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. 

The 2009 Conference organizers look forward to continuing this tradition in Dru’s honor and are especially grateful to the Whitaker family, whose generous support has made it possible to award the prize this year and for years to come.

Requirements:

Applicants must be enrolled in UAA’s Masters Program in English, must have a graduate GPA of 3.75, and must present at the 2009 Pacific Rim Conference.

Submit one hard copy of your essay exactly as you presented it at the conference. Do not include your name on the essay. Instead, include a cover sheet with the following information:

Name
Phone number
Mailing address and email address
Name of professor and course for which you originally wrote the essay

Submit your essay, cover page, and an official or unofficial graduate transcript to:

pacrim09@gmail.com

Please contact the 2009 directors, Theo Sery, Rebecca Knighton, or Jessie Nixon, at aypacrim@uaa.alaska.edu if you have any questions.

The winning paper will be selected by a panel of English Department faculty according to the following criteria: 1) quality and originality of scholarship, 2) depth of scholarly research and interpretation 3) clarity of ideas. The panel will select one prize recipient, who will receive a plaque and $500.

Past Recipients
2008 Conference: Ryan Schowen, "Make Yourself Useful:
On the Cultural Intelligibility of Bisexuality"
2007 Conference: Behnaaz Irani, “Shakespeare in India”