Winner: Crowder, Susannah (The Graduate Center, CUNY). "Re-contextualizing the Performances of the Drogo Sacramentary within Ninth-Century Metz," SITM Congress, July 2007.
This is a sophisticated and far-reaching essay on the ninth-century Ordo dedicationis ecclesiae which successfully reframes the development of the Tollite portas, principes trope in the history of liturgical drama. Crowder deftly employs performance studies methodology not merely to illuminate the oft-noted mimetic section but the Ordo as a whole. Her analysis embraces as well the liturgical 'performance' images on the Sacramentary's ivory book-cover. Crowder situates the Ordo in its larger Carolingian context convincingly establishing Bishop Drogo's program for "leveraging saintly presence on behalf of episcopal authority."
Awards announcement and presentation took place during the annual MRDS business meeting in May at the International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan.