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.
2026 Christine Norris Engaged Scholar Award: Lan Gao
Lan Gao brings a spirit of intellectual curiosity and open-hearted collaboration to the Humanities. In addition to completing the five-course sequence, she is the Coordinator of the Humanities Peer Tutor Program, which she helped revive and reimagine, creating new opportunities for students to learn from and support one another. Lan shared, "The HUM sequence ignited my passion of writing. Through understanding the struggles of Augustine, contrasting the Enlightenment thinkers, and decoding the message of Dune, I learned how to read with a critical lens and develop logical arguments. Moreover, I am grateful that I could share my writing experience with the HUM Peer Tutors." We are pleased to honor Lan and her thoughtful, caring contributions to the Humanities.
2026 Christine Norris Essay Scholarship Award: Jia Bhavnani
The committee was happy to select Jia Bhavnani’s essay from nearly 150 submissions due to its clear and compelling argument, its thorough understanding of the texts, and its thoughtful engagement with the course themes. It also exemplifies the structure outlined in the HUM Writing Curriculum and serves as a strong model for developing a meaningful comparison between seemingly disparate texts. For these reasons, Jia’s essay demonstrates the caliber of writing—and deep thought—that is possible in the HUM sequence. Alongside Jia’s winning essay, we are pleased to highlight an essay from our runner-up, Aarshia Gupta.
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.
Committee
2026: Bretton Rodriguez (Chair), Tatiana Zavodny, Matt Crum, Jonathan Martin, Alessandro Seide, Kas Balsis, Tyler Bouwens, Scott Thiele
2025: Bretton Rodriguez (Chair), Geoff West, Matt Crum, Tatiana Zavodny, Jonathan Martin, John Kinney, Kas Balsis, Tyler Bouwens
Previous Award Winners
| Previous Award Winners |
|---|
| 2025 - Paige Sumowski & Ryan Zhang |
| 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.
