Professor Wins Award For Best Book On Women And Texas History

by LoAna Lopez

Dr. Rebecca Sharpless, director of the Institute for Oral History at Baylor University, has won top honors from the Texas State Historical Association for her book, Fertile Ground, Narrow Choices: Women on Texas Cotton Farms, 1900-1940.
The Liz Carpenter Award for the best book on women and Texas history comes with a cash prize of $1,000 and will be announced at the Women and Texas History Luncheon during the Historical Association's annual meeting March 2 at the Renaissance Hotel in Austin.
"This is something I hoped for," Sharpless said. "But there are a number of really wonderful people who have received this before, so I'm thrilled to be in their company."
Her current research focuses on food and gender in the American South. Sharpless also is working on a biographical chapter on Hester Calvert, a Central Texas farm wife, for a book of Texas biographies being edited by Ty Cashion and Frank de la Teja for Scholarly Resources.
For more information about the award, contact the Institute for Oral History at (254) 710-3437.