The Vera List Center for Art and Politics is pleased to announce Qiyi Huang, an MA Liberal Studies candidate in The New School for Social Research, as the first place winner of the 2025–2026 Vera List New School Writing Awards, and Matthew Mattila, Writing & Democracy Honors Program in BPATS, and Promiti Islam, an MFA Candidate in Fiction at The New School for Social Research, as finalists for the award.

Established in 1996 by VLC founder and life trustee of The New School, Vera G. List, the Writing Awards are bestowed to New School students for the best essays inspired by works in the university’s art collection. They celebrate the creative and critical thinking of New School students, and the impact of contemporary art in The New School’s academic life. They are directed by the Vera List Center for Art and Politics.

This year’s competition was anchored by Robert Rauschenberg & the News: Select Prints from The New School Art Collection (February 2026–January 2027), an exhibition that brings together, for the first time, fifteen prints by Robert Rauschenberg held in the university’s collection. Co-presented by the VLC and The New School Art Collection on occasion of the artist’s centennial celebrations, the works reveal the artist’s sustained engagement with the rapidly shifting political landscape of the 20th century, registering urgent responses to moments of social and political unrest as they unfolded in real time. Huang’s winning essay, “Ghosts into Weapons: Robert Rauschenberg’s Politics of Citation,” examines Rauschenberg’s work amid the rise of mass media and sociopolitical upheaval in the 1960s and 70s, exploring how the works encapsulate mediated experiences of time, perception, and simultaneity.

First Prize ($500)
Qiyi Huang, MA Liberal Studies, New School for Social Research, for “Ghosts into Weapons: Robert Rauschenberg’s Politics of Citation”

Finalists ($250)
Promiti Islam, MFA Candidate in Fiction, New School for Social Research, for “A Trip on The Tail of Robert Rauschenberg”
Matthew Mattila, Writing & Democracy Honors Program, Bachelor’s Program for Adults and Transfer Students, for “On Rauschenberg, and After”

2025–2026 Jury Members
David Brody, Director, MA Program in the History of Design and Curatorial Studies; Professor of Design Studies
Re’al Christian, Assistant Director of Editorial Initiatives, Vera List Center for Art and Politics
Laura Cronk, Poetry Chair, MFA in Creative Writing; Assistant Professor of Writing
Nandini Sharma, Programs Student Assistant, Vera List Center for Art and Politics; MFA Candidate, Creative Writing
Kelly Walters, Director of the BFA Communication Design Program; Associate Professor of Communication Design