A UW-Superior student investigating women in Muslim cultures was one of two students awarded for her work last week. Laura Podgornik has the fist of two reports.

UW-Superior Sophomore Brianna Crumbaker of Chippewa Falls says her interest in Muslim culture began in high school.

“I know a lot of people have this stereotype of Muslim culture. They think that their religion is oppressive, that everything is negative. And once I started doing research, I kind of learned the opposite because I’m a Christian personally and the Muslim culture is really similar Christian culture, very similar actually. When I learned that, my eyes were opened and I kind of wanted to do even more research and learn.”

Crumbaker’s essay won in the scholarly category in the Women and Gender Studies Essay contest. . It is titled, “Are We Truly Equal?: Women’s Issues in American and Muslim Cultures”

“Muslim women are expected to show no skin, to not look at any man in the eyes and to generally be seen and not heard. However, what about our own society? Are women really treated in a much better way? In America, women have the freedom to whatever they please but it has come to the point in our society where the women have become sexually objectified and degraded in popular media.”

Crumbaker says she’ll continue her research in the Muslim culture. She won $150 for her work.

The other essay winner wrote about her journey through motherhood. That won the Women and Gender Studies creative essay contest.

Junior Emily Alberio of Superior won the expressive creative category. She wrote about her journey through pregnancy with her now five year-old son Brandon in the essay, “Two Pink Lines”. Brandon was born with a rare disease that required a lot of surgeries right after his birth.

“I spent the next month learning a myriad of lessons I’d never imagined I’d need. I learned how to love that tasteless cardboard they call hospital food and how to get extremely creative with the salad bar. I learned to sleep sitting straight up in a wooden rocking chair because the neo-natal intensive care unit doesn’t have adult sized beds. I learned that angels dress in cleanly pressed scrubs with pictures of stars or sheep on them.”

At a recent ceremony at UW-Superior’s Yellowjacket Union, people listening sniffled when she finished reading. Alberio was okay with that.

“If people get teared up or choked up, then that means I did a good job. I felt like when I was writing this I was pouring myself out onto paper. I put everything out there and that means that people got it.”

Alberio also took home $150 for her winning essay. She says she’ll share her essay with Brandon when he gets older.

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