R. Gapper Undergraduate Essay Prize
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 £250
- 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
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.
Information on the next iteration of the prize, for an essay written in the 12 months prior to July 2025, will be available in May 2025. The closing date for submissions each year is in mid-July, with details of the winner and runner-up published in November.
2024 Recipients
The Society for French Studies warmly congratulates Imogen Whalley (University of Cambridge), winner of the 2024 UG Gapper Prize. We also extend our congratulations to the runner-up this year, Olivia Nevins (Durham University). We would like to thank all institutions that sent entries. The judging panel was extremely impressed with the quality and range of work presented this year.
Winner: Imogen Whalley
| Project | "Repetition and innovation are both integral parts of the invention so crucial to medieval French literature." Discuss with reference to 'La Chanson de Roland' and 'Tristan'. |
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| Institution | University of Cambridge |
Runner up: Olivia Nevins
| Project | "Explore the aestheticization of archival visual material in Alain Resnais’ 'Nuit et Brouillard' (1957) and László Nemes’ 'Son of Saul' (2015)." |
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| Institution | Durham University |
Conditions of entry
To be eligible for submission the essay must be:
- entirely the student’s own work and submitted in unrevised form
- addressing a topic within the broad scope of the discipline of French studies
- written in either English or French, with any quotations from French supplied in the original language
- written in the past twelve months
- between 2000 and 5000 words (including notes but excluding bibliography)
- word-processed with numbered pages
- submitted without the name of the student, or institution, appearing in the essay
- submitted by the university, with the student’s agreement, as one of up to two annual submissions per university
- accompanied by a separate coversheet (which should be downloaded via the link below)
- submitted on the understanding that no correspondence will be entered into by the Society regarding individual essays.
Submissions (essay plus cover sheet) should come via the Head of French, Programme Director for French, or equivalent.
How the competition is judged
The competition is judged in two rounds. In the first round every essay is judged anonymously by two appropriately selected members of the Executive Committee of the Society for French Studies who are unaware of the submitting university but who are made aware of relevant contextual information supplied on the coversheet.
The five best essays from that first round then undergo a second round of judging by a panel normally comprising the Society’s President and Vice President, the Co-ordinator of the R. Gapper Undergraduate Essay Prize, the Co-ordinator of the R. Gapper Postgraduate Essay Prize and the Editor of the French Studies Bulletin.
To avoid conflicts of interest, in both rounds no essay is judged by someone from the same institution as the author of the essay. In the second round, this sometimes requires that one or more substitute judges be selected from the wider Executive Committee to assess all of the five essays.
The prize is awarded for an essay of outstanding merit at undergraduate level and which is also the best essay submitted in its year. The winning essay will be exceptionally distinguished work for that level: critically or theoretically sophisticated, intellectually adventurous, original in its approach and expressed in sophisticated and elegant English or French. It will also be worthy of publication without major revision.
Previous recipients
2023
The Society for French Studies warmly congratulates Megan Green (University of Exeter), winner of the 2023 UG Gapper Prize, and runners up Georgia Botros (KCL) and Cory Nguyen (UCL).
Winner: Megan Green
| Project | “Love is the extremely difficult realisation that something other than oneself is real” (Iris Murdoch). Discuss with reference to TWO OR MORE texts by different authors studied on this module. |
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| Institution | University of Exeter |
Runner up: Georgia Botros
| Project | ‘“All filmmaking practice, whatever its genre or form, implies an ethical commitment on the part of the filmmaker”. Discuss in relation to TWO OR MORE of the films studied for this module’ |
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| Institution | KCL |
Runner up: Cory Nguyen
| Project | 'The nineteenth-century observer is “an effect of a […] system of discursive, social, technological, and institutional relations”, writes Jonathan Crary. Consider through an analysis of possible observing subjects in La Cousine Bette.’ |
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| Institution | UCL |
2022
The Society for French Studies warmly congratulates Samuel Myers (University of Oxford) and runner-up, Elizabeth Apps (University of Cambridge) as the recipients of the 2022 UG Gapper Prize.
Winner: Samuel Myers
| Project | “French Poetry of the Mid-Sixteenth Century / ‘L’humour dans un recueil poétique dépend surtout de l’importance accordée au « moi » de l’auteur.’ Discuss with reference to the work of ONE OR MORE poets of this period.” |
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| Institution | University of Oxford |
Runner up: Elizabeth Apps
| Project | ‘Medieval French poets deploy the spaces they depict to reinvent notions of self and love.’ |
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| Institution | University of Cambridge |
2021
Winner: Jack Nunn
| Project | ‘New Ecologies: Plants, Stones, Robots / “Un mur strié de lignes, d’entailles, de marques… Une tranche de temps” (MAYLIS DE KERANGAL). Discuss the relationship between human and nonhuman histories in ONE OR MORE works.’ |
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| Institution | Worcester College, University of Oxford |
Runner up: Lidija Beric
| Project | ‘La figure d’Émilie du Châtelet sert de modèle pour la possibilité de franchir les frontières entre les pays, les disciplines, et les genres, mais son recours constant à la pensée d’autrui l’empêche d’y réussir elle-même.’ |
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| Institution | University of Cambridge |
Runner up: Jasmine Walker
| Project | ‘Discuss the relationship between the representation of the natural world in Pagano’s Les Adolescents troglodytes and Adèle’s story as a trans woman’. |
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| Institution | University of Warwick |
2020
Winner: Francesca Hearing
| Project | ‘For Abdelkebir Khatibi, the Mediterranean is a space which allows and offers the potential to “transformer les souffrances et humiliations et dépressions dans la relation aux autres”. |
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| Institution | University of Oxford |
Runner up: Clíona Nic Lochlainn
| Project | ‘Analyse, with reference to two plays studied, the interplay between the representation of origins and the representation of gender in Racine.’ |
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| Institution | University College Dublin |
Runner up: Anna Gier
| Project | ‘Le poète demeure ouvert à l’expérience d’un sacré qui se définit par la séparation et qui confronte l’homme à ce qui le déborde’ (COLLOT). Discuss the work of TWO OR MORE poets in the light of this quotation.’ |
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| Institution | University of Oxford |
2019
Winner: Ellen Kemp
| Project | 'Compare and contrast the relationship between voice, space, and forms of intimacy in Chantal Akerman’s Sud (1999) and Corine Shawi’s E-muet (2013)' |
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| Institution | University of Bristol |
2018
Winner: Kathleen Mitchell Fox
| Project | 'Talking Holes and Meaningless Sex: Exploring Gender and Signification in the Old French Fabliaux' |
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| Institution | University of Cambridge |
2017
Winner: Peter Tellouche
| Project | ‘The rich detail with which the experience of time is treated in individual sentences is hard to reconcile with the big-time temporality of Proust’s novel as a whole.’ Discuss. |
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| Institution | University of Oxford |
2016
Winner: Eleanor Chapman
| Project | ‘"The monstrous and the non-human may present a threat to human culture but they also offer solutions to what seem like logical and narrative impasses.” Discuss with reference to at least two texts.’ |
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| Institution | University of Cambridge |
Winner: Jack Flowers
| Project | ‘"L’une des thématiques majeures de la poésie de cette époque est la métropole, conçue comme l’un des lieux privilégiés où s’entremêlent l’ancien et le moderne, la solitude et la foule, le « haut » et le « bas ».”' |
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| Institution | University of Oxford |
Runner up: Imran Rahman-Jones
| Project | ‘Why was Michel Debré removed from office in April 1962 and why did de Gaulle choose George Pompidou as his replacement?’ |
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| Institution | University of Nottingham |
Runner up: Michael Sole
| Project | ‘Whether it is through the exploration of memory or of the shocks and exhilarations of the present moment, Proust’s novel is concerned, above all, with the individual’s relation to time.’ |
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| Institution | University of Exeter |
Runner up: Lucy Taylor
| Project | ‘Addressing the Mediation of Images and Their Implementation in the Construction of Truth in the Works of Rithy Panh' |
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| Institution | Durham University |
Runner up: Sophie Wright
| Project | ‘How do French literary and cinematic representations of the Second World War represent survival?’ |
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| Institution | Newcastle University |
2015
Winner: Daniel Daly
| Project | ‘“La bête e(s)t le souverain.” Discuss with reference to the first session of Derrida’s La Bête et le souverain.' |
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| Institution | King’s College London |
Runner up: Harry McCarthy
| Project | ‘Discuss how Proust’s syntax and imagery interact with the thematic preoccupations of the novel.’ |
