2008 Graduate Student Award Winners
Michael K. Schoenecke Award for American Culture
Judge: Dr. Diana Cox
Melissa Elston, University of Texas of the Permian Basin
“Xerxes in Drag: Post-9/11 Marginalization and (Mis) Identification in 300”
Phyllis Bridges Graduate Award for Biography
Judges: Drs. Melinda McBee, Phyllis Bridges, Delores Zumwalt
Deborah Wilson, Southern Illinois University
“Kennedy and Latin Americans: A Special Relationship?”
Jerry Bradley Award for Creative Writing
Judge: Dr. Jill Patterson
Annie Christain, University of South Dakota
“Prequel to Genesis and the Missing Second Book: Coral Castle” and “All the Host of Them”
Diana Cox Award for Images of Women
Judge: Dr. Monica Ganas
Suzanne Bouclin, McGill University
“Dialogical Relationships between Film and Law: Women in Prison Films”
Peter C. Rollins Award for Best Graduate Paper on Popular Culture (Co-Winners)
Judges: Profs. Philip Heldrich, Rhonda Taylor, Lynnea Chapman King
David Boyles, Arizona State University
“Where Everybody Knows His Name: Shakespearean Citation, Race and Cultural Memory on Cheers”
Andrew Daigle, University of Colorado, Boulder
“Mixtapes: Juxtaposing Fragmented Records for a Hybrid Hip Hop Culture”
The Charles Redd Center Award for Western Studies
Judge: Dr. Dennis Cutchins
Matthew Nelson, University of New Mexico
“Navajo Area Indian Health Service: Balancing Wellness and Tradition”
Lawrence Clayton Award for Texas Culture
Judge: Dr. Kenneth Davis
Erik Anderson, Brown University
“Nature’s Captive: The Wild People Narratives of Jackson County, Texas as Captivity Narratives”
Euro Pop Award [Sponsored by Jack Hutchens]
Judge: Prof. Jack J. Hutchins
Edwige Tamalet Talbayev, University of California, San Diego
“An invincible Czech horde’: Moravian folklore, Modernity, Resurgences”
Kenneth Davis Folklore Award
Judges: Drs. Christopher Smith and Steve Davis
Jacquilyn Weeks, University of Notre Dame
“The North Wind of the Fairy Stories Ringing in My Ears”: Fairy Tales in the Poetry of Anne Sexton and Susan Howe”