Award:
Alexandra Johnston Award
Award Year:
2024
Winner: Dollar, Isabel (she/her). "Bypassing the Interpreter: Child Actors, Ben Jonson's Epicene, and the Power of Puppets." Early European Puppetry Studies Conference. Yale University, 2023.
The committee is delighted to announce that the 2024 Alexandra Johnston Award goes to Isabel Dollar’s "Bypassing the Interpreter: Child Actors, Ben Jonson’s Epicene, and the Power of Puppets." The committee found that the paper compellingly interprets the larger thread of Jonson’s artistic development as a collaborator with child actors through a particularly insightful close read of the example of Epicene, demonstrating a sophisticated use of evidence, a breadth of primary sources, and meaningful connections to other contexts and plays. The paper deftly develops its synthesis of a wide range of critical conversations into an original read of current scholarship’s key elements in constructive and subtle ways. The committee also appreciated its well-structured argument, its engaging visual supplements, and its exploration of a less frequently discussed playwright.
Honorable Mention: Moore, Morgan (she/her). "Body and Soul: Embodiment and Dialogue in an Early Modern Ymddiddan Corff a’r Enaid." International Congress of Celtic Studies XVII Utrecht. Utrecht University, 2023.
The committee is delighted to award Honorable Mention for the Alexandra Johnston Award to Morgan Elizabeth Moore’s "Body and Soul: Embodiment and Dialogue in an Early Modern Ymddiddan Corff a’r Enaid." The committee found that the paper adeptly relies on close reading and archival materials to bolster its performance-oriented approach, much in the vein of Sergi’s and others’ work. It also productively synthesizes and challenges the critical conversation around medieval Welsh drama, offering a new and insightful interpretive possibility to previous assessments. Its holistic approach ultimately allows hidden coherences in the drama to emerge.
Committee: Susannah Crowder, Cameron Hunt McNabb (chair), and Nicole Sheriko. Awards announcement and presentation took place during the annual MRDS business meeting in May 2024, at the 59th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan.