The Department of History has awarded the annual M. Jeanne Peterson Prize to Samuel Bowden for his paper "A Social History of the Deviant Suffragette." This prize is named for IU History Professor Emerita Jeanne Peterson and honors the best undergraduate work in the history of women, gender, or sexuality.
Sam is a junior this year, with majors in History & Cinema Studies and Minors in International Studies and Spanish. In his research, he showed how advocates for women's suffrage were often depicted as social "deviants" - the term "Suffragette" was originally derogatory and pejorative. Cultural forms - poetry, theater, graphic arts - were all enlisted to make arguments for and against women's participation in electoral politics.
In addition to this work, Sam has been a participant in the CRRES Undergraduate Resaerch Program for the 2019-2020 academic year. Congratulations Sam!
View a snapshot of his work below: