ATHENS, Ga. – Diane Batts Morrow, an assistant professor of history and African-American studies at the University of Georgia, has been named winner of the Letitia Woods Brown Memorial Publication Prize for the Best Book in Black Women’s History for 2002 by the Association of Black Women Historians.
Morrow’s book is called Persons of Color and Religious at the Same Time: The Oblate Sisters of Providence, 1828-1860, and was published by the University of North Carolina Press.
According to the letter informing her of the prize selection committee’s decision,
“The committee stated that [her] prodigious and exhaustive research provides a rich account of the lives of the Oblate Sisters of Providence and makes a significant and much needed contribution to the body of work on the history of black Catholics in America. The author has effectively mined obscure, nineteenth-century documents to bring to life these fascinating and dedicated religious and socially conscious women. . . . This work is destined to become a classic in black women’s history and religious history.”
Morrow earned her doctoral degree at UGA in 1996; she received her master’s degree in social science education from the University of Tennessee and her bachelor’s degree in history (Phi Beta Kappa) from Swarthmore College.
She has read scholarly papers at numerous conferences and last November discussed her book at the Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore.
She will sign copies of her book on Saturday, Feb. 8, from noon to 2 p.m. at Borders Books in Athens.
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