NORTH AMERICAN CONFERENCE
ON BRITISH STUDIES
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| The official publication of the North American Conference on British Studies (NACBS), the Journal of British Studies, has positioned itself as the critical resource for scholars of British culture from the Middle Ages through the present. Drawing on both established and emerging approaches, JBS presents scholarly articles and books reviews from renowned international authors who share their ideas on British society, politics, law, economics, and the arts. In 2005 (Vol. 44), the journal merged with the NACBS publication Albion, creating one journal for NACBS membership. |
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Walter D. Love Prize |
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The WALTER D. LOVE PRIZE in History is a $150 award given annually by the North American Conference on British Studies for the best article or paper of similar length or scope by a North American scholar in the field of British history. The 2010 prize will be awarded to an article published during the calendar year 2009. The prize journal article or paper, which may be published anywhere in the world, should exhibit a humane and compassionate understanding of the subject, imagination, literary grace, and scrupulous scholarship. It should also make a significant contribution to its field of study. Chapters from longer works are not eligible, but papers appearing in edited collections of essays are eligible. All scholars who are citizens or permanent residents of the United States or Canada and living in either country at the time of the award are eligible to compete. A copy of the nominated article or paper should be sent by April 1, 2010 to each member of the Prize Committee. For prompt attention, mark packages "NACBS Prize Committee." Send submissions to: Professor Derek Hirst Professor Karen Robertson Professor Ina Zweiniger-Bargelowska
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RECENT AWARD WINNERS
Walter Love Prize (2009)
Julia Rudolph, "Gender and the Development of Forensic Science" English Historical Review 2008 123 (503).
Rudolph's case study of the contentious seventeenth century trial of Spencer Cowper for the murder of Sarah Stout produces a nuanced reading of women’s participation in the development of forensic science. Sarah Stout was found dead in the river. Determined to clear her daughter's reputation, her mother Mary drew on her class status and literacy to challenge local assumptions that her daughter had committed suicide after abandonment by a lover. The mother's willingness to press for the exhumation and dissection of the dead body six weeks after burial and the summoning of women as legal experts who could testify to her daughter’s chastity demonstrates women’s agency in the development of forensic science. Rudolph uses the Stout materials as a powerful lens not only onto changing attitudes to evidence but as well onto assumptions about gender and the practices of social hierarchy and connection. Rudolph shows that in this case women were active agents in the pressure for and use of expert witnesses in a legal trial, complicating our understanding of the operations of gender in the development of scientific testimony.
PREVIOUS AWARD WINNERS
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
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2002
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1999
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1997
