Alison Larkin wins George Grayson Scholarship for Best Seminar Paper
Congratulations to Alison Larkin ('21), who is this semester's recipient of the George W. Grayson Scholarship. The scholarship is awarded each semester to the best senior seminar paper by a Government major. Alison, who graduated in May, wrote her paper, "Revisiting Ecofeminism: The Role of Women Activists in the Flint Water Crisis." The paper was written for Assistant Professor Claire McKinney's seminar on "Women's Disease Activism as Political Theory."
Professor McKinney, in nominating Alison's paper for the prize, praised her for both challenging existing theory about women's prevalence in environmental issue activism and for suggesting a new framework for thinking about the Flint, Michigan, water crisis in particular. As Professor McKinney's nomination states, "Ali created a detailed narrative of the crisis, placed it in relationship to other ecological disasters, and successfully argues why ecofeminism reveals the particular contours of Flint activism."
Alison is currently planning to work for a couple of years before seeking a law degree. The George Grayson Scholarship was established through the generous contributions of alumni who wished to honor the Government Department faculty member who passed away in 2015. Professor Grayson was renowned for his teaching excellence and for his insistence that students write with clarity and grammatical precision.
