Each academic year, the Library honors the very best undergraduate papers from courses across campus with the Charlene Conrad Liebau Library Prize for Undergraduate Research. This is the first in a series of articles that will highlight the fantastic work of each of our 2015 prize winners.
Amy Clark’s paper, More Than Meets the Eye: Cultural Color Resonances in Old English Literature, explored the Anglo-Saxon understanding of color for Professor Emily Thornbury’s English 195B. Clark used both quantitative and qualitative analysis techniques to examine the connotative literary associations operating within three Old English color terms: sweart (black), read (red) and fealo (fallow). As the Summer issue of the Library’s Fiat Lux newsletter noted:
Searching an online corpus of Old English documents enabled Amy to make original discoveries about the connotations of color in that literature. Dr. Thornbury called her paper “a project of real scholarly significance, publishable in its quality,” and lauded the “scope, originality, difficulty, and significance of her work.” Amy will present her work at a leading professional conference this summer, and continue her studies in the Berkeley English Ph.D. program in the fall.
Interested in submitting your own research for the Library Prize? Check out the application details now to plan for your 2015/2016 submission!