MVC Assistant Professor of English Receives Award

MVC Assistant Professor of English, Dr. Claire Schmidt, was recently awarded the 2019 Américo Paredes Prize by the American Folklore Society.

This award recognizes excellence in integrating scholarship and engagement with the people and communities one studies, or in teaching and encouraging scholars and practitioners to work in their own cultures or communities. The committee was impressed by Dr. Schmidt’s extensive body of work, including the 2017 book If You Don’t Laugh You’ll Cry: The Occupational Humor of White Wisconsin Prison Workers, and her commitment to engaging local communities.

“I am humbled to have been selected,” said Schmidt. “It is an immense honor to join the ranks of folklorists who have received the Américo Paredes Prize. I am just one of many whose work would not have been possible without the foundations laid by Américo Paredes.”

Américo Paredes, a leading scholar in folklore and Greater Mexico studies, worked relentlessly throughout his life, in the words of Olga Najera-Ramirez, “to better understand, represent, and respect the rights, lives and culture of US Latinas and Latinos.” The Paredes Prize recognizes his contributions to the field and to the society, gives respect to his memory, and recognizes exemplary achievements that build upon his cross-disciplinary, socially engaged legacy.

The award was presented to Dr. Schmidt on October 17 during the American Folklore Society Awards Presentation which was held in Baltimore, Maryland.