Madeline Dixon was nominated by Dr. Erin R. Hochman, Associate Professor of History, for her Junior Seminar paper, The Weimar Republic and the War of Memory. In her nomination description, Dr Hochman highlighted Madeline’s use of SMU Libraries’ resources by saying:
“Ms. Dixon showed herself to be an excellent researcher, going far beyond the minimum 30 sources required (not an easy thing to do when needing to find sources in translation). For the primary sources, she located and synthesized novels, letters from soldiers, speeches from politicians, propaganda posters from political parties, newspaper articles, political cartoons, and images of monuments to the fallen of the war. It was particularly impressive how she effectively used not only a wide range of textual primary sources, but also visual primary sources. Based on this research, Madeline developed a strong thesis, arguing that the unexpected defeat in the war led to debates about the meaning of the war and the reasons for Imperial Germany’s downfall. She skillfully analyzed the diverse sources that she had found to prove her point. She had a superb command of contextualizing [resources], and provided insightful analysis of them to make a very persuasive argument.”
As the Weil Undergraduate Research Award winner, Madeline will receive a $500 prize and will have the opportunity for her paper to be published in the SMU Journal of Undergraduate Research. Madeline’s winning paper will be placed in the SMU Archives in DeGolyer Library, and in SMU Scholar, the university’s digital repository.
Congratulations, Madeline!
Read more about the Larrie and Bobbie Weil Undergraduate Research Award and see past recipients.