Megan Pallante is the 2017 recipient of the Peter C. Baxter Memorial Prize in American Studies. Established in 1972, this award honors the outstanding senior in the Department of American Studies. Presented in memory of Peter Baxter, a student of American Studies, the prize is awarded to the undergraduate in that discipline who best exemplifies Mr. Baxter’s intellectual excellence, personal warmth, and contributions to the American Studies Program. Ms. Pallante is earning her BA in American Studies with a Concentration in Folklore and recently completed her honors thesis, “Secure, Contain, Protect: Building a Digital Folklore Mythos through Collaborative Story Creation.” Professors Patricia Sawin, Tim Marr, and Brendan Thornton (Religious Studies) constituted her thesis committee. She will be pursuing graduate study in Folklore at Western Kentucky University in the fall.
