Postgraduate Poster Competition
Rika Canaway's winning poster entry for 2026.
Each year, the Society welcomes postgraduates (at Master's and PhD level) to participate in a poster competition, producing a poster that showcases their research project. The competition judging takes place during the Annual Conference, which in 2027 will be held at the University of Galway between 5th and 7th July. Selected posters are displayed in-person at the conference, and prizes will be awarded for the best poster (£150) and the runner-up (£50).
More information about the 2027 competition will be published in the New Year; the list of previous winners is available below. If you have any questions regarding the prize, you are warmly invited to contact the Society's Postgraduate Officer, Airelle Amedro (postgraduates@sfs.ac.uk).
2026 Recipients
The 2026 competition saw a wide range of entries, which impressed the judges in both their scope and their presentation. The posters were displayed as part of the Annual Conference at the University of Leicester, with the competition organised by Tobias Barnett and Rebecca Boyd. The winning poster (by Rika Canaway) can be viewed online, as can the runner-up (by River Searles).
Winner: Rika Canaway
| Project | Photography, Respectability, and the 'Croix-de-feu' |
|---|---|
| Institution | Manchester Metropolitan University |
Runner up: River Searles
| Project | Weeping Trees and Bleeding Flowers: Plant-Thinking and the Power of the Graft in the 'Ovide moralisé' |
|---|---|
| Institution | Durham University |
Previous recipients
2025
The Society is delighted to announce the winners of the 2025 poster competition, for which judging took place during the Annual Conference at the University of Bristol. A full gallery of all 14 entries can be viewed here; the competition this year was organised by Tobias Barnett and Rebecca Boyd.
Winner: Ana Paola Manna
| Project | No book is an island |
|---|---|
| Institution | University of Exeter |
Runner up: Maddison Sumner
| Project | S'EFFONDRER : MÉTHODE (Analysing Two Brothers in Parallel) |
|---|---|
| Institution | University of Cambridge |
Runner up: Zi Ying (Kathy) Fan
| Project | Behind 'Le Livre de jade': A Fractured Source Space and the 'Yuefu' Tradition |
|---|---|
| Institution | Oxford University |
2024
The judges of the competition, Profs Catriona Seth and Lydie Moudileno, were very impressed by the high standard of submissions, and commended the care, consideration, and creative flair that had been put into making each poster. A full gallery of all 16 entries can be viewed here; the competition this year was organised by Elly Walters and Tobias Barnett.
Winner: Katharine Kent
| Project | Intertextuality, Intermediality and Radio Afterlives: Duras's 'Les Papiers d'Aspern 1961' |
|---|---|
| Institution | University of Cambridge |
Runner up: Clementine Pursey
| Project | 'Le corps de vous vault mieulx que dix royaulmes': The Reception of Deviant Bodies in Jean d'Arras's 'Mélusine' |
|---|---|
| Institution | University of St. Andrews |
Runner up: Tamzin Elliott
| Project | Drawing (On) the Past: Representing Abortion in Graphic Narrative |
|---|---|
| Institution | Durham University |
2023
We are extremely grateful to two keynote speakers, Professors Helen Swift and Alexandre Gefen, for taking the time to judge the competition. Both were impressed by the high standard of this year’s submissions, and commended the care, consideration, and creative flair that had been put into making each poster. A full gallery of all 16 entries can be viewed here; the competition this year was organised by David Ewing and Elly Walters.
Winner: Sophie Ellis
| Project | The Spatiality of French Hospitality |
|---|---|
| Institution | Newcastle University |
Runner up: Gareth Hughes
| Project | Sounds from outsite: spatial transformations in contemporary French and multilingual poetry |
|---|---|
| Institution | Royal Holloway, University of London |
Runner up: Elizabeth Purdy
| Project | An introduction to end-time structures |
|---|---|
| Institution | University of Leeds |
2022
We are extremely grateful to two keynote speakers, Professors Jane Hiddleston and Edward Hughes, for taking the time to judge this year's cohort. Both were impressed by the high standard of this year’s submissions, and commended the deep care and consideration that had been put into making each poster. A full gallery of all 18 entries can be viewed here; the competition this year was organised by David Ewing and Elly Walters.
Winner: Louisa Esther Mugabo
| Project | Towards a conceptualisation of exile journalism: A study of East African and Latin American journalists' norms and practices in exile |
|---|---|
| Institution | University College Cork |
Runner up: Ry Montgomery
| Project | "Parce que c'est la dernière": Constellations of HIV/AIDS activism in Lionael Soukaz's 'Journal Annales' |
|---|---|
| Institution | University of London Institute in Paris |
Runner up: Leon Hughes
| Project | Affective 'Arbres de la liberté' : Emotional Experience and Non-Human Agenc(ies) in the French Revolution, 1789-1799 |
|---|---|
| Institution | Trinity College Dublin |