Wednesday, July 10, 2013

2013 Bilinski Foundation Fellowship Recipients

Three PhD students in the English department have received Bilinski Fellowships.

Dan Cryer

Dan Cryer is a PhD student in Rhetoric and Writing in the Department of English. His dissertation follows the social activism of the early twentieth century conservationist Aldo Leopold, arguing that Leopold attempted to extend the rights of citizenship to the natural world and to act as its voice in the Democratic process. Dan served for two years as Assistant Director of UNM’s Core Writing program, was the grad student administrator for the College of Arts & Sciences’ Writing Intensive Learning Communities pilot project, and has worked extensively with UNM’s Writing Across Communities initiative. He was an online course designer at the office of New Media and Extended Learning, and has taught courses in composition and technical and professional writing.

Colleen Dunn

Colleen Dunn is a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate in English at the University of New Mexico. Her dissertation, which focuses on the lives of saints produced in Anglo-Saxon England, is driven by a central concern: the choice made by Old English hagiographers writing about female virgin martyrs to forgo (and thereby silence) native Anglo-Saxon women martyred during the Viking attacks, in favor of foreign subjects. Focusing particularly on the adapted lives of St. Juliana of Nicomedia and St. Margaret of Antioch, her research will explore what these cultural productions reveal about early medieval understandings of female sanctity, and further, the far-reaching implications these understandings had for an Anglo-Saxon audience.

Douglas Ryan VanBenthuysen

Douglas Ryan VanBenthuysen is a PhD candidate in the University of New Mexico Department of English Language and Literature, with a focus on Medieval Studies. His dissertation focuses on the concept of authority in the Old English Genesis poem(s), particularly Genesis A, an Anglo-Saxon poem based on the biblical book of Genesis. The dissertation examines both the poet's use of language and connections to Anglo-Saxon culture. Doug's other scholarly interests include Old English Language and Old Norse Language and Literature. In addition to his scholarly pursuits, Doug enjoys spending time with his ten year old son, Mauricio.

Please see the below page for details:
http://www.unm.edu/~artsci/for-students/fellowships/recipients/2013.html