2007 Graduate Student Award Winners

Michael K. Schoenecke Award for American Culture

Judge Dr. Diana Cox

Heather Aziere, Northeastern State University
“America’s Football Rite: The United Pigskin Church”

Phyllis Bridges Graduate Award for Biography

Judge: Dr. Judith Carter

Debby Katz, Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY)
“Maggots in the Rice or Avenging Heroines? Female Mythological Icons and National Belonging in Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior and Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands”

Jerry Bradley Award for Creative Writing

Judge: Dr. Jill Patterson

Annie Christain, University of South Dakota
“Done When No Longer Pink Inside” and “All Your Best Keychains”

Diana Cox Award for Images of Women (Co-Winners)

Judge: Dr. Monica Ganas

Kate Van Gelder, University of Washington-Tacoma
“Discourse and the Gender Gap at National Geographic Magazine”

Paige Cunningham, University of Washington-Tacoma
“Supporting the Nail: The Role of a Shojo Manga in Promoting Independence and Self Worth”

Post Script Award for Best Graduate Student Paper on Film

We’d like to thank the efforts of long time SWPCA member Gerald Duchovnay, Editor of Post Script, for making this award possible and for his wish to support with this award graduate students entering the profession.

Judges: Drs. Lynnea King and Tobias Hochscherf

Alessandra Senzani, Florida Atlantic University
“Dreaming Back: Tracey Moffatt’s Bedeviling Films”

Special Mention to undergraduate contributor Jonathan Strawn, University of New Mexico, “The Scalpel of Immersion: Cinema, Suture, and Video Games”

Peter C. Rollins Award for Best Graduate Paper on Popular Culture

Judges: Dr. Phil Heldrich with Lynnea Chapman King and Rhonda Taylor

Bradley H. Lane, Indiana University
“Suddenly Last Semester: What Tennessee Williams’ Suddenly Last Summer Taught Me about the Queer Dis-ease”

The Charles Redd Center Award for Western Studies

Judge: Dr. Dennis Cutchins

Ryan Dearinger, University of Utah
“Building Railroads, Constructing Manhood, and Defining Progress: Utah and the Transcontinental Railroad”

Dr. Cutchins could not be present but he did note that the paper analyzes Mormon participation in the construction of both the Central and Union Pacific lines. Ryan’s carefully researched paper analyzes this participation in light of the perception of Mormons in popular nineteenth Century culture, and the Mormon attempts to improve that perception.

Albuquerque Convention and Visitors Bureau Award for Southwestern Culture

Judges: Drs. Ken Dvorak with Peter C. Rollins

Rosa Martinez, California State University-Chico
“Libras tu del olvido: Ancestral Voices in Villagra’s Historia de la Nueva Mexico (1610)”