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Wedwick Wins Distinguished Dissertation Award

Dr. Linda Wedwick

Dr. Linda Wedwick

Dr. Linda Wedwick, Assistant Professor of Curriculum and Instruction, wins this year's Clarence W. Sorensen Distinguished Dissertation Award for “Socialization of Readers: The Literary Treatment of Fatness in Adolescent Fiction.” Her dissertation analyzes 18 adolescent novels to examine how fatness is represented. Her analysis of these texts has many important and interesting conclusions about the social and emotional development of fat characters, the most significant of which is that fat characters themselves demonstrate fatophobic behaviors. “I’m very pleased and proud that Dr. Linda Wedwick has won the Sorenson Award,” said CAS Associate Dean Sally Parry, who served as a member of Wedwick’s dissertation committee. “I’ve seen her ideas about fatness and its portrayal in children’s and adolescent literature grow from a paper in a graduate course on series fiction that I team taught with Dr. Roberta Seelinger Trites, to a very well researched and intelligent dissertation. I am glad to have served on her dissertation committee, and even more pleased that it has been recognized by the larger university community.”

The Sorensen Award was established in honor of Dr. Clarence W. Sorensen, the first Dean of the Graduate School. Dr. Sorensen was responsible for developing the first doctoral program at ISU. Today, this award promotes recognition of doctoral dissertations of the highest quality and recognizes excellence in graduate education at ISU. “I am extremely honored to be receiving this award,” said Wedwick. “As the first recipient from the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, I believe this award acknowledges the scholarly work within the College of Education.” Dr. Wedwick will be formally recognized at a ceremony on Monday, April 9, in the Founders Suite of the Bone Student Center.
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