On April 23rd, the Department of English announced the recipients of the 2025 Outstanding Senior Award. The winners Natalie Liliensiek, Sydney Logsdon, and Zadok Milner have displayed excellence inside and outside of the classroom, making an impact through their academic and extracurricular achievements. The Department of English congratulates them for their accomplishments!
Natalie Liliensiek
Graduating with a double major in English and Arabic, Natalie has distinguished herself as an exceptional student and leader, and an indispensable member of our department and College community. She has served as a writing consultant with the Writing Center, a research assistant for Dr. Steve Arch, a member of both the Student Experience, Outreach, and Engagement committee and the Sigma Tau Delta executive board. An active member of the Digital Humanities and Literary Cognition Lab, and part of the “Creativity in the Time of Covid-19” team, Natalie has presented her research at many venues, and was part of a group (with Sydney Logsdon) awarded the top undergraduate prize at UURAF last spring. Natalie was also a participant in the Literature in London program in the summer of 2023. Dr. Kristin Mahoney, who co-led that program, wrote in her nominating letter that Natalie is “one of the most brilliant and hardworking students” she’s ever worked with, noting that Natalie “took advantage of every opportunity that was presented to her during our time in the UK.” Dr. Cara Cilano, who also wrote in support of Natalie, celebrated Natalie’s original research on campus cooperatives in the MSU archives, which Natalie conducted as part of her current seminar on higher education in the U.S. Dr. Cilano describes Natalie as an “exceptional student whose accomplishments impress and inspire, and she notes that Natalie has “uncovered remarkable finds about the first cooperative efforts at MSU and their early relations to university policies and procedures.” Natalie will intern with University Advancement this summer, and she is pursuing an M.A. in Security Studies at Georgetown University next year.
Sydney Logsdon
Graduating with a dual degree in both English and Environmental Science, Sydney has made enormous contributions to the Department of English and CAL more broadly. She served as President of Sigma Tau Delta and Vice President of the Creative Writing Club, strengthening student engagement with writing, and she was chosen to serve as CAL’s undergraduate representative on the current search for the next Dean of the College of Arts and Letters. During her time in English, Sydney has been centrally involved in several research projects through the Digital Humanities and Literary Cognition Lab, and she was a leader on the lab’s “Creativity in the Time of Covid-19” Mellon grant. With Dr. Natalie Phillips, she is co-author of a series of forthcoming academic publications connected to the DHLC’s work. As Dr. Phillips wrote in her nominating letter, “Whether through her work in digital humanities, her mentorship of peers, or her commitment to fostering an enriching literary community, she exemplifies what it means to be a truly outstanding English scholar.” Sydney is currently completing an honors thesis titled “Intersections of Ecological and Sociological Structure in Experimental Fiction,” directed by Dr. Ellen McCallum, and she has received awards for her research at venues like UURAF. In her nomination letter, Dr. McCallum calls Sydney “pragmatic thinker and a nimble theorist,” and celebrates how Sydney’s “curiosity is powered by her keen sense of the urgency of responding to the climate crisis.” Sydney will be pursuing an M.A./Ph.D. in English Language and Literature at the University of Michigan next year.
Zadok Milner
A dual major in English and Pre-Law, Zadok has been a stellar contributor to the English and MSU community, as well as a terrific student. He has co-chaired the MSU North American Indigenous Student Organization (2023-5), interned at the Great Lakes Fish and Wildlife Commission as well as for a New York State senator, and worked as an Intercultural Aide for the MSU Multi-Racial Unity Living Experience Program (2022-4). He also has been a volunteer at the Urban Agriculture Centers and Farms (including the Detroit Partnership for Food, Learning and Innovation) and served on the search committee for the MSU Vice President for Student Affairs. In the two English classes he took with Dr. Steve Deng, Zadok “made compelling contributions to class discussions, offering nuanced insights into the texts and their implications.” As Dr. Deng observes in his nominating letter, Zadok “works wonderfully in a seminar-type setting: at once respectful, encouraging, confident, and enlightening in his contributions.” Zadok similarly excelled in his coursework for Dr. Scott Michaelsen, another nominator, who observed: “Nearly every class he has something thoughtful and trenchant to offer as comment regarding the work at hand, and he initiates and participates in spirited conversations among the students themselves.” Both Drs. Deng and Michaelsen celebrated Zadok’s intellectual curiosity and ambition; they noted how he welcomes intellectual challenges, and selects difficult, original topics for his papers and projects. Zadok’s capstone project, Dr. Michaelen explains, is exemplary here: it “involves extensive research into the performance art and poetry of CAConrad, which takes place at the intersection of new queer/trans theory and ecological theory.” Zadok will be attending law school next year, and is planning for a career in climate, energy, and environmental law.
