Taylor Alexis Young Wins Center’s Second JHP Research Prize ​

Right to left: Prof. Pegelow Kaplan, Taylor Alexis Young, and Ella Fowler.

In 2021, the Center introduced an annual Student Research Prize in Judaic, Holocaust, and Peace Studies to celebrate the outstanding work done by many Appalachian State students both in the JHP minor and beyond. Taylor Alexis Young, an undergraduate student in Music Therapy, is the winner of the Center’s 2nd Annual Student Research Prize for her work entitled “TRIP-TICK: hymn / examen / fellowship.” Taylor’s work, Prof. J. Bathanti, who nominated her, wrote, “is a brilliant conflation of blazing original poetry; equally blazing personal essay; critical acumen of ‘music of the Black diaspora’. . . as well as critical exegesis on seminal Black women writers of the 20th and 21st century. . . [her] discussion of the oppression of Black bodies and the systemic oppression of Black citizenry is provocative and well-articulated. . . She’s not afraid to take risks.” While the prize committee was mesmerized by Taylor’s work, its members were also pleased to award two Honorable Mentions this year to Ben Huffstetler (HIS/JHP) for his research paper “Comparative Radio Propaganda: The Role of Radio During Genocide in Nazi Germany and Hutu Rwanda” and Ella Fowler (ENG) for her research on “Children Caught in the Crossfire: Everyday Violence and the Relationship Between the Victim and the Victimizer in Deogratias: A Tale of Rwanda.” Heartfelt congratulations to all of these exceptional students!