TommieMedia Opinions Editor Maddie Peters has earned the Sapientia Award for Scholarly or Creative Work Focused on Women.
Peters earned the award, offered by the University Advocates for Women and Equity, for speaking out on issues of women and gender in TommieMedia columns and her research paper for her Communication of Race, Class and Gender class.
The University Advocates for Women and Equity at St. Thomas presents four awards annually to members of the St. Thomas community. The awards include the Sister Pat Kowalski Women’s Leadership Award, the Good Sister Award, the Pauline Lambert Advocacy Award and the Sapientia Award.
Peters’ paper, “We Deserve to Be Seen: An Analysis of Gender and the LGBTQ + Community’s Position in the Dating and Relationship-Based Reality TV Shows ‘Bachelor in Paradise’ and ‘Are You the One?’” was written for her COJO 328 course with nominator and professor Debra Petersen.
“In Maddie’s role as Opinions Editor for TommieMedia, she has published many thought-provoking opinion articles, including those that are focused on women and/or gender,” Petersen wrote in her nomination.
Peters’ columns focusing on those topics include pieces on locker room talk, Academy Awards nominations and gender reveal parties.
TommieMedia is an award-winning, student-run, web-based organization aiming to deliver campus, local and world news to the community. Its mission is to produce high-quality, timely, multi-platform pieces for the University of St. Thomas and the broader community. The University of St. Thomas is located in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Emily Haugen can be reached at haug7231@stthomas.edu.
Congratulations to Maddie!
In my Communication of Race, Class and Gender course, we discuss the significant challenges that women have faced, and continue to face, in their attempts to achieve voice about matters of importance to them. In the nineteenth century, even publishing a letter to the editor was considered inappropriate because these women were calling attention to themselves outside of the domestic sphere. I will continue to share Maddie’s columns with my students to inspire them to speak out on issues of race, class, gender and sexual identity.
Maddie was also prepared to raise her voice at the UST Undergraduate Communication Research Conference. Her excellent semester-long research project, “We Deserve to Be Seen: An Analysis of Gender and the LGBTQ+ Community’s Position in the Dating and Relationship-Based Reality TV Shows ‘Bachelor in Paradise’ and ‘Are You The One?’,” was accepted for presentation at our annual research conference. Unfortunately, our conference was cancelled due to COVID 19, but it speaks highly of Maddie that she went above and beyond to edit her paper and submit it to our blind review process.
I recommend that you read Maddie’s award-winning TM columns!
Thanks to the UAWE for recognizing Maddie’s work.