R. Gapper book prize

Each year, the Society awards the prestigious R. Gapper book prize 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. It includes a cash prize of £2000, and expenses-paid travel to the next annual conference of the Society for French Studies. In addition, the award is publicized in French Studies, in the French Studies Bulletin, and on the Society’s website. 

The award is usually made in February of each year and is presented to the winner at the annual conference of the Society for French Studies. The winner is selected by the Gapper Book Prize Jury, appointed by the SFS Executive and chaired by one of their number. Their decision is then proposed to the SFS Executive and to the R. H. Gapper Charitable Trust, who jointly award the prize. The criteria for award of the prize are, broadly, the book’s critical and scholarly distinction and its likely impact on wider critical debate. In assessing these, the following qualities will be taken into account: 

• Scope and range
• Intellectual ambition
• Originality
• Coherence and persuasiveness
• Depth of scholarship
• Eloquence 

Publishers, series editors, university departments, individual scholars and authors wishing to nominate themselves are invited to forward a copy of the book, published in 2017, for consideration to the current Chair of the Jury: Professor Margaret Topping, Dean of the Graduate School, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, Northern Ireland, by 31 July 2018 at the latest.