Ph.D. Student Andrew Ridgeway Wins Mary Hatch Marshall Essay Award

Andrew Ridgeway

Andrew Ridgeway, a third-year Ph.D. student in the College of Arts and Sciences’ (A&S) composition and cultural rhetoric program, was selected as the 2022 winner of the prestigious Mary Hatch Marshall Essay Award for his piece “Conspiracy Theories, Jouissance, and the Aristotelian Enthymeme.” Ridgeway will receive a $1,000 prize. A&S and Syracuse University Library Associates will host a virtual award event and author reading on May 4 at noon. Those interested in attending can register by emailing libevent@syr.edu by May 2.

Ridgeway’s work examines misinformation and the rhetoric of the far-right through the lens of affect theory and Lacanian psychoanalysis. He is the graduate research assistant for the College of Arts and Sciences’ Engaged Humanities Network and the co-founder and head coach of the North Side Speech and Debate Team, a public speaking program for high school students in the Syracuse City School District.

Each year, Library Associates presents the award for the best essay written by a graduate student in the humanities at the University. Ridgeway’s essay was chosen from those submitted by A&S graduate students currently enrolled in African American studies; English; art and music histories; languages, literatures and linguistics; philosophy; religion; writing studies, rhetoric, and composition; and women’s and gender studies.

Professor Mary Hatch Marshall was a founding member of the Library Associates and holds a distinguished place in the college’s history. In 1952, she became the Jesse Truesdell Peck Professor of English Literature —the first woman appointed a full professor in the college— after having joined the faculty four years earlier. Library Associates established the annual Mary Hatch Marshall Award to honor and help perpetuate her scholarly standards and the generous spirit that characterized her inspirational teaching career, which lasted through her retirement in 1993. 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, established in 2004, that funds the award.

Library Associates is a group of dedicated Syracuse University Libraries supporters that help raise funds and accessibility for the Libraries’ special collections, rare books and manuscripts through opportunities like the Faculty Fellows program. Those wishing to join Library Associates or make a gift to the Mary Hatch Marshall Award Endowment may contact Ron Thiele, assistant dean for advancement for the Libraries, at rlthiele@syr.edu or 315.560.9419.