The College warmly congratulates Career Development Fellow in French Dr Macs Smith and Emeritus Fellow in French Prof Roger Pearson FBA who have both been nominated for the 2023 R. Gapper book prize.
The R. Gapper book prize is for a book in the field of French studies, published for the first time in the previous calendar year, by a scholar based in an institution of higher education in the United Kingdom or Ireland. The award commends books of critical and scholarly distinction, which have a clear impact on the wider critical debate.
Macs said: ‘It’s a huge honour to be shortlisted for the Gapper Prize. Paris and the Parasite is my first book and it began life as my PhD thesis. It has been with me in one form or another for the past decade, and looking at it now, I feel I really owe its success to the mentors I have had in that time, like Andre Benhaim and Seth Whidden. One of the things people have cited about the book is its interdisciplinarity, and for me, interdisciplinarity is an expression of community. It comes from lots of people taking the time to push a project in new directions. For that reason, it’s all the more special for me to be on the shortlist with Roger, both because of how kind he has been to me since I arrived at Queen’s, and because I think it reflects how strong a community we have here and how it fosters research.’
…for me, interdisciplinarity is an expression of community…I think being on the shortlist reflects how strong a community we have here and how it fosters research.
Roger said: ‘I’m delighted to be shortlisted for this prize and to find my study of Baudelaire included alongside such impressive competition – not least Macs Smith’s powerfully original and wonderfully readable book. I’m very honoured to be nominated.’
We wish them both the best of luck!
The winner will be announced at the Society for French Studies conference in Newcastle at the end of June.
