Women’s Caucus Editing and Translation Prize Winners for 2024:
Juliette Paul: “Astrea’s Booke: A Digital Edition of Bodleian Library MS Firth c. 16.”
Astrea’s Booke for Songs and Satyrs is a seventeenth-century miscellany manuscript best known for its presumed connection to Aphra Behn, who has been identified through handwriting analysis as one of its contributors. The manuscript has been long valued for the insights it affords into Behn’s rarely glimpsed private world. However, as Paul emphasizes, the connection between Behn and Astrea’s Book is “as much speculation as scholarship” and thus worth revisiting given advances in digital methods. The manuscript’s research and pedagogical value furthermore exceeds its link to a canonical figure: approaching it holistically is an opportunity to gain insights into Restoration scribal culture and women’s literary history. Paul envisions this project as both a widely accessible critical edition and an invitation for digital collaboration: connecting Astrea’s Book to other digitized contemporaneous manuscripts through crowdsourcing will not only help us better understand Behn’s relationship to Astrea’s Book; it's a starting place for identifying the miscellany’s many scribes. The committee was particularly impressed with Paul’s clear articulation of the scope and value of this project, as well as her background in both book history and methods of digital analysis. In addition to having attended Rare Book School and collaborating on digital critical editions of other texts, she has recently received a Masters of Science in Data Science with a focus on “using deep learning and computer vision techniques to detect marginalia in early modern English print books.” We look forward to seeing how she utilizes this constellation of skills to advance our understanding of women’s experiences in the eighteenth century.
Juliette Paul: “Astrea’s Booke: A Digital Edition of Bodleian Library MS Firth c. 16.”
Astrea’s Booke for Songs and Satyrs is a seventeenth-century miscellany manuscript best known for its presumed connection to Aphra Behn, who has been identified through handwriting analysis as one of its contributors. The manuscript has been long valued for the insights it affords into Behn’s rarely glimpsed private world. However, as Paul emphasizes, the connection between Behn and Astrea’s Book is “as much speculation as scholarship” and thus worth revisiting given advances in digital methods. The manuscript’s research and pedagogical value furthermore exceeds its link to a canonical figure: approaching it holistically is an opportunity to gain insights into Restoration scribal culture and women’s literary history. Paul envisions this project as both a widely accessible critical edition and an invitation for digital collaboration: connecting Astrea’s Book to other digitized contemporaneous manuscripts through crowdsourcing will not only help us better understand Behn’s relationship to Astrea’s Book; it's a starting place for identifying the miscellany’s many scribes. The committee was particularly impressed with Paul’s clear articulation of the scope and value of this project, as well as her background in both book history and methods of digital analysis. In addition to having attended Rare Book School and collaborating on digital critical editions of other texts, she has recently received a Masters of Science in Data Science with a focus on “using deep learning and computer vision techniques to detect marginalia in early modern English print books.” We look forward to seeing how she utilizes this constellation of skills to advance our understanding of women’s experiences in the eighteenth century.
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Editing and Translation Fellowship
Deadline: January 15, 2025 Award: $1000 The Editing and Translation Fellowship is an annual award made by the ASECS Women’s Caucus to support an editing or a translation work-in-progress of an eighteenth-century primary text by a woman writer or a work that significantly advances our understanding of women’s experiences in the eighteenth century. Projects typically fall within the period from 1660 to 1820. Editing and translation of eighteenth-century texts in languages other than English are eligible. The award is meant to fund works-in-progress, commensurate in scope with a scholarly article to a longer scholarly and/or a classroom edition with a strong scholarly basis for which research and work is well under way, rather than work that is already completed. The award is open to all members of ASECS who have received a PhD. Proposals from emeritae/i faculty that do not already have professional support for the project will also be considered. The prize carries an award of $1000. The award will be publicly announced at the annual ASECS meeting Women's Caucus luncheon. Historically, the award winner has served on the award selection committee for the subsequent year. Within a year of the award announcement the winner must submit to the caucus chairs a brief written report on the progress of the project. Then the winner will receive a check or direct deposit from the ASECS office. Award winners should acknowledge this grant’s support in the publication that results from the project. Applications must include an abbreviated curriculum vitae that lists achievements relevant to the project, a three-to-five-page proposal outlining the project, a two-page bibliography of pertinent works, and a budget explaining the candidate’s plans for using the funds. Please submit your application here. |
Past Winners
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