Modern and Contemporary France Best Article Prize
Modern & Contemporary France is pleased to announce the winner of its annual prize for the best article published in the journal during the preceding year. The winning article is chosen by members of an interdisciplinary subcommittee of the Editorial Board, who consider eligible articles in view of their scope, originality, quality and clarity of argumentation; their decision is then put to the full Board for approval. The winning article is made available free-to-view (if not already Open Access) and the author receives a £1,000 cash prize (split between co-authors if applicable). To avoid conflicts of interest, Editorial Board members and ASMCF Executive Committee members are not eligible to be considered for the prize during their term of service. When there is a tie between two articles of equal merit and only one of them is authored by an Early Career Researcher or a colleague in precarious employment, the prize will be awarded to that article. The winner is normally announced in the spring of each year and the winner invited to collect their prize at the annual ASMCF conference in September.
The winning article for 2023 is ‘Working through maternal ambivalence: the wake-up call of Chanson douce’ by Siobhán McIlvanney (KCL). McIlvanney’s article conducts a laser-focused reading of the text, drawing on a range of theoretical approaches that work together extremely well to outline a sharp, convincing argument. The article is an excellent example of the type of research we aspire to publish in Modern & Contemporary France and it will no doubt inspire much further discussion of the topic, while also appealing to a wide readership.