M.A. Ryan Schowen was recently named recipient of the Dru Whitaker Prize for a paper given at the 2008 Pac-Rim Conference. His presentation, "Make Yourself Useful: On the Cultural Intelligibility of Bisexuality" was chosen as the graduate student essay of outstanding scholarship.

Dru Whitaker Prize

The Dru Whitaker Prize was created in 2007 in memory of Dru Whitaker, graduate student in the UAA English Department’s Masters Program. The Prize recognizes a graduate student essay of outstanding scholarship delivered at the annual Pacific Rim Conference of Literature and Rhetoric.

At the 2007 Conference, UAA graduate student and conference director, Trygve Sandvik, memorialized Dru on the occasion of awarding the first prize:

In 2006, UAA graduate student Dru Whitaker passed away. Her family, friends, teachers, and fellow students remember Dru for her wit, insight, and kindness. As a classmate, I remember Dru as a person with the courage to ask the questions I was afraid to ask and with the intellectual integrity to demand that we pay attention to the connections between our studies and the world that gives our studies meaning. She brought joy to the classroom. Moreover, she was a natural leader, who demonstrated compassion for the faculty and students with whom she celebrated learning for the love of learning.

This year we begin a tradition to honor a student-presenter who exemplifies the spirit of connecting scholarship to humanity. We would like to express our gratitude to the Whitaker family as we share in the memory of Dru’s lasting impact on our lives.