2015-16 Macaulay Prize Winner:
The Women’s Caucus is pleased to award this year’s Catherine Macaulay Prize for best graduate student paper on a feminist or gender studies subject to Lauren Miskin, Southern Methodist University, for her essay: “Stitching Selfhood: Late Eighteenth-Century Samplers and the Crafting of British Femininity.” What stood out for the committee in Lauren Miskin’s piece was her insightful use of a material culture approach to bridge the gap between text and object in a meaningful and convincing manner, as well as her attention to class differences. In this elegantly constructed piece, Miskin demonstrates that samplers were widely pedagogical in nature, with lessons in embroidery simultaneously teaching girls geography, mathematics, and religion, in addition to the intricacies of sewing techniques. Miskin’s central argument however was the most impressive and innovative: as her appended photographs demonstrated, the costly red silk on which girls embroidered moral lessons about frugality and modest behavior are a striking illustration of the contradictions underlying the period’s feminine ideal. Miskin concludes: “these samplers’ material histories attest to how even the most properly feminine, domestic activity remained dependent upon the spoils of global capitalism.”
Committee Members: Mary McAlpin (Chair), Manushag Powell, Elizabeth Neiman
The Women’s Caucus is pleased to award this year’s Catherine Macaulay Prize for best graduate student paper on a feminist or gender studies subject to Lauren Miskin, Southern Methodist University, for her essay: “Stitching Selfhood: Late Eighteenth-Century Samplers and the Crafting of British Femininity.” What stood out for the committee in Lauren Miskin’s piece was her insightful use of a material culture approach to bridge the gap between text and object in a meaningful and convincing manner, as well as her attention to class differences. In this elegantly constructed piece, Miskin demonstrates that samplers were widely pedagogical in nature, with lessons in embroidery simultaneously teaching girls geography, mathematics, and religion, in addition to the intricacies of sewing techniques. Miskin’s central argument however was the most impressive and innovative: as her appended photographs demonstrated, the costly red silk on which girls embroidered moral lessons about frugality and modest behavior are a striking illustration of the contradictions underlying the period’s feminine ideal. Miskin concludes: “these samplers’ material histories attest to how even the most properly feminine, domestic activity remained dependent upon the spoils of global capitalism.”
Committee Members: Mary McAlpin (Chair), Manushag Powell, Elizabeth Neiman
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The Catharine Macaulay Prize
Deadline for submission: May 31, 2016 The Catharine Macaulay Prize is an annual award made by the Women’s Caucus of ASECS for the best graduate student paper on a feminist or gender studies subject presented at the ASECS Annual Meeting or at any of the regional meetings during the academic year. In addition to special recognition, the prize carries a cash award of $500. To be eligible for the prize, papers must advance understanding of gender dynamics, women’s experience, and/or women'scontributions to eighteenth-century culture, or offer a feminist analysis of any aspect of eighteenth-century culture and/or society. The paper you submit for the prize should be the one you presented at the conference without expansion or significant revision. Submissions for the Catharine Macaulay Prize must be sent directly to the ASECS office for consideration. PO Box 7867, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC 27109; or as an email attachment (Word): asecs@wfu.edu). The winner of the prize will be notified soon after the committee has made its decision and will be announced at the following year’s annual meeting and the Women's Caucus luncheon. |
Past Winners
2014-15: Rachael Schaffner, "Matters of Imag(in)ed Memory and Happy Forgetting in Frances Burney's Camilla" 2013-14: Megan Hunt, "Women Without History" Honorable Mentions: Michael Nicholson, "A Singular Experiment" Arelene Leis, "Intellectual Collecting as Sociable Display" 2012-13: Glenda Goodman, “The Economy of Accomplishment: Aesthetics and Labor in Women’s Musical Lives” 2011-12: Kate Hamilton, “She ‘came up Stairs into the World’: Elizabeth Barry and Restoration Celebrity” 2010-11: Susan Muse, “From Femme Covert to Feme Overt: Public Justice in Eliza Haywood’s The Distress’d Orphan” and Edward Kozaczka, “Queer Gardens: Cultivating Desire in Penelope Aubin’s Lucinda" |
