Funding & Prizes

The ASMCF provides eight prizes and funding opportunities for our members from all career stages, be it to work with schools, invite an eminent scholar or undertake essential research abroad.

Initiative Fund

The Association’s Initiative Fund provides small grants to individuals who are members of the Association to help defray the costs of research events intended to benefit a wide public, such as conferences, study days, workshops and support for postgraduate activities that engage with themes related to the field of French Studies. The Association is particularly keen to encourage and support regionally-based collaborative initiatives on the part of its members; again, these should be intended to benefit a wide public. The Initiative Fund does not support costs associated with individual travel, participation and registration for events or conferences.

Visiting Scholars’ Seminar Series

In the light of its commitment to fostering collaboration between francophone and UK academics in its fields of interest, the Association offers funding to networks of members to support an annual seminar series of three or more thematically-related events, tenable in any UK or Irish university, or institution of higher education in the UK or Ireland, each of which will include a different francophone academic based in a francophone country alongside a member of the hosting department. The Association will also consider proposals which include professionals and practitioners working in fields relevant to the academic project. The scheme is designed to support the invitation of early-career and established scholars. One grant per year to be awarded up to the value of £2500 to cover the costs of the francophone scholars and where applicable, professionals / practitioners and organisation costs of the events.

  • Terms and Conditions

    Visiting Scholars’ Seminar Series - Terms and Conditions

    The Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France is delighted to announce its Visiting Scholars’ Seminar Series. In the light of its commitment to fostering collaboration between francophone and UK academics in its fields of interest, the Association offers funding to networks of members to support an annual seminar series of three or more thematically-related events, tenable in any UK or Irish university, or institution of higher education in the UK or Ireland, each of which will include a different francophone academic based in a francophone country alongside a member of the hosting department. The Association will also consider proposals which include professionals and practitioners working in fields relevant to the academic project. The scheme is designed to support the invitation of early- career and established scholars.
    There is one deadline per year, 1 May, for activity taking place the following academic session.
    Applicants will normally be notified of the outcome of their application within one month of the closing date.
    Purpose of grant, criteria for selection and eligible costs.
    The key objective of the Visiting Scholars’ Seminar Series grant is to encourage collaboration between UK and francophone academics in the fields of interest of the Association. The emphasis will be on collaboration and on the diffusion of skills and knowledge. Where a seminar series builds on existing collaboration, the applicants in the UK or Ireland should explain what the seminar series will achieve over and above past outcomes.

  • Previous winners

    Visiting Scholars’ Seminar Series - Previous winners

    Giving Shape to the World, 2023
  • Apply for this fund

ASMCF-SSFH Schools’ Liaison and Outreach Fund for French and French History

About the prize: This prize is jointly funded by the Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France and the Society for the Study of French History. It aims to support outreach activities that promote the learning of French and the histories and cultures of the French-speaking world. Funds from £500-£1500 are available for projects up to 36 months in duration. The fund aims to support projects that: Support outreach events in schools or connecting schools with universities Create learning resources that promote the learning of French and/or histories of the French-speaking world Assist teachers in secondary education Promote the learning of marginalised histories, cultures, and societies in the French-speaking world. For more detailed information about the prize, please see the Terms and Conditions below.

  • Terms and Conditions

    ASMCF-SSFH Schools’ Liaison and Outreach Fund for French and French History - Terms and Conditions

    Please click the link below to open the Terms and Conditions of the Outreach Prize

    ASMCF-SSFH_T&C_July2022

  • Previous winners

    ASMCF-SSFH Schools’ Liaison and Outreach Fund for French and French History - Previous winners

    Previous Winners of the Former ASMCF Prize: 2019: Dr Dan Finch-Race, University of Bristol, report. Dr David Lees, University of Warwick, report Dearbhla McGrath, Challney High School for Boys in Luton. Dr Cristina Johnson, University of Stirling. 2018: Dr Fiona Barclay, University of Stirling, report.
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Early Career Award

An award of £500 will be made to an Early Career Researcher to contribute towards travel costs incurred on a short trip to one or multiple French-speaking countries.

  • Terms and Conditions

    Early Career Award - Terms and Conditions

    Applicants must be members of the Association and may apply up to six years post viva.

    Early Career Researchers – applying for the award should complete the application form, outlining their research project, the aims of their research trip and the anticipated budget for the proposed trip. Submissions should be made electronically by 15 July of the year in question to the Prizes Officer, Dr Jamie Steele.

    A subcommittee convened to adjudicate the prize will look for evidence that the trip has been well planned and that the researcher has attempted to maximize the benefits to be drawn from the time in France.

    The person to whom the prize has been awarded should provide a brief report on the trip, including details of expenses, no later than three months after return to the UK.

    The winner of the prize will be announced at the ASMCF Annual Conference.

  • Previous winners

    Early Career Award - Previous winners

    2022: Elizabeth Benjamin (Coventry) Elizabeth Benjamin report 2021: Lida Amiri, University of Liverpool Lida Amiri report 2020: Benjamin Dalton, KCL. 2019: Ashley Scott-Harris, QUB, to fund research towards her monograph on Media Authorship, Gender, Fame and the écrivain médiatique in the contemporary French literary field. 2018: Barry Nevin, Dublin Institute of Technology, for a project entitled ‘The Social Cinema of Jacques Feyder: Framing family, class and colonialism in Interwar France (1919-39)’. 2017: Joanne Brueton (UCL) towards her postdoctoral project ‘The artistic arpenteur: textual and visual spaces of selfhood in twentieth century France’.
  • Apply for this fund

Questions about a fund, prize or award?

Have a question about one of our funding opportunities? Don’t hesitate to ask.

Postgraduate Essay Prize

The Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France is delighted to offer a prize for the best Postgraduate Paper given at the annual conference. The prize consists of a £100 cheque and an invitation to submit the winning paper to the Association's journal, Modern & Contemporary France.

  • Previous winners

    Postgraduate Essay Prize - Previous winners

    2021: Cameron Cook (University of Minnesota), for his paper ‘Caribbean-ness and Political Engagement in French Rap Music’ 2019: Fraser McQueen, for an essay on the novels of Michel Houellebecq, the geographer Christophe Guilluy, and the Far Right in France. 2017: Dorthea Margery Fronsman-Cecil ‘Work, Play, Competition, and Capitalist Pedagogy in Nathalie Kuperman’s Nous étions des êtres vivants’ (UCLA). 2016: Emily St Denny, 'The gradual transformation of a weak but enduring regime: Contemporary French prostitution policy in transition (1946-2015)', (Nottingham Trent University) http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09639489.2017.1304902
  • Apply for this fund

Peter Morris Memorial Postgraduate Travel Prize

In memory of the late Peter Morris, an award of £500 will be made to a postgraduate student to contribute towards travel costs incurred on a short trip to one or multiple French-speaking countries.

  • Terms and Conditions

    Peter Morris Memorial Postgraduate Travel Prize - Terms and Conditions

    Applications should be submitted in advance of the trip, which may take place at any time during the twelve months following the deadline for applications. Applicants to the prize should be members of the Association.

    A subcommittee convened to adjudicate the prize will look for evidence that the trip has been well planned and that the student has attempted to maximize the benefits to be drawn from the time in France.

    Each student shall be required to provide a letter of support from his or her supervisor. Bids to other funding bodies either pending or known should be disclosed.

    The person to whom the prize has been awarded should provide a brief report on the trip, including details of expenses, no later than three months after return to the UK.

  • Previous winners

    Peter Morris Memorial Postgraduate Travel Prize - Previous winners

    2022: Solange Manche (University of Cambridge) Solange Manche report; Sarah Eichhorn (University of Nottingham) Sarah Eichhorn report 2020: Sky Herington (University of Warwick) Sky Herington report 2019: Hannah Loret-Howick (Nottingham Trent University) 2018: Helen Craske (University of Oxford) 2017:  Martin Parsons (Nottingham Trent University) 2016: Adam Spencer (University of Hull)
  • Apply for this fund

Brian Darling Memorial Prize

The Brian Darling Memorial Prize was established in memory of the late Brian Darling, the founding Secretary of the Association. The prize, to the value of £250, is awarded for an undergraduate essay or dissertation of distinction, which explores any theme/s relevant to the Association's remit (French history, politics, culture, society, literature, thought, film since 1789, as well as the relations between France and other countries, including those in the French-speaking world). The work may be written in either French or English and should not normally exceed five thousand words.

  • Terms and Conditions

    Brian Darling Memorial Prize - Terms and Conditions

    Essays must explore one or more themes relevant to the Association’s remit (French history, politics, culture, society, literature, thought, film since 1789, as well as the relations between France and other countries, including those in the French-speaking world). The work may be written in either French or English and should not normally exceed five thousand words.
    Essays or dissertations must be submitted by a member of academic staff (who should normally be a member of the Association) and accompanied with a current email address provided by the student. Submissions should be made electronically by 15 July of the year in question using the Application Form available on the ASMCF website. Submissions cannot be submitted by students.
    A three-person sub-committee of the Executive will be invited to serve by the Secretary to consider the submissions and determine the award of the prize. Prize-winners shall be notified directly and their names announced on the website and at the Association’s AGM.

