Erin Pullen, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology, has received the institutional nomination for the Midwestern Association of Graduate Students (MAGS) Distinguished Master’s Thesis Award. Pullen's thesis will represent the University of Kentucky in the regional competition, which is open to theses from all disciplines.     

Pullen's thesis, “Rethinking the Cultural Cartography of Appalachia: Region as a Fundamental Social Cause of Drug Use”, was also awarded an the 2010 Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Award by the Section on Alcohol, Drugs, and Tobacco of the American Sociological Association.