Doctoral Student Teresa Simone receives P.E.O. Scholar Award
Fourth-year PhD student in the School of Theatre, Teresa Simone.
The School of Theatre’s Teresa Simone is one of six graduate students from Florida State University to earn the prestigious Scholar Awards from the Philanthropic Educational Organization (P.E.O.). The P.E.O. Scholar Awards are one-time, competitive, merit-based awards intended to recognize and encourage academic excellence and achievement by women in doctoral-level programs. The awards include up to $20,000 to support study and research.
Teresa Simone is a fourth-year doctoral student in FSU’s School of Theatre, part of the College of Fine Arts. Simone’s research focuses on nationalist pageantry; specifically, how women and children create ideals of the nation via pageantry and how movement, affect and sensory experiences are used to craft these ideals. Her dissertation analyzes a confederate pageant that has taken place in Mississippi since 1932.
Before coming to FSU, Simone worked for 10 years with an educational children’s theatre company in Arizona that used theatre to build literacy skills. Simone plans to use her P.E.O. Scholar Award to further her studies and make an impact on society through art.
I came to FSU because the theatre department consistently ranks among the highest in the country. The faculty and staff are outstanding, but also kind, and have been extremely supportive of me. I am humbled and honored to be selected among many deserving women, and I am proud to be able to represent the strength of FSU’s School of Theatre.
The P.E.O. Scholar Awards program was established in 1991 to provide substantial merit-based awards for women of the United States and Canada who are pursuing a doctoral level degree at an accredited college or university. Since the program’s inception, 2,527 awards totaling $28.2 million have been granted to P.E.O. Scholars.
For more information about P.E.O., visit peointernational.org.
More information about Teresa Simone’s work, visit her website.
To learn more about the other P.E.O. recipients at FSU, see the Office of Graduate Fellowships and Award’s bulletin from which this post is adapted.