Elizabeth Kolmer Award
Members, former members, and friends of the Mid-America American Studies Association are invited to nominate individuals for the Elizabeth Kolmer Award. The Kolmer Award honors teaching and mentoring in the field of American Studies as well as service to MAASA. Those eligible for the award include current members of MAASA (those who have joined the organization or are members by virtue of their membership in ASA and affiliation with an institution in the MAASA region) and those who, while not currently residing in the region, have been active in American Studies at an institution in the region or contributed service to MAASA in the past. Current members of the executive board are ineligible.
The $250 prize is named in honor of former MAASA President Sister Elizabeth Kolmer, a model teacher and scholar and the first recipient of the award. Those wishing to nominate should write a letter addressing the nominee’s
- relationship to the letter-writer (student, colleague, teacher, etc.)
- teaching or mentoring style
- leadership in the institution/organization/field
- personal influence on the nominating individual or group
- service to MAASA
- We also invite you to relate at least one incident/example that illustrates this person’s qualities as a mentor, teacher, or contributor to the American Studies community.
Letters should be sent to Jane Simonsen, Kolmer Award Committee Chair, at janesimonsen@augustana.edu no later than February 15, 2012.
Elizabeth Kolmer
The Elizabeth Kolmer Award is given annually to honor teaching and mentoring in the field of American Studies and service to MAASA. The $250 cash prize is named in honor of former MAASA President Sr. Elizabeth Kolmer, professor emerita in History and American Studies at St. Louis University and the first recipient of the award.
2011 Recipient
Marguerite Shaffer
Dr. Marguerite Shaffer of the American Studies Department at Miami University of Ohio was selected as the winner of the $250 Elizabeth Kolmer Award for mentoring and service. Peggy has been the director of the program for a decade, during which she reinvented the program and created an “Acting Locally” think tank for students that encouraged them to turn their intellectual engagements into real social change. Her commitment to fostering public culture is evident in both her undergraduate courses and her research, for which she’s lauded as a “model of the engaged scholar-teacher.”
2010 Recipient
John Raeburn
John Raeburn (PhD, American Civilization, Penn), professor of American Studies and English at the University of Iowa, where he has taught American 20th-century cultural history, American photography, American film, American literature after 1865, and the history of the book since 1974, was the recipient of the 2010 Elizabeth Kolmer award for graduate mentoring. Professor Raeburn’s students thank him for teaching them to become stronger writers, leading job search information sessions, writing recommendation letters “famous for their thoroughness and persuasiveness,” and providing generous professional and emotional support during and after graduate school. “Perhaps most of all,” one student wrote, John “has provided me with a model for a balanced, responsible, and caring teacher and academic professional… [who] knew that the academic world was not the center of the universe, and that other personal needs sometimes trumped professional success.”
Past Recipients
| 2006 | Ann Schofield, University of Kansas |
| 2005 | Jim Farrell, St. Olaf College  |
| 2004 | David Katzman, University of Kansas |
| 2002 | Rich Horwitz, University of Iowa |
| 1999 | Edward Griffin, University of Minnesota |
| 1997 | Norman Yetman, University of Kansas |
| 1996 |
Elizabeth Kolmer, Saint Louis University |
