Hartford, Conn., October 24, 2006—Paul Lauter, the Allan K. & Gwendolyn Miles Smith  Professor of Literature at Trinity College, has been selected as the recipient of the American Studies Association’s Bode-Pearson Prize for Outstanding Contributions to American Studies.

Lauter teaches American literature, specializing in the early 19th century and in contemporary multicultural writing. Much of his work has centered on how literary canons are constructed—and changed. His book Canons and Contexts (Oxford, 1991) examines the history of the canon of American literature as well as changes in it generated primarily by ethnic and feminist studies. The Heath Anthology of American Literature, now in its 5th edition and for which Lauter is general editor, represents a successful effort to put canon change into practice. 

Earlier in his career, Lauter was active in the civil rights, peace, and labor movements; he worked for a number of social cause organizations, including the American Friends Service Committee, served as a union official at the State University of New York, and co-authored a book about the 1960s, The Conspiracy of the Young. 

His most recent book, From Walden Pond to Jurassic Park--The Cultural Work of American Studies (Duke, 2001), traces the development of American Studies as a discipline and a form of cultural and political discourse in the United States and overseas.  Lauter served as president of the American Studies Association (USA) and has spoken and consulted at universities in almost every state and in 25 countries.  Other recent projects include a co-edited collection called Literature, Class, and Culture (Longman’s, 2001), and a volume of Thoreau’s writings for the New Riverside Series (Houghton Mifflin, 2000).  

Lauter was the 2001 recipient of the annual Jay Hubbell medal for lifetime achievement in American Literary Study awarded by the American Literature Section of the Modern Language Association. 

The Bode-Pearson Prize, established in 1975, is one of the oldest and most prestigious awards in American Studies. The prize, named for two of the founders of the American Studies field, Carl Bode and Norman Holmes Pearson, is awarded periodically at the annual meeting of the American Studies Association and includes lifetime membership in the ASA for the recipient. The prize is awarded to an individual for a lifetime of achievement and service within the field of American Studies. Chartered in 1951, the American Studies Association is the nation's oldest and largest organization devoted to the interdisciplinary study of American culture and history.