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| Institution | University of Exeter |
Runner up: Rachel Hindmarsh
| Project | ‘The Machine-Man: An Exploration of Masculinity and Modernism in First World War France.’ |
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| Institution | University of Bristol |
2014
Winner: Rupinder Kaur
| Project | ‘Discuss the significance of joy with reference to two 17th century texts: Clélie and L’École des filles’. |
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| Institution | University College London |
Runner up: Cameron Quinn
| Project | ‘Rousseau ne s’est pas suffisamment rendu compte à quel point son style astucieux rendait sa lecture et sa compréhension difficiles’ |
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| Institution | University of Oxford |
2013
Winner: Dulcie fforde
| Project | ‘“L’image n’a pas de sens propre” (Compagnon). Discuss the pertinence of the claim in relation to Renaissance poetic practice.’ |
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| Institution | University of Oxford |
Runner up: Hannah Stodart
| Project | ‘Define and discuss the “Sociolinguistic Gender Pattern”, using examples from French as far as possible.’ |
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| Institution | University of Leeds |
Runner up: Rebecca Sugden
| Project | ‘“The apparent waywardness of Diderot’s thought simply serves to prove the complexity of the exterior world it mirrors.” Discuss with reference to Le Supplément au voyage de Bougainville and Le Neveu de Rameau.’ |
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| Institution | University of Cambridge |
2012
Winner: Amy Cowan
| Project | ‘A la recherche du temps perdu has been described as an epistemological quest. Explain and exemplify what this might mean.’ |
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| Institution | University of Oxford |
Runner up: Charlotte Holt
| Project | ‘Analyse and discuss the representation of friendship in two or more of the seventeenth-century texts you have studied.’ |
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| Institution | UCL |
Runner up: Matthew Phillips
| Project | ‘Despite the etymology of the term, the libertine is never free.’ |
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| Institution | University of Cambridge |
2011
Winner: Martina Williams
| Project | ‘For John Locke, memory was a condition, sine qua non, for selfhood. To what extent is this idea prefigured, referenced, critiqued and/or parodied in Montaigne’s Essais, Du côté de chez Swann and Molloy?’ |
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| Institution | University of Nottingham |
Runner up: Joseph Revill
| Project | ‘To what extent was there opposition to Napoleon between the years 1799-1815?’ |
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| Institution | University of Warwick |
Runner up: Edmund Chambers
| Project | ‘In what sense, and to what extent, does Beckett’s work attest to “the death of the subject”?’ |
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| Institution | University of Nottingham |
2010
Winner: Claire Strickett
| Project | 'Femmes-démon or victims? Reconsidering the source of the malevolent in Maupassant’s Contes fantastiques.' |
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| Institution | University of Glasgow |
Runner up: Aimee Linekar
| Project | ‘”Dis-moi ce que tu manges, je te dirai ce que tu es” (Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, Aphorisme IV). Examine the roles of food, drink and intoxication in Jean-Claude Izzo’s Chourmo in light of this quotation.’ |
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| Institution | University of St Andrews |
2009
Winner: Joe Oakley
| Project | ‘"Evidence from the history of French provides a strong argument against the idea of typological consistency, thereby threatening the very foundations of linguistic typology.” Discuss.’ |
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| Institution | University of Cambridge |
Runner up: Annie Tate-Harte
| Project | ‘Discuss Michel de Certeau’s view that “on n’habite que des lieux hantés”, with reference to [...]: Atget’s photography of Paris streets; Nadar’s photography of the souterrains of Paris; Chronique d’un été; Le Pont du Nord; La Reprise.’ |
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| Institution | UCL |
Runner up: Moya Samer
| Project | ‘”Before any feminist politicization, it is important to recognize the strong phallogocentric underpinning that conditions our cultural heritage.” Discuss with reference to Julia Kristeva.' |
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| Institution | University of Cambridge |
(Cambridge): |
2008
Winner: Clodagh Kinsella
| Project | ‘In your view, what is the specific contribution of poetry and/or fiction to the representation of painful experiences?’ |
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| Institution | UCL |
Runner up: Adam Strowger
| Project | ‘"Addressed throughout as vous, the reader is established as the repository of values antithetical to those espoused in the text”. Discuss the relationship between narrator and reader in the Journal du voleur in light of this.' |
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| Institution | Durham University |
Runner up: Harald Stevenson
| Project | ‘Théodore de Bèze’s conception of the elegy.’ |
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| Institution | University of Cambridge |