ALISON PIEPMEIER OUTSTANDING STUDENT AWARD
2025 Recipients

Dr. Alison Piepmeier served as SEWSA (now WGS South) President from 2006-2008 with dedication and excellence. This award was created in gratitude and in honor of her memory. 

Annie Elledge: Annie is a feminist political geographer and interdisciplinary fat studies scholar interested in
gender, fatness, and disability in the U.S. South. More broadly, her work engages feminist and crip/queer theory,
qualitative methods, and place-based research to understand the everyday production of the ideal citizen in the
United States. She received her B.A. in International Relations & Global Studies and Government from the University
of Texas at Austin in 2018. While at UT Austin, she co-founded and co-organized the Feminist Geography Collective,
a research group aimed at supporting women of color in Geography. She co-wrote an interlude with Dr. Caroline
Faria and Dr. Dominica Whitsell on their experiences building and sustaining the collective in Feminist Geography
Unbound: Intimacy, Territory and Embodied Power. 

Currently, she is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Geography and Environment at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill working with Dr. Betsy Olson. Her M.A. thesis traced the historical development of Durham,
North Carolina as the “Diet Capital of the World.” In her recent publication entitled, “Weight loss, Cure, and Temporality in the ‘Diet Capital of the World’: Disciplining Fatness in Durham, North Carolina,” she brings together crip/queer theory, urban space, and fatness to argue dieting landscapes imagine futures without fat people. Her dissertation research examines the weight-inclusive wellness industry in North Carolina’s Research Triangle emphasizing fat people’s identity formation and place-making practices. This multi-method qualitative study incorporates interviews with industry stakeholders, participant observation at weight-inclusive wellness studios, and clay body mapping sessions with clients of the weight-inclusive industry.

Mo Spraggins: Mo is a senior at the College of Charleston studying Women’s and Gender Studies alongside Biology. At
The College she has dedicated time to helping Queer students on campus and building relationships among queer and
multicultural student clubs. They have been a Q’ordinator at 9.5 Glebe (“Pride Lounge”) for the last 3.5 years, where she
acted as a student leader and organizer for Pride events on campus. Mo was interviewed for the WGS What IFF? podcast,
where they discussed the value of Third Spaces that serve as important physical locations for queer students to cultivate
critical care, build community, and engage in resistance. As evidence of Mo’s commitment to WGS, they have presented
every year at the WGSFeminism in Motion (FeMo), a student showcase/symposium. Mo collaborated with one of their
professors and several peers to develop and present at the 2025 WGS South Conference, “Solidarity and Accountability
in Found (and Created) Classroom Communities.” This presentation morphed into a journal article currently under review
for a Special Issue of Feminist Formations. She is working on a year-long research project for their Bachelors Essay with
Dr. Kathleen Béres Rogers about “Disordered Eating in LGBTQ+ Individuals and the Impact of Medical Treatment.”
Mo is proud and widely recognized for the activist work she has been able to do with their WGS chosen family.

Outside of school, Mo has a passion for art and loves horses. Art is one of their creative outlets that she utilizes heavily in their activist work, including painting, poetry, and drawing. Over the summers Mo has worked on a farm and has led western style trail rides. Caring for the horses is a kind of therapy to Mo that they enjoy sharing with her friends and family.