Telisha Dionne Bailey, who earned her Ph.D. from the Arch Dalrymple, III Department of History in 2015, received the Riley Prize at the annual meeting of the Mississippi Historical Society.
The Riley Prize was awarded for a doctoral dissertation on a topic in Mississippi history or biography completed during 2014 or 2015. Dissertations were judged on originality of concept, design, and methodology, compilation and effective use of evidence, clarity and precision of style, and significance of the dissertation’s contribution toward an understanding of Mississippi history.
Bailey’s dissertation, which is titled “‘Please Don’t Forget About Me’: African American Women, Mississippi, and the History of Crime and Punishment in Parchman Prison, 1890-1980,” examines the rise of the carceral state through the experiences of the black women who served out their sentences in one of America’s harshest prisons.
