We’ve reached the end of another academic year, which in addition to meaning it’s time for all of us in the program to celebrate means it’s time for the MA English Literature program to award its three annual distinctions: the Howard Canaan Thesis Award for Innovation, the Thesis of the Year award, and the Graduate English Christie Bowl (i.e., program honoree).

The Howard Canaan Thesis Award for Innovation honors the late Dr. Canaan, an esteemed Shakespeare scholar at Mercy who was also a lifelong advocate of the value and power of speculative fiction, graphic novels, and other genre fiction sometimes looked down-upon by the academic establishment. This award recognizes a thesis that does one or some of the following: approaches literary analysis in a unique, unexpected, or unusual way; reconsiders and otherwise treats with dignity genre fiction; involves interdisciplinary studies; or merges creative pursuits with the thesis project.

• The winner of the 2026 Howard Canaan Thesis Award for Innovation is Lily Fox for “Gently Used: A Novel.”

The overall 2026 Thesis of the Year award goes to one standout thesis written during the summer or fall of 2025, or spring of 2026. Singling out one study for this award was not easy, as every thesis submitted during the past year was a work of outstanding quality and originality, and every work in its own way proved laudable. The following study was selected for this distinction by faculty with no students’ papers in the running:

• The winner of the 2026 Thesis of the Year award is David Benjamin for “The Anatomy of an Error: Free Will, Predestination, and Aristotelian Hamartia in Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus.” 

The third distinction that the MA program awards each year is the Graduate English Christie Bowl, named for the late Joannes Christie who established and long chaired Mercy College’s English Program. The award, determined by the collective graduate faculty, recognizes one graduating student for their consistent academic excellence and classroom performance throughout their time in the graduate program, for their other contributions to the program’s learning community, and for their relevant accomplishments beyond the program (e.g. publications, presentations at conferences, and other such achievements).

• The winner of the 2026 Graduate English Christie Bowl is Fatuma Mohamed.

It is always a strange thing to announce such distinctions as when doing so one can’t help but think of the marvelous students and studies that are not the ones named. It is extraordinarily difficult to locate any single person to honor for any of these awards out of the many exceptional students graduating each school year from our program. So as we recognize these honorees let us please also recognize all members of the graduating MA class of 2025-26 for their hard work and dedication that has gotten them to this moment of completing their MA degree in English Literature. Congratulations, everyone! Here’s to the summer ahead, and to all of our continuing adventures and explorations in literary and creative studies.