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TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- University of Alabama graduate student Bebe Barefoot is the recipient of a $20,000 American Dissertation Fellowship for the 2002-2003 year by the American Association of University Women Educational Foundation.

Barefoot is a candidate for a doctoral degree in English with a concentration in post-World War II American experimental fiction. Her dissertation director is Dr. Elizabeth Meese, UA professor of English. Barefoot’s other areas of interest include post structural and feminist theory, biography and autobiography, creative writing and cultural studies.

The AAUW Educational Foundation is one of the nation's largest sources of private funding for educational programs that directly benefit women and girls. The fellowship program has been in existence since 1888, making it the oldest noninstitutional source of graduate funding for women in the United States.

Barefoot was chosen as one of the 51 recipients of the fellowship out of 727 eligible applications because of her current research project on the avant-garde author Kathy Acker, who died in 1997. Through this project, Barefoot will combine creative nonfiction with traditional scholarship to produce an experimental biography of Acker. Barefoot also received a research grant from Duke University’s special collections library in addition to the American Dissertation Fellowship for this project.

In addition to her project, Barefoot is presently a Blount Jr. Fellow. Her duties as a fellow include teaching a class for the Blount Undergraduate Initiative. This semester she is also teaching a 300 level English course. Along with her teaching duties, Barefoot is enrolled in the UA English department’s MFA in creative writing program and spends time volunteering at Turning Point, which provides services and counseling to women who are victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.

Barefoot has previously served as an assistant in the UA English department, teaching freshman composition, literature survey courses in 18th-, 19th-, 20th-century American and British Literature, and freshman honors composition. She also served as graduate assistant to the UA College of Engineering, grading upper-level technical assignments for grammar and style, as well as lecturing on technical writing.

Barefoot received her bachelor’s degree in English from Troy State University in 1985 and her master’s degree in English from Auburn University in Montgomery in 1995. She has also served as director of communications at Guilford Capital Corp. in Montgomery, worked in the research and communications division at the Alabama Development Office, and was both coordinator of research and development and director of communications for Sylvan Learning Corp., formerly headquartered in Montgomery.