2022 JASNA Essay Contest Winners Published
October 12, 2022
The winning entries in JASNA’s 2022 Essay Contest have been published online, and we invite you to read the outstanding essays submitted by the students who received top honors. A list of the students awarded Honorable Mention is also posted online.
This year we received submissions from high school, college, and graduate school students in the United States, Canada, and 16 other countries: Brazil, China, Denmark, Germany, Honduras, India, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Poland, Romania, South Korea, Turkey, Uzbekistan, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam. One of the high school winners is from the Philippines.
The 2022 essay topic focused on Austen’s first published novel, Sense and Sensibility. Family relations loom large in this novel, and students were asked to discuss the relationships between siblings or pairs of siblings, between mothers and their offspring, or the characteristics embodied by a related or unrelated pair.
The 2022 winners are:
High School Division
- First Place: Campbell L. Collins
"Goodness Without Beauty: Mrs. Jennings as a Hidden Mother Figure in Sense and Sensibility" - Second Place: Ansleigh M. Go
"The Three Mothers of Elinor Dashwood: The Bewitching Ideals of Motherhood in Sense and Sensibility" - Third Place: Annika E. Jonson
"John Dashwood and Edward Ferrars: Duty, Affection and Brotherhood"
College/University Division
- First Place: Emily K. Aycrigg
""The Old, Well Established Grievance': Generational Conflict in Austen’s Sense and Sensibility" - Second Place: Idone F. Rhodes
"The Cottage as Metaphor: Perspectives on Marianne Dashwood’s Improvement" - Third Place: Zoe Karoub
"'Although We Can Observe You No Longer': Death and the Dashwood Family"
Graduate School Division
- First Place: Susan E. Matassa
"Rectifying an Ignorance of the World: The Critique of Social Silence in Austen’s Sense and Sensibility" - Second Place: Haleigh Yaspan
"Marriage and Marriageability: A Linguistic Study of Mrs. Dashwood and Mrs. Jennings" - Third Place (Tied): Mary Kroner
"Christian Ethics in the Dashwood Family: An Exploration of the Effects of Elinor’s Prudence on Marianne" - Third Place (Tied): Amanda M. MacMurtrie
"Fates and Fortunes: The Role of the Protector in Achieving a Happy Ending in Austen’s Sense and Sensibility"
You can read the winning essays here. The entries were evaluated in two rounds by 27 judges, and the top 3 essays in each division were selected for scholarship awards. This year, we have ten winners due to a tie for third place in the Graduate Division. The first-place winners were also invited to attend JASNA's 2022 Annual General Meeting in Victoria, BC.
Congratulations to the 2022 winners, and many thanks to all the contest participants and judges!
JASNA sponsors the Essay Contest each year to foster the study and appreciation of Jane Austen's works in new generations of readers. The 2023 contest topic and rules will be published in November 2022, and we will begin accepting submissions in February 2023.
