The Society awards a number of prizes each year, recognising and rewarding excellence amongst undergraduate and postgraduate students, early career researchers, and authors of books in the field of French studies.
The Society owes its three R. H. Gapper prize to the generosity of the Gapper Charitable Trust, founded by Richard Gapper (1943β2014). Richard was involved in the Society for French Studies for many years, beginning in the mid-1990s. Not just an assiduous participant in the Societyβs annual conference, he was Honorary Treasurer of the Society from 1997 to 2000, and a long-standing member of its Finance Committee.
The R. Gapper Undergraduate Essay Prize is awarded annually for the best essay submitted by an undergraduate student at a university based in the United Kingdom or the Republic of Ireland. The award includes a cash prize of Β£250, expenses-paid travel to the next annual conference of the Society for French Studies, and mention in the French Studies Bulletin and on the Society for French Studies website.
The Society welcomes submissions from the broad multidisciplinary range of French Studies, across time periods and geographies, to include work on history and politics, cinema and media cultures, literary, cultural and post-colonial studies, and French linguistics.
Every university can submit up to two annual entries. Students from 13 different universities have won the prize or been commended as runners up since 2008.
The deadline for entries to this yearβs prize, for an essay written in the 12 months prior to July 2026, is 17 July 2026. The details of the winner and runner up will be published in November 2026.
A prize will be awarded by the Society for French Studies for an essay in English or French, up to 6,000 words in length, on any subject within the scope of French studies. The award will be for outstanding academic merit at postgraduate level, and the judges will be a subcommittee of the Trustees of the Society for French Studies. The award includes: a cash prize of Β£750; expenses-paid travel to the next annual conference of the Society for French Studies; mention in the French Studies Bulletin and on the Society for French Studies website. Information on the next iteration of the prize will be available in November 2026.
In 2008 the Society for French Studies launched an annual Malcolm Bowie Prize, to be awarded for the best article published in the preceding year by an early-career researcher in the broader discipline of French Studies. Malcolm Bowie (1943β2007) was not only the most eminent and inspirational Anglophone scholar of French literature and theory of his generation, but a towering figure in the field because of his tireless devotion to the scholarly community in the UK and beyond. His service to the Society for French Studies is just one example: he was President of the Society from 1994 to 1996, as well as General Editor of its journal French Studies from 1980 to 1987. The Society felt that it was particularly appropriate to honour his memory by founding a prize for which only early-career researchers are eligible, since he was a remarkable mentor to countless younger scholars, nationally and internationally.
The prize competition is usually announced towards the end of the calendar year, with a deadline near the end of February in the new year. A small international panel, chaired by the President or Vice-President of the Society for French Studies, reads and assesses the articles. The winner, announced in the Spring on the website, on Francofil, and in the French Studies Bulletin, receives a prize of Β£1000 and is invited, as a guest of the Society, to that summerβs Annual Conference (with conference fees and accommodation costs covered by the Society).
Details on the 2026 competition will be announced in due course.
Each year, the Society awards the prestigious R. Gapper book prize for a book in the field of French studies or for comparative work in which French features significantly, published for the first time in the previous calendar year, by a scholar based in an institution of higher education in the United Kingdom or Ireland. It includes a cash prize of Β£2000, and expenses-paid travel to the next annual conference of the Society for French Studies. In addition, the award is publicized in French Studies, French Studies Bulletin: A Quarterly Supplement and on the Societyβs website.
Entries for 2026 closed on Friday 28 August 2026.
Launched in 2026, the SFS Prize for Schools is an initiative for Year 12 A-Level French students in the UK and students at an equivalent stage of study in Ireland. The prize is designed to support students in developing their research skills, while encouraging deeper engagement with the French and francophone world. In the UK, it also complements preparation for the Independent Research Project (IRP). More broadly, it invites students to explore a topic that genuinely interests them, strengthen their analytical and creative skills, and experience the kind of independent learning that forms an important part of university study.
Through the SFS Prize for Schools, the Society for French Studies celebrates student curiosity, independent research, and creative engagement with French and francophone studies, while helping students build confidence as they move from school-level learning towards university study.
The project is currently in a pilot for 2026, working with several schools in England. We anticipate that the Prize will launch nationwide in 2027; please check this page around January 2027 for more information. Colleagues (or students) in schools who would like more information are warmly encouraged to contact the Schools Officer, Dr. Marion Krauthaker (schools@sfs.ac.uk), in the meantime.