generous spirit, Library Associates in 2004 established this annual award for the best essay written by a graduate student in the humanities at the University. Members of Library Associates, Marshall's friends and family, the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, and the Central New York Community Foundation all contributed to the endowment that funds this annual award.
Full- and part-time students from African American Studies; English; Fine Arts; Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics; Latino-Latin American Studies; Religion; Philosophy; the Writing Program; and the Women's and Gender Studies Program are eligible for the $500 award. Nominations are coordinated by the respective department and program chairs. Faculty members who reviewed essays submitted for this year's awards were Eileen E. Schell (chair), Kenneth Baynes, and Ernest Wallwork.
Library Associates is a society devoted to the enrichment of the University Library and the greater Syracuse community. Members share an interest in books, learning, and the preservation of knowledge. To learn more, visit http://library.syr.edu/libraryassociates.
