Three New College of Florida Students Win Margaret L. Bates Award for Scholarship in Gender Studies

May 31, 2012 — Students Elizabeth Bennett, Breanna Gregg and Allie Whitcomb have been named winners of the 2012 Margaret L. Bates Award for Scholarship in Gender Studies at New College of Florida.
Established in 2008, the Bates Award, which includes a small cash gift, is given annually to students who exhibit outstanding academic achievement through their research in gender studies and present their work at an academic conference. The award is named in honor of the late New College Professor Emerita of Political Science and former Provost Margaret L. Bates in recognition for her long-standing support of students’ work in gender studies at the College.

Elizabeth Bennett earned the Bates Award for her paper entitled “Silver and Gold: Victorian Masculinities of the Nineteenth-Century American West.” She is a third-year transfer student graduating this year with a concentration in anthropology. This summer, she will move to Reno, Nevada to work as a field supervisor at the Virginia City Archaeological Field School for the University of Nevada-Reno (UNR). Bennett will attend UNR in the fall and work as a teaching assistant. Her goal is to become a professional archaeologist.

Fourth-year student Breanna Gregg is graduating this month with a concentration in English literature and gender studies. She received the Bates Award for her paper “Opposites (Still Must) Attract: Constructions of Gender, Sex, and Sexuality in Modern Young Adult Literature.” She plans to spend the summer back in her hometown of Winter Halve, Fla. before moving to Portland, Ore.

Originally from Miami, Fla., Allison Whitcomb is a fourth-year student with a concentration in gender studies and sociology. Her paper, “Marketing Masculinity: A Content Analysis of Gender Role Presentations in Super Bowl Commercials at the Turn of the 21st Century,” earned her a Bates Award. She plans to obtain a doctorate in marriage and family counseling. This summer, she will work as a research intern at the Census Bureau in Washington, D.C. through an internship with the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities.