Ronald S. Love Prize

This award is given in memory of Ronald S. Love, an energetic and distinguished scholar, teacher, and leader of the Western Society for French History. A proud Canadian, his major research fields were early modern France and the French colonial project in Southeast Asia, but his publications reflect interests that ranged from the European Age of Discovery to the history of Canada's telecommunications industry. He achieved the rank of full professor at the University of West Georgia, where he was recognized as an accomplished and devoted teacher, mentor, and colleague. The Western Society for French History, which he joined shortly after completing his graduate studies, provided a welcoming community of friends and fellow scholars of French history. Ron in turn contributed to the Society by serving several terms on its Governing Council and as its president in 1999-2000. Moreover, he participated actively in its annual meetings for twenty years: presenting papers, providing comments, chairing sessions, and always welcoming newcomers as well as old friends. Like the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century philosophes and diplomats he studied and admired, he will be remembered not only for his learning, but also for his lively conversation, engaging sense of humor, and generosity of spirit.

The Ronald S. Love prize, made possible by a generous bequest from Melissa Stock, commemorates Ron's dedication to nurturing the talent and development of new scholars, as well as his many contributions—both personal and professional—to the WSFH.

Eligibility

First awarded in 2009, the Ronald S. Love Prize celebrates the best paper presented by a graduate student at the annual conference on the history of France and the Francophone world before 1800. All papers presented at the annual conference are eligible for the prize, which carries an award of $500.

Previous Winners

• 2023. Hayley Rucker, UC-Berkeley, “Thrown to the Sea: Death and Belonging Aboard Ship, 1680-1793.”

• 2022. Caroline Hackett, Florida State University, “Wielding Wealth: Married Women, Property, and Public Power in Old Regime Languedoc.”

• 2019. Alice Coulter Main, University of Wisconsin, “Sexing the Terror: The Jeunesse Dorée and the Fall of the Parisian Jacobin Club (1794).”

• 2018.Nichole Lucero, Arizona State University, “’Rira bien qui rira le dernier’: Mocking Terror after Thermidor.”

• 2017. Kirsten Cooper, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, "Liars, Atheists, and Libertines: The Politics of Dishonor in the Wars of Louis XIV."

• 2016. Elizabeth Cross, "Exposing Tartuffe: the Chambers of Commerce against the Compagnie des Indes, 1787-1788."

• 2015. Jillian Slaight, University of Wisconsin-Madison. "Resisting Seduction and Seductive Resistance: Courtroom Conflicts Over Consent in the Late Eighteenth Century."

• 2014. Christina Carroll, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "Defining 'Empire' under Napoleon III: Lucien-Anatole Prévost-Paradol and Paul Leroy-Beaulieu."

• 2013. James Coons, University of Wisconsin-Madison. "A Monument to Rebellion: The Grand Condé in the Treaty of the Pyrenees."

• 2012. Claire Edington, Columbia University. "Labor as Therapy: Agricultural Colonies and the Re-Education of the Insane in French Indochina."

• 2011. Brianna Gustafson, University of Colorado. "Miraculis Virago: Public Invocations of Saint Geneviève and the Miracle-des-Ardents."

• 2010. Elise Dermineur, Purdue University. "Female Peasants, Patriarchy, and the Credit Market in Eighteenth-Century France."