Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in a Dayak Deah village in South Borneo, this article argues that adat–indigenous customary law and ritual-cosmological knowledge–functions as a form of technoscience that actively shapes how coal extraction is authorized and managed. The result is a richly grounded account of “moral geology,” where spirits, shamans, and corporate mining operations become surprisingly–and convincingly–entangled.

This essay reframes theatre and sport as structurally analogous “recursive adaptations.” Drawing on adaptation theory, Platonic idealism, and chaos theory, it argues that both generate meaning through repeated performance oriented toward an always aimed for “essence” of each system rather than fixed core elements. The piece is tightly argued and genuinely imaginative in its theoretical reach.

Through a discourse analysis of over 1,400 threads from a Chinese queer League of Legends forum, this essay reveals how Chinese queer gamers carve out community and identity through absurdist language, ironic self-labeling and coded fandom practices–all under conditions of platform censorship that preclude more direct forms of resistance in Western queer game studies The strong original data set provides a well-framed intervention into a genuine gap in the field.

This essay is a thoughtful and compelling case study of a unique personality in the influencer industry. Wedding a sophisticated study of the nascent academic literature on this industry with a nuanced analysis of Jessica Secrest’ “Aggressive Tutorials” Shipley is able to challenge the simplistic assumption that performers in this industry lack creativity or sophistication. This novel and original intervention expands the scope of scholarly knowledge and is worthy of publication.

This well designed and thoughtful research proposal promises to lend clarity to the role of tattoos as a coping mechanism. Adopting a nuanced psychological approach, the author presents a strong case that tattoos may have an important role to play for people processing extreme loss, grief, and stress. This project is well positioned to challenge assumptions that tattoos are impulsive or merely aesthetic, that they may serve an important restorative function for many people.

As artificial intelligence and algorithmic thinking are increasingly positioned as central features of human knowledge the question of how this will impact day to day lives is increasingly important. This essay offers an original perspective that suggests that the algorithms that curate the entertainment content which we all consume also serve to influence our understanding of modern medicine. The author aptly points out that interest divergence between media producers and consumers has created a dangerous tendency toward the proliferation of mis and disinformation about medical issues and products.

A fascinating, filmic story that spans time and weaves together multiple themes such as Irish history, vampire fiction,/vampire lesbians, literature, religion, feminism, with a dash of The Picture Of Dorian Gray. The story would benefit from expansion, and could possibly become a novel. Would love to see this on the screen someday, with Jessie Buckley in the lead role!

“Azure Cinders” wastes no time and begins with an exciting, frightening premise and carries the reader through. The world building doesn't get in the way of the story, which is well-paced with good prose. There is a strong, almost cinematic visual sense to the story, especially with the blue injection.

A truly unique piece with poetic, lyrical prose. Sometimes baffling, always beautiful, the piece moves from matter to humans, contrasting the inorganic and organic. As the daughter of a chemist, I loved the chemistry and molecular theme that runs throughout!

This piece addresses in a thought-provoking, engaging way the big questions of mortality and immortality, one's soul, the choices we make and belief in God.

This submission got first prize with its sense of urgency written through (meta)fiction. It addresses Korean-American and trans identity and all its complexities, the moral pros and cons of being oneself. Overall, a very engaging and meaningful read that was very clearly written.

A fantastic example of what metafiction should be and do. The devices of the various logs and reports are skillfully deployed, allowing the reader to draw conclusions about what is going on. The author does not waste too much time on world building, and yet the story is very clear. It addresses the dark side of human/living creatures' nature, how people will react in difficult circumstances, offering indirect social commentary and perhaps even alluding to the Covid pandemic. Highly original!

Poetic, mystical, like a native or indigenous folk tale. In a minimum of words, a story is beautifully told.

I loved this mystical/historical piece! It's clear that the author spent a lot of time researching it and really knows the context of the Gullah Geechee. It shows the wisdom of women and nature and transported me to a different world.

 A brief but very touching meditation on life, death, living creatures, and friendship.

A very clever piece that is in dialogue with classic literature, the author clearly demonstrates knowledge of the original text as well as a sense of writing their own take on it. I have a great interest in retellings and enjoyed reading this!

This straight-forward and clean animation is accessible and relevant. Her use of graphic technologies effectively tell an environmental narrative in a way that is both entertaining and simultaneously cautionary.

That’s So Cinema offers a necessary, oft-overlooked critique of Black characters’ roles onscreen and is a call-to-action for the entertainment industry to consider redefining Black identity in film and TV. The pedagogical variety adds significantly to the piece, mixing articles with games, images and puzzles that maintain reader engagement and interest. 

This personal narrative is filled with the kind of visual and textual specifics that puts the reader/viewer in gaze of the narrator.  The textural black and white drawings amplify the mood of this art piece that combines nostalgia with contemporary issues of ethnicity and heritage.

This curation of letterforms exercises gestalt by using a cohesive and minimal but intentional color pallet.  This exploration of typography draws meaningful connections between art and life. 

Sophia Acquisto's winning poem, "The Two," memorably and vividly creates "a softer place to land" after a heartbreaking choice. Its exacting lines are deeply insightful and indelible. "My dress is still hanging / in a house where I saw a future of myself / that I could no longer stand to become," the poet writes, on her way to holding new love, new rooms of possibility.

Michelle Lin's winning poem, "Do You See Me?" beautifully demonstrates the effects of ambition and relentless pressure. After the erasure of words, the remaining poem shows how meeting high expectations "le e ch es" a young person as her emotions artfully surface. This is gorgeous work!

Heer Thacker's winning entry "Quiet Things That Still Grow" unfolds with so much grace and poignant timing. As the lines of "Under the Weeping Cherry Tree" elapse, they make loneliness feel sensual and create a space that gives peace.

Analyse Veras's poem "Enough" is written with spare, lyrical language. The poem's images oscillate between the tangible (a looking glass, a plate and a chair, a doorway) and the ephemeral ("something is overflowing in me") so that the reader, too, desires the weight and the heft of steady, visceral, understanding and exterior validation to anchor their own journey through the landscape of the poem. Ultimately, it is the speaker who learns to balance these opposing forces, though not without the full knowledge of the tender precariousness of such an act. 

Lala Mouille's poem "Spitting Color Onto Carpet (Once, Not; Still, Aways More)" is an energetic and frenzied betrayal of raw emotion and frustration. The imagery is concrete and embodied, the language rhythmic and textured. The poem balances emotional intensity with an inevitable vulnerability ("I loved you in black rot and in caviar [...] I loved you with my mouth full") that results in an intimate portrayal of the loss of oneself amid the loss of another.

This submission addresses student safety in a sympathetic manner while providing practical suggestions for how RPI can better serve its students. Positioning student safety not as a legal necessity, but a moral imperative, Wilson has articulately wed the problem-solving ethos of an engineer with the sensitivities of a scholar in pursuit of justice. She has presented a decision-making framework which, if adopted, could make campus more welcoming and secure for students.

Fascinating, original piece from the point of view of an emu that warns us about the dangers of humans interfering with nature. It offers veiled social commentary and makes us sympathize with the birds, as they are personified in a moving way.