Created in 1995 to honor the memory of Laurence Wylie, Professor of French Civilization at Harvard University, the Laurence Wylie Prize in French Cultural Studies is awarded every second year to the best book in French studies. The Prize is administered by the faculty of NYU’s Institute of French Studies.
This year, nominated books must have been published in 2024 or 2025. Eligibility:
Nominated books must be scholarly essays dealing with French society or culture concerning any historical period. France is conceived in broad geographic terms, including the Caribbean, Africa, the Maghreb, the Indian Ocean, South and Southeast Asia, etc.
Books may be written in English or French, and authors may be of any nationality, but they must reside in North America.
While fiction and literary criticism are excluded, nominated books may combine literature with other disciplines.
Authors at any stage of their career may submit books. All things being equal, however, the Prize Committee will give preference to an author’s first significant book.
Essays or source collections, reeditions, textbooks, etc., are not eligible.
The deadline for submissions is April 15, 2026. The prize will be announced in the fall of 2026 and awarded at NYU. Presses may submit more than one book. For further inquiries, please contact the committee chair, Stéphane Gerson (stephane.gerson@nyu.edu).
Please send a copy of each nominated book to the members of the Prize Committee by April 15, 2026 (a total of four copies):
Jennifer Boittin
Dept. of History – UNC Chapel Hill
554A Hamilton Hall
102 Emerson Dr., CB #3195
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3195
Anny-Dominique Curtius
Department of Languages, Literatures, Linguistics and Cultures
The University of Iowa
555 Phillips Hall
Iowa City, IA 52242-1323
Jeff Horn
Dean of Social Sciences
Bellevue College
3000 Landerholm Circle SE, Room A254 C
Bellevue, WA 98007
Stéphane