MD Program

Contact the Writing and Humanities Program

1193 MERF
Iowa City, Iowa 52242-2600
Phone:(319) 335-8058
Fax: (319) 335-8643

  • Robert D. Sparks Essay Prize

    2013 Winner

    Visit the archive of past winners

    History, Ethics, Culture: their influences on medicine and its practice

    • First prize: $1500
    • Second prize: $750
    • Deadline for entry: May 3, 2013
    • Prizes awarded: mid-June, 2013

    Sparks BustAn annual $1,500 first prize and $750 second prize will be awarded to the best essays that examine a timely issue in medicine using historical, ethical and cultural perspectives. This competition is open to all medical students enrolled in the UI Carver College of Medicine. An outstanding essay will be an original work based on sound research in the relevant fields and sources, including (as appropriate) primary documents, peer-reviewed academic books and articles, and published essays and commentaries. Essays will be judged on their originality, organization, clarity of theme and presentation. Essays should be 2500-3500 words in length, double spaced with 1-inch margins in a 12 point font (approximately 12 to 15 pages).

    Any academic note reference and citation style is allowed as long as page references are provided to specific quotations and sources of information. The style used by JAMA (see “References” in JAMA’s Instructions for Authors at http://jama.ama-assn.org/misc/ifora.dtl is appropriate.

    Send completed essays electronically to Donna Hirst by midnight on the deadline date listed above. Please put your name, title of the essay, email address, telephone number and student id number on a cover sheet. Place only the title and date on a title page. The cover sheet will be removed and saved in a separate file so that the essays may be evaluated anonymously.

    For additional information, contact:

    Donna Hirst
    Hardin Library for the Health Sciences
    319.335.9154

    Jason T. Lewis
    Carver College of Medicine Writing and Humanities Program
    319.335.8051

     About Dr. Robert D. Sparks

    Previous Contest Winners:

    Year Winner Essay Title
    2007 1st Place:  Laura Carlyle Modern Medical Education and the Liberal Arts: Theoretical and Practical Dimensions of Integration
    2008 1st Place: Micheil Cannistra To Bypass or Not to Bypass: An Examination of the History and Ethics of Gastric Bypass Surgery 2008
    2008  Co-Awardee: Stephanie Lichtor Physicians and Complicity in Torture in America’s War on Terror
    2009 1st Place: Micheil Cannistra Indian Giver: Lynch Syndrome, The Navajo, and the Genetic Revolution
    2009 2nd Place: Stephanie Lichtor A Physician’s Responsibility to Treat Pain
    2010 1st Place: Marie-Teresa Colbert Making the Human Papillomavirus Vaccination Mandatory
    2010 2nd Place: Kathleen Kennedy Miller A Modern History of Ayahuasca
    2011 1st Place: Laura Fragodt  For the Sake of Others:  Key Considerations in Medical Missions
    2011 2nd Place: Michell Cannistra The Rise of the Physician-Reporter: Responsibilities
    2011 Honorable Mention: Andrew L. Fahlgren The Seattle Experience: How “The Life and Death Committee” Determined Who Was Worthy of Dialysis    
    2012
    		 1st Place: Mary Becker Rysavy
    		 Labor and Luck: The Birth of Modern Oxytocics
    2012 2nd Place: Asitha Jayawardena,    Expedited ‘Diffusion of Innovation’: A reflection on the Ponseti Method in the current era of medicine

    Advice and Resources: