2026: First Place, Sissy Farenthold Trailblazers for Justice Undergraduate Writing Prize
The Mississippi Appendectomy: A Horrifying History and Reproductive Laws that Still Lurk in the American Justice System
by Calista Kayatta
Winner, Sissy Farenthold Trailblazers for Justice Undergraduate Writing Prize (2026)
About the author:
Calista Kayatta is a sophomore Plan II and Classical Languages major at The University of Texas at Austin. Her interests include constitutional analysis, criminal justice, and artifact repatriation. Calista is a Dedman Distinguished Scholar and has worked as a law clerk at a firm in San Antonio. She writes pieces on contemporary legal issues for the University of Texas Undergraduate Law Journal. She plans to pursue a career in law and hopes to work in the judicial branch.
About the prize:
The Sissy Farenthold Trailblazers for Justice Writing Prize is awarded annually to an undergraduate student at UT Austin for a submission that engages at least one of three themes that guide the Sissy Farenthold Fund for Peace and Social Justice: environmental justice, reproductive justice, and peace. Submissions are anonymously judged by an interdisciplinary group of graduate and faculty affiliates of the Rapoport Center.