Congratulations to Jack Osmond, BUCSA Prize Winner!
Jack Osmond (CAS ’26) was recently honored by the BU Center for the Study of Asia (BUCSA) as a winner of their inaugural Student Paper Prize Contest! See the write-up from BUCSA below and learn more about the award winners here:
The undergraduate winners included Jack Osmond (BA ‘26 Comparative Literature and Chinese Language and Literature) for his essay, The Structure of Fantasy in Han Shaogong’s “The Roots of Literature and ‘Ba ba ba,” in the humanities category, written as the first part of his senior honors thesis in the “Comp Lit Senior Seminar, XL479,” taught by Professor Petrus Liu.
In his words, the paper analyzes how 1980s writer Han Shaogong’s Roots-Seeking writings were influenced by early 20th century investigations into the “essence” of Chinese culture. Through this lens, Osmond argues that this historical contextualization is imperative to understanding Roots-Seeking literature’s attempt to rediscover an imagined traditional, premodern China. He shared how this award has made a positive impact on his academic journey,
“It is a great honor to be recognized by the CSA for my work on China. This recognition has further inspired me to continue working to foster cross-cultural exchange between China and the US through the study of Chinese literature.”