Winners of Great Plains Studies awards announced

The Center for Great Plains Studies, an interdisciplinary studies center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, has announced the winners of its annual literary, science and history awards.

Included were the Charles E. Bessey and Leslie Hewes awards for the best articles published in 2005 in Great Plains Research, and the Frederick C. Luebke Award for the best article published in Great Plains Quarterly. The center also presented its Great Plains Research Science awards at the 2006 Nebraska Junior Academy of Sciences annual meeting in April, and its Great Plains History awards at the Nebraska History Days at Nebraska Wesleyan University, also in April.

Barbara J. Nicholson of Central Connecticut State University and James B. Swinehart of UNL received the Bessey natural science award for their article about the evidence of Holocene climate change showing significant periods of dune activity in a Nebraska Sandhills wetland.

The Hewes social science award went to co-authors Ana-Maria Gonzalez Wahl, Steven E. Gunkel, and Bennie Shobe Jr. for their article on the growth of the Latino population in the Heartland and the complexities of their segregation in residential areas. Wahl is assistant professor of sociology at Wake Forest University, Gunkel is associate professor of sociology at Doane College and Shobe is a UNL graduate student in sociology.

Linda M. Clemmons' article on Dakota interpretations of the Treaty of 1837 received the Luebke award. Clemmons is assistant professor of history at Illinois State University.

Laura Johnson of Newman Grove High School won the first place Great Plains Research Science award for her paper, "The Phytoremediation of the Bio-Solids using Lemna Minor and Populus deltoides x Populus nigra," and Matt Stanley's paper, "The Effects of COX Inhibitors on Drasophila melanogaster Phase II" received honorable mention. Stanley is from Laurel-Concord High School.

Kylie Kinley of Blue Hill High School won the senior division in the Great Plains History awards with her paper, "Barbed Wire: Taking a Stand to Transform the Events, People, and Ideas of the Wild West." Jenna Moore of St. Isidore Catholic Grade School in Columbus won the junior division for her paper, "Suzette LaFlesche: The Voice of Native Americans."

The judges for the Bessey and Hewes awards were UNL faculty members Donna Akers, Rochelle Dalla and Clinton Rowe, and Mark Ellis from the University of Nebraska at Kearney, all of whom serve on the center's publication committee. Judges for the Luebke award were previous winners of the award: Kari Forbes-Boyte, Dakota State University; Andrea Radke, Brigham Young University-Idaho; and Barbara Risch, New Mexico Highlands University.

Mark Burbach, assistant geoscientist in the UNL School of Natural Sciences, judged the Great Plains Research Science awards, and historian Kurt Kinbacher served as judge for the Great Plains History awards. All of the awardees received cash prizes.

Great Plains Research and Great Plains Quarterly are published with the support of the Center for Great Plains Studies and the UNL College of Arts and Sciences. James Stubbendieck is director of the center; Robert F. Diffendal Jr. is editor of Great Plains Research, and Charles A. Braithwaite is editor of Great Plains Quarterly. For more information, contact the center at (402) 472-3082. Contact: Linda Ratcliffe, Center for Great Plains Studies, (402) 472-3965.

CONTACT: Linda Ratcliffe, Publications Specialist, Great Plains Studies, (402) 472-3965