The Minerva is an award given people who have won an essay contest on this blog.

This photo shows the first “flock” of Minervas, ready to go into the mail.

The Minervas were created to encourage people to ask cultural questions and craft cultural answers.

Winners so far:

Carlen Lea Lesser (for the “Understanding the Return of Gill Sans” contest)

Juri Saar (for the “Who’s a good doggie woggie?” contest)

Reiko Waisglass (for the “Who’s a good doggie woggie?” contest)

Brent Shelkey (for the “Who’s a good doggie woggie?” contest)

Daniel Saunders (for the “JJ Abrams vs. Joss Whedon” contest)

Tim Sullivan (for the “Karen Black vs. Betty White” contest)

Lauren LaCascia (for the “Showtime vs. USA Networks” contest)

Diandra Mintz (for the “Showtime vs. USA Networks” contest)

Mark Boles (for the “Antique Roadshow vs. Pawn stars” contest)

Indy Neogy (for the “Nordic Noir” contest)

Chase Javier Goitia (for Kim Kardashian and Lena Dunham: compare, contrast, explain)

Mariu Rodriquez (for Kim Kardashian and Lena Dunham: compare, contrast, explain)

Guy Lanoue (for Kim Kardashian and Lena Dunham: compare, contrast, explain)

Ali Tilling (for Kim Kardashian and Lena Dunham: compare, contrast, explain)

Judges so far:

Members of the faculty of the SVA (School of Visual Arts) ‘masters in branding’ program, specifically:

Debbie Millman

Pamela DeCesare

Dan Formosa

Tom Guarriello

Scott Lerman

and Richard Shear

Also:

Rick Boyko, Director and Professor, VCU Brandcenter

Schuyler Brown, Skylab

Bryan Castaneda (soon to be sworn in as) Attorney At Law

Ana Domb, C3, MIT

Mark Earls, author, Herd

Brad Grossman, Grossman and Partners

Christine W. Huang, PSFK, Huffington Post and Global Hue

Steve Postrel

Caley Cantrell, BrandCenter, Virginia Commonwealth University

Noah Cruickshank, AV Club

Janet Kestin, Swim

Leora Kornfeld, Harvard

Adrian Ho, Zeus Jones

Ruby Strong, Lord Byng

Nancy Vonk, Swim