Nominations for 2025 are now open! Click the checkbox indicating your interest in this award when submitting your abstract proposal in Ballast. The Kenneth M. England Endowed Chair in Southern American Literature is pleased to offer up to three awards covering registration costs for individual paper presentations by Georgia State University students whose research focuses on southern literatures, broadly conceived. The England Chair was conceived to support a scholarly community within the field of southern literature, and Professor England was dedicated to giving GSU students the opportunity to build intellectual community. 

Applicants for the award should be a current graduate or undergraduate student at GSU and their paper proposal should communicate how their work contributes to conversations in southern literary and/or cultural studies. Applicants may address primary texts that deal with the South and/or they may engage with southern studies methods. 

Eligibility Requirements and Award Process

To be considered, individual presenters can identify their interest when submitting their session proposal on Ballast or panel organizers can identify individual presenters their panels who qualify for the award. These self-declared sessions will be reviewed internally by SAMLA. The three individual presenters will have their conference registration costs covered. Presenters must attend and present at the conference to receive their complementary registration.

SAMLA 97 Winners

Yun Peng
Georgia State University

Mia Brady
Georgia State University

Garrett Butler
Georgia State University