Winners of the 12th Annual Philip L. Carret "Thomas Jefferson Essay Competition" were named April 21, 2008, at a recognition dinner in the Center for the Arts.
Seven students entered this year’s competition, writing on thefollowingtopic:
“In the heady years during and after the American Revolution, citizens rallied increasingly to the idea that all men are created equal, yet it was clear that this sentiment had limits when it came to who was truly equal. Women in Jeffersonian America (1774-1826) understood this especially well; in their own households many of the Founding Fathers showed the limits of their conceptions of social and political equality.Yet Jeffersonian America was a moment in our history when women of all classes and groups began to forcefully debate ideas about gender in ways that shaped the rest of the 19th century.
“Abigail Adams, for example, famously reminded her husband John ‘to remember the ladies’ during his service in the Continental Congress. Judith Sargent Murray was somewhat less deferential when she observed that, ‘The idea of incapability of women is … totally inadmissible.’ Some embraced an identity as ‘Republican Mothers,’ entrusted with special roles in the new nation but still not granted the full rights of citizenship. Still others in the early republic envisioned a renewed emphasis on decorum and behavior that confirmed a woman’s traditional role as a symbol of docility, virtue and obedience.
“How did women conceive their new role in the new nation? How did they begin to articulate new and important ideas about human equality? Or, conversely, in what ways did women in Jeffersonian America counter those new ideals by appealing to older, more traditional ideas about hierarchy?”
| First Place Lauren Maria Eleuteri Trenton, N.J. Senior (History) Eleuteri’s essay, “Patriots in the Kitchen: The Role of Republican Motherhood in Jeffersonian America,” won her $1,000, and an invitation to tour Thomas Jefferson’s home at Monticello and stay overnight at the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies, courtesy of Dr. Daniel P. Jordan, president of The Thomas Jefferson Foundation. Eleuteri, a Presidential Scholar, is the daughter of Ronald and Maryann Eleuteri. |
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| Second Place Olivia Marie Hubert-Allen Elon, N.C. Junior (Journalism & Political Science) Hubert-Allen’s essay, “Battle Lines of the Home,” won her $600. Currently serving as editor of The Pendulum, she is a Communications Fellow and a Presidential Scholar. Hubert-Allen is the daughter of T. Scott Allen and Deven Ann Hubert. |
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| Third Place Lauren Jeanne Malkovsky Pittsboro, N.C. Freshman (Business Administration) Malkovsky’s essay, “Women in Jeffersonian America: What Rights Did They Have?” won her $400. Malkovsky is a Presidential Scholar and daughter of Jeffrey and Judith Malkovsky. |
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Other students who participated in this year’s competitionincluded Philip Douglas Karavlan, Stephanie Marie Moeller, William Roswell Satterwhite and Samantha Helen Widmer.
The essayswere judged by faculty members Kirstin Ringelberg, Nancy Midgette, Charles Irons, R. Clyde Ellis, David Copeland, Michael Carignan, Scott Buechler, the Rev. Richard McBride and University Registrar Mark Albertson.