Christine Norris
June 1953 - September 1998
Dr. Norris was Assistant Director of the Humanities Program. She received her Ph.D. from the Literature Department at UCSD in 1982, and was appointed a Lecturer in Humanities that same year. While her principal research interest was the Danish writer Isak Dinesen, her teaching ranged from women's studies to the entirety of the Western Humanities tradition. Her energy and enthusiasm for teaching inspired both her undergraduate students and the graduate students whom she trained and advised. The Revelle College student body honored her with numerous teaching awards and invitations to address the college commencement.
Christine passed away on September 24, 1998, after a three-year fight against cancer.
Christine Norris Awards
The Christine Norris Scholarship Fund was established in 1999. Annually, the Christine Norris Engaged Scholar Award is given to the best Humanities student completing the five-quarter sequence and the Christine Norris Essay Scholarship Award recognizes exceptional student writing from Humanities classes.
2025 Christine Norris Engaged Scholar Award: Paige Sumowski
Paige Sumowski has an inquiring spirit and a desire to think and explore in community. In addition to the five course sequence, she studied abroad with the Humanities in Rome and Edinburgh, enrolled in several First-year and upper-division Humanities seminars, and after meeting the enrollment limit, persuaded friends to take a seminar “off the books” solely for the pleasure of connecting over reading wonderful poetry together. Paige shared, “I feel I have learned how to search for meaning. I feel I have learned how to find the world within a word and find the words that come close to capturing the world. This learned ability to use the letter of a text to extract its spirit has helped me strengthen skills I value and use in my day-to-day life.” We are pleased to honor Paige and the spirit of seeking and sharing she embodies.
2025 Norris Essay Scholarship Award: Ryan Zhang
The committee was happy to select Ryan Zhang’s essay from more than 150 submissions due to its clear and compelling argument, its deep engagement with the readings and course themes, and its embrace of the structure developed in the HUM Writing Curriculum. Ryan’s essay also provides an excellent model for how to develop a rich comparison between two seemingly disparate texts. For these reasons, Ryan’s essay is an excellent example of the type of writing – and deep thought – that is possible in the HUM sequence. Alongside Ryan's winning essay, we also highlight essays from our two runner-ups: Lauren Greene and Igor Aprelev.
Christine Norris Engaged Scholar Award Criteria
The Criteria
The selection committee looks for a student who best exemplifies what Humanities appreciated about Chris Norris: an enthusiasm for learning; the ability and desire to explore ideas and issues for their own sake; careful scholarship; and a concern for a clear and forceful articulation of ideas. We look for someone who is not only a conscientious student with strong academic achievement, but someone who might sit with Chris in her office for an hour discussing the meaning of a passage or the structure of a paragraph -- someone, in sum, who best embodies the humanity that Chris Norris gave to Humanities.
The Process
We solicit nominations from teaching assistants and faculty familiar with the above criteria. We also tabulate grades plus speak to pertinent teaching assistants and faculty about the nominations. Finally, we look at the students' Humanities essays, again not only looking for good writing skills and scholarship, but for originality, style, and a personal voice.
Christine Norris Essay Scholarship Award Criteria
The Criteria
The selection committee looks for essays that are intellectually compelling and reflect the analytical writing process emphasized throughout the Humanities sequence.
The Process
A call is sent out to all Revelle College students at the start of November for essays that have been submitted in a Humanities class within the last two years. Submissions are considered by the selection committee via a process of blind review and announced in June.
Previous Award Winners
| Previous Award Winners |
|---|
| 2024 - Sarai Nerey & Mackenna Daum |
| 2023 - Sharon Lee & Yash Shah |
| 2022 - Ashley Samaan & Khanh Nguyen |
| 2021 - Ruoqi Wei & Saisri Ravi |
| 2020 - Brady Goodell & Siddhartha Krishnan |
| 2019 - Erika Barrall & Benjamin Finander |
| 2018 - Anser Abbas & Chandni Kapoor |
| 2017 - Ashley Gabrielle Manlapaz-Pineda & Rosemary Elliott Smith |
| 2016 - Janine Sobers |
| 2015 - Komal Kapoor & Syed Amaan Abidi |
| 2014 - Amy Johns |
| 2013 - Arvin Wali |
| 2012 - James Lee |
| 2011 - Grace Victorine |
| 2010 - Daniel Friedman |
| 2009 - Lissette Wilensky |
| 2008 - Daniel Feldman |
| 2007 - Jennifer Timmons |
| 2006 - Liam Vavasour |
| 2005 - Yue Wan |
| 2004 - Jan Melom |
| 2003 - Grace Hsiao & Judy Hsiao |
| 2002 - John Peter Rickgauer |
| 2001 - Vishal Patel |
| 2000 - Andrea Mann |
| 1999 - Charae Marie Gibbs |
Support the Christine Norris Scholarship Fund
Contributions to the Christine Norris Fund have empowered students to pursue study abroad opportunities, afford classroom materials and technology, and have celebrated the humanities in Revelle College.
