Graduate Essay Award

WIF is delighted to offer graduate essay awards to support the academic development of future scholars. Please see below for essay guidelines.

Essays in French or English dealing with women in French or Francophone Literature or Civilization should be between 15 and 20 pages (double-spaced), including notes and works cited. 

• Essays in French or English dealing with women in French or Francophone Literature or Civilization should be between 15 and 20 pages (double-spaced), including notes and works cited. 
• Blind submissions should be sent by email attachment in MSWord, formatted in the latest MLA style, and must include the student’s university affiliation, graduate standing (masters or Ph.D. candidate), and email address. Please also provide the full contact information of the professor (WIF member) who supervised and recommended the paper. 
• Submitted essays should not be considered for publication elsewhere, or have been previously published.
• The winner may be asked to revise her/his essay, based on the evaluators’ comments.

The best essay will be published in the yearly WIF Studies, a refereed journal. The winner will also receive $500, thanks to the generosity of WIF member Samia I. Spencer (Auburn University), who also sponsors a plaque to be given to the advising professor, for being an WIF Outstanding Mentor. We wish to recognize the work professors do in providing guidance on content, style, the writing process, use of secondary materials, and in encouraging the use of the appropriate conventions for grammar, usage, and documentation of sources.

The submission deadline for the Graduate Award is May 25th.

Have students send submissions to Michèle A. Schaal (mschaal@iastate.edu).

Winners of the Graduate Essay Award 

2024

Beth Kearney, University of Queensland

« Ce qui aurait pu, ce qui pourrait: Photography as a medium of possibility in Annie Ernaux and Nadège Fagoo's L'Autre fille (2023) »

Professor: Dr. Amy Hubbell

2023

Anna Magavern, University of Iowa

« Enfermements, errances et rencontres : l'esthétique de performance dans Humus de Fabienne Kanor »

Professor: Dr. Annie Curtius

2022

Sarah E Djos-Raph, University of Louisiana, Lafayette

« Objectifying and Objecting Objects: Looting to Rooting? How the American Black Lives Matter Movement influences French Restitution in Benin »

Professor: Dr. Amadou Ouédraogo

2021

Amy McTurk, University of St. Andrews

« Le portrait de l'artiste peint par elle-même. Négotiations of the Artist-Muse Binary in George Sand's Elle et lui (1859) »

Professor: Dr. Mary Orr

Hannah Volland, University of Toronto

« Les traces de la honte: l'écriture du trauma et le renouvellement de l'autobiographie dans La honte d'Annie Ernaux »

Professor: Dr. Barbara Havercroft

2019

Mélanie Maillot, University of Adelaide

« Réflexion métaphysique en lien aux représentations non-normatives du corps dans les poèmes d’Andrée Chedid et de Jeanne Benguigui »

Professor: Dr. Natalie Edwards

2018

Polly Galis, University of Leeds
« Mus(e)ing Bodies in Nancy Huston and Guy Oberson’s Poser nue »
Professor: Dr. Diana Holmes

2007

Jenelle Griffin, Saint Louis University
« Responding to the Shadows: Re-Imagining Subjectivity in Véronique Tadjo’s L’Ombre d’Imana »
Professor: Dr. Pascale Perraudin

2006

Sophie Delahaye, University of Kansas
« La femme selon l’Encyclopédie »
Professor: Dr. Diane Fourny

2005

Andrea King, Queen’s University
« Anorexie, prostitution, et psychanalyse dans Putain de Nelly Arcan »
Professor: Dr. Agnès Conacher

2004

Camille Dauphin-Persuy, Bryn Mawr College
« ‘L’aventure li manderai!’: Désir de communications dans les Lais de Marie de France » 
Professor: Dr. Grace M Armstrong