All of the authors and editors involved in the preparation of Volume Three of Dialogues@RU> are profoundly indebted, first of all, to the vision and hard work of the founding Editor, Michael J. Cripps, who conceived the idea of a journal of undergraduate research writing and edited Volumes One and Two. Although he has moved on to a tenure-track position at York College, he was more than generous with his time and advice, acting frequently as a kind of Consulting Editor. Without his inspiration and help, we would not be here today. We are also grateful for a 2003-2004 Rutgers Grant to Enhance the Undergraduate Curriculum and Teaching that funded part of expenses of this volume, and for the support of the English Department under the direction of Dr. Richard E. Miller, who generously shared the talents of the English Department’s web designer Meredith Cantoni for a new Dialogues web site. Most important, we thank Dr. Kurt Spellmeyer, Director of the Rutgers Writing Program, for his continuing support and encouragement.
The contents of this volume are twelve of the seventy undergraduate research essays that were submitted to Dialogues over the course of the year, most of which were written in the Writing Program’s research writing courses, Research in the Disciplines (355:201), and College Writing and Research (355:301). This year for the first time we had submissions from outside of the Writing Program, which we hope will become a trend. We were fortunate to have many strong essays from which to choose, and would like to have published more of them; as it is, we are including three more essays than in past years. We thank all those who submitted their work this year: Eric Baker, Tanya Balsky, Magamet Borlakov, Errol Bott, Katie Butcavage, Rebecca Cadet, Kristen Carlo, Timothy Coffin, Nicholas Crowe, Stephanie Dixon, Maria Doman, Rebecca Goodale, Jacqueline Gulotta, Christopher Hayes (two submissions), Justin Hoff, Kim Hopf, Sara E. Hughes, Bernard Isaacson, Rachel Khatinsky, Lyudmila Kotlyanskaya, Jonathan Langley, Lauren Le Munyan, Erica Lipari, Theresa Logan, Ryan Malluk, Dwijen Jaydev Mehta, Nigel Moxie, Arsala Mumtaz, Eileen Neary, Matthew Nicdao, Eric Novod, Kena Patel, Gaurangi Patel, Adam Phillips-Silver, Celena Posner, Carrie Presuto, Casandra Quinones, Monica Raut, Jaime Reichardt, Stephen Rogouski, Mary Grace del Rosario, Brian A. Stites, Keisha Thomas, Monica Thomas, Rachel E. Tomcsik, Vincent P. Trivett, Jaime Valora, Jennifer Wain, Melissa Weidner, Denise M. Wojciechowski, Kimberly Wolters, Steven Wong, Kathryn Yee, Shira Zabludovsky, and Melissa Zanetich. Their essays were first-rate, and we regret that we could not publish them; perhaps, however, these talented undergraduates will be writing research papers for courses outside the Writing Program in the coming year, and we encourage them to submit these essays, as well, to Dialogues.
The essays in Volume Three were written by Gail Babilonia, Boleslaw Czachor, Joseph DiPiazza, Laura King, Philip Krachun, Sarah Pacella, Jonathan Shulman, Reina Singh, Anthony Vitali, Rachelle Wander, Jennifer Wijdenes, and Melissa Zappulla. We thank all of the 201 and 301 Instructors whose classes produced the stimulating essays submitted this year, particularly Enock Aloo, Kristen Abbey, Kate Bell, Tracy Budd, Chris Crosbie, Leslie Dovale, Ray Klimek, Jane Ratcliffe, and John Mark Rogers whose students’ essays are represented here. The 2004 Dialogues prize of $500 for Best Essay was awarded to Anthony Vitali for “ C onfronting Terror: Reasserting Ethical Resolve Over Political Realism”; the $250 prizes for Distinguished Essay went to Philip Krachun for “The Myth Of The Thousand Words: Exploring The Role Of Narrative In La Jetée And 12 Monkeys ” and to Rachelle Wander for “Finding ‘Being’ through ‘Non-Being.’”
The real work of this volume was done by the editors who read and selected the essays, made suggestions for revision, and in several cases, wrote commentary on the essays for which they were responsible; this commentary and the author’s response follow the essay. Thanks go to Neha Bagchi, Meg Bilby, Sara Chvala, Jon Laor, Douglass Piccinnini, Rachel Rosen, Amanda Smith, and Christa Vogelius; and to Ryan Gogol, Dixita Patel, and Sagar Patel who edited the winning essays. Yana Zeltser served capably as both editor and copyeditor. These remarkable young editors were recommended by Susan Arvay, Carole Marrone, and Ken Urban, Directors of the Writing Centers at Livingston, Douglass, and Plangere. I was immensely fortunate in having as Associate Editors Enock Aloo and Rebecca Hartman, who chaired editorial groups and provided valuable assistance. Emma Rumen, Toni Ann Ambrosio, Judy Karwowski, Denise Swenson, and Gail Nadonley were helpful in many ways, Svetla Rousseva. did a beautiful job in setting the cover, and Sylvia Lekarakos has expertly shepherded all three volumes through the publication process.
Skiles Howard
Piscataway , New Jersey
May 26, 2004
