May 2004

Vanessa Megaw has won the 2004 John Lax Prize, given to a graduating senior major who has done the most distinguished work in the field. Vanessa was awarded the prize by Professors Anthony Lee and Don Weber at the American Studies' At Home ceremonies. The following is an excerpt of the award, read during the ceremony and written by Professor Jeffrey Santa Ana, who supervised Vanessa's senior project, a critique of patriarchy in the novels of Native American writers Linda Hogan and Leslie Silko: "What I admired best about Vanessa's [project] is its ethical sense of political urgency, which makes her project ultimately serious, timely, and compelling in light of contemporary problems with capitalism in its global and transnational dimensions." Congratulations to Vanessa.