A trip to Doheny Memorial Library for the fourth annual Wonderland Awards on April 30 was akin to falling down the rabbit's hole.
The Intellectual Commons room on the second floor was transformed by an array of student work ranging from limericks to mismatched, colorful teacups.
Catherine Quinlan, dean of USC Libraries, stood donning the Mad Hatter's green top hat to commemorate both the fun-loving and intellectual sides of Lewis Carroll, whose 19th-century work was revitalized by 30 students who were encouraged to peruse the USC Libraries' Lewis Carroll Collection between January and April in order to come up with original projects based on Carroll's works for a chance to win up to $1,500.
First place, along with $1,500, went to Arvind Iyer, a first-year graduate student majoring in biomedical engineering. His project, "The Lewis Carroll Limericks Contest: 'Musings in Eight Fittings,'" consisted of 18 limericks in the style of Carroll's "Hunting of the Snark: An Agony in Eight Fits."
"I always liked to write, and this contest offered a broad canvas for me to work with and think in untraditional ways," Iyer said.
Contest judge James Kincaid joked that the judges demonstrated a lot of kindness for selecting Iyer as the winner, since most of his limericks contained criticisms of academia.
"People don't usually talk about heavy things in limericks, but I thought I could use that style of writing to talk about subjects such as the declining standards of mathematicians and rising obesity rates without ruffling too many feathers," Iyer said.
Iyer's concentration in the sciences made him an unlikely winner for the award, it shows the breadth of interdisciplinary learning that occurs at USC, said Tyson Gaskill, the director of Programming of USC Libraries.
"Part of it is that it's easy to categorize students as either proficient in arts/humanities or science. I've found, especially with science students, that they too want to show off they have an extra dimension in them," he said. "Everyone has interests above and beyond what their major is, and I think creative expression will always find its own way of coming out. This award brings out the best in USC students."
The second place winner was Imran Shafi, who wrote about Carroll's mental process in his piece "Stroke Permanence: Into the Mind of Lewis Carroll."
Ramon Hurtado, a freshman majoring in digital animation, said participating in the contest helped him discern Carroll's significance for his generation.
"As young children, when we are usually first exposed to 'Alice in Wonderland,' we are desensitized and take a lot of the book for granted," Hurtado said. "It was a children's story and a Disney movie, and that was it. But as college students, we are able to get a lot more meaning out of what Carroll was really trying to say."
This year, entries included short and full-length screenplays and films, digital artwork, ceramics, paintings and even a MySpace page titled "A Tale of Wonder."
The judging panel included Gaskill, Kincaid, an Aerol Arnold Professor in the English department ; Margaret Russett, a professor of English and Linda Cassady.
"There were so many good works - it was a difficult decision," Russett said. "I was looking for projects that were witty, inventive and in the spirit of Lewis Carroll. It was amazing how many creative and scholarly projects we received."
The amount of prizes was expanded this year to reward a third place winner and a four-way tie for fourth place. The winners were Jessica Druxman for her "Irrationali-tea Set;" Sativa Novak for her photograph "Drink Me," an artistic rendering of what substances were in Alice's potion; Erika Wenstrom for her story titled "Trembling Boundaries in Wonderland;" Jonathan M. Hamrick for a one-sentence story spanning several pages called "April Out of the Echo Phone: A Story in a Sentence"; and Sara Hegarty for her collection of objects called "An Imagining of the Desk of Lewis Carroll."
The Lewis Carroll Collection was donated to USC in 2000 by alumnus G. Edward Cassady and his mother, Margaret Elizabeth Cassady. Edward Cassady is a rare book collector and retired pediatrician who became enamored with Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" while reading the stories to his children at bedtime, Quinlan said.
The collection of approximately 1,500 items contains everything from Carroll's publications as a mathematician during his professorship at the University of Oxford, his photographs and first editions of the Alice novels and spin-offs, down to the aboriginal translation of "Alice in Wonderland," Gaskill said.
The collection is the "best Lewis Carroll collection in the western United States," Gaskill said.
Edward Cassady's wife, Linda Cassady, wanted to bring the collection's existence to students' attention in 2005, so she established the Wonderland Awards and provided the prize money so students could realize and help maintain the relevancy of Carroll's works in modern times, Gaskill said.
Gaskill said he hopes that, in the future, some of the works can be put together in a book, although talks are still tentative. As the money for the awards is only provided on a year-by-year basis, he said he also hopes to see the Wonderland Awards eventually become established as an annual event.
