Former USU Graduate Student Earns University of Utah Recognition
Thursday, Aug. 02, 2012
Stephen Macauley is the recipient of the Burton Award presented by the Department of English at UofU.
Stephan Macauley, a former graduate student in the Department of English at Utah State University, has been honored by the University of Utah where he is now pursuing his doctorate.
Macauley is the recipient of the 2012-13 Burton Fellowship in the Department of English at UofU. The $15,000 award recognizes excellence in teaching and quality of academic work. The award allows Macauley additional time to work on either a special project or concentrate on his dissertation. The Graduate Studies Committee, drawn from English department faculty members, reviews all applications for the Burton Fellowship and makes the final selection. Eight graduate students applied for the honor this year. Only one fellowship is awarded.
Macauley’s first contact with USU was through English professor Melody Graulich who met Macauley at a Steinbeck conference in Sun Valley where he was presenting a paper on Steinbeck’s popularity in Africa. A native of Sierra Leone, Macauley had graduated from a university there with a degree in American literature. Graulich encouraged him to apply for graduate school at USU where he was accepted in the Department of English and its graduate program. While at USU he taught writing and also prepared the Common Literature instructors to teach that year’s book, Ishmael Beah’s A Long Way Gone, a work about boy soldiers in Sierra Leone.
During his study in USU’s graduate program, Macauley was introduced to African American authors, including Langston Hughes and August Wilson, Graulich said. His thesis focused on the plays of August Wilson, and he completed a master’s in 2008 and was then accepted into the doctoral program at the University of Utah.
In addition to his studies, Macauley has been asked to speak at several universities on the topic of Africa, African literature and the relationship between African American and African literature.
At the U, Macauley teaches English and writing in the English Department. He also teaches African American Experiences and Chicano/a Experiences in the U’s Ethnic Studies Department.
Contact: Stephen Macauley, nat_macauley@yahoo.com
