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Villanova’s Women’s Studies Program held its annual paper contest, with final entries received Feb. 20. The contest will culminate at the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Research Conference, on Wednesday, March 24. At the conference, writers will present their papers before a group of faculty and peers.

To meet eligibility, entrants were required to use feminist analysis. For example, the contest guidelines encouraged students to explicate the ramifications of gender prejudice, critically explore the role of gender in some aspect of society, or analyze a text through a feminist theory lens. Simply transcribing an abbreviated biography on the life of a woman was deemed insufficient. In addition, contest rules specified that submissions had to be written within the past year, and follow correct MLA, APA, or University of Chicago style format.

The contest was open to both graduate and undergraduate students. First year students had to submit a minimum of four pages of text; other undergraduates had to submit a minimum of eight pages of text, and graduate students had to submit 12-30 pages of text. The first-year category was reinstated this year to allow younger students an opportunity to participate.

The contest and the conference were organized through the efforts of the University’s Women’s Studies Program and director Dr. Sheryl Bowen. The department has held the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Research Conference for the past 15 years. “It was developed by the Villanova Women’s Studies Program as a forum for students from across campus to share their research on gender in a supportive academic context,” according to Dr. Bowen.

The conference is modeled after a professional academic conference. Student presenters are divided into groups of approximately five, and each group is assigned a different room in Connelly. With the assistance of a faculty member moderator, the students then take turns presenting their papers in these breakout sessions.

The Elizabeth Cady Stanton Conference also traditionally hosts a nationally renowned scholar at these conferences. This year, the speaker will be Yopie Prins, associate professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Michigan. Prins is a Guggenheim Fellow and has written several books, including 1999’s Victorian Sappho, winner of the 2001 Sonya Rudikoff First Book Prize of the Northeast Victorian Studies Association.

Prins’ lecture, titled “Ladies’ Greek,” will explore how learned Victorian women translated Greek tragedy and thus facilitated the popularization of the Classics. She will discuss the work of various 19th-century female writers and the inception of women’s colleges, and track the entry of women into Greek studies. “Ladies’ Greek” is co-sponsored by the department of modern and classical languages and the Honors Program.

At the conclusion of the event, the participants will enjoy a banquet, during which the contest winners will be announced and prizes distributed. The University’s Women’s Studies majors and concentrators will receive their certificates at this time.