  • Previous winners

    Brian Darling Memorial Prize - Previous winners

    2021: Megan Lloyd, King’s College London, ‘Discuss the relationship of women to politics in Algeria as represented by these texts’. 2020: Alexandra Wootton, University of Leeds, ‘“Le Vietnam a constitué, pour toute une génération, la rampe d’accès à l’action militante”. Comment la guerre du Vietnam a-t-elle provoqué une radicalisation des étudiants en France?’. 2019: Araceli Irurzu, Kings College London, ‘Only violence can cure the scars of colonial violence’. 2018: Jordan McCullough, Queen's University Belfast, ‘The messianic metaphor and the redemption narrative in three twentieth-century Antillian texts’. 2017: Eilidh Ross, '"Et toute cette humanité de cauchemar vient se heurter et s’écraser contre la herse que nous avons laissé tomber dès le 28 janvier sur les seuils de notre frontière. Et derrière cette herse, il y a des fusils et des mitrailleuses, qui sont les attributs de notre force et les moyens légitimes de notre sauvegarde [...] Mais, devant les mitrailleuses, entre elles et l’imploration de ces faces de peur et de détresse, il y a le visage calme, doux et grave de la France, de la France de saint Vincent-de-Paul et des Droits de l’homme, qui est la même depuis toujours, à travers les âges comme à travers le monde." Discuss the validity of this statement, made by Albert Sarraut in March 1939, with reference to the Spanish exodus.' 2016: Liam Innis, University of Newcastle, "Discuss how Flora Tristan blazed a trail among utopian socialists in her treatment of 'the woman question'" 2015: Julia Dobson, University of Warwick, 'Analyse and evaluate the success of the GIP's resistance to techniques of coercive governance both at home and abroad' and Danielle Hayter, University of Portsmouth, 'How and why has the contribution of African soldiers to the French war effort during the Second World War been remembered in France and Senegal since the mid-1990s?' 2014: Han Jie Chow, University of Bangor, 'Langue et identité culturelle à la Martinique' 2013: H. Silver, University of Birmingham. 2011: Charley Jarrett, University of Sussex, for ‘L'exception electorale française’.
  • Apply for this fund

Douglas Johnson Memorial Essay Prize

The Douglas Johnson Memorial Essay Prize was established in memory of the late Douglas Johnson, the first Honorary President of the Association. The prize, to the value of £250, is awarded for an undergraduate essay or dissertation of distinction, which explores any theme/s relevant to the Association's remit (French history, politics, culture, society, literature, thought, film since 1789, as well as the relations between France and other countries, including those in the French-speaking world). The work may be written in either French or English and should be over five thousand words, but not exceed ten thousand words.

  • Terms and Conditions

    Douglas Johnson Memorial Essay Prize - Terms and Conditions

    Essays must explore one or more themes relevant to the Association’s remit (French history, politics, culture, society, literature, thought, film since 1789, as well as the relations between France and other countries, including those in the French-speaking world). The work may be written in either French or English and should be over five thousand words, but not exceed ten thousand words.
    Essays or dissertations must be submitted by a member of academic staff (who should normally be a member of the Association) and accompanied with a current email address provided by the student. Submissions should be made electronically by 15 July of the year in question using the Application Form available on the ASMCF website. Submissions cannot be submitted by students.
    A three-person sub-committee of the Executive will be invited to serve by the Secretary to consider the submissions and determine the award of the prize. Prize-winners shall be notified directly and their names announced on the website and at the Association’s AGM.

  • Previous winners

    Douglas Johnson Memorial Essay Prize - Previous winners

    2021: Millie Jacoby, University of Warwick, ‘The Body as physical site of trauma in Francophone Jewish Women’s Post-Holocaust Writing’. 2020: Izabela Bester, University of Surrey, ‘Le mouvement des gilets jaunes : une analyse stratégique’. 2019: Jessica Phillip James, Coventry University, ‘Camus and Godard: An Analysis of the Representation of Absurdist Philosophy in Dramatic and Literary Movements in Post-War France’. 2018: Dora Baker, University of Bristol, 'Les femmes tondues: victims of an emasculated France'. 2017: Fraser McRobert, University of Glasgow, 'The Former Concentration Camp of Natzweiler-Struth of as a Place of Memory'. 2015: Liam Jones, University of Portsmouth, 'Mitterrand, Kohl and the quest for EMU: an awkward inheritance or a visionary endeavour? An analysis of the motives behind increased Franco-German economic integration in Europe from 1982-1995 and its consequences'. 2014: Sally Jensen, University of Southampton 'Fighting in France: the struggles of identity adaptation and liminality for Chinese students in Paris'. 2013: Christopher Leffler, University of Sheffield. 2011 The 2011 Douglas Johnson Prize was awarded to Philippe Le Goff, University of Warwick, for his essay 'May 1968: socio-economic modernism and the new spirit of capitalism'.
  • Apply for this fund

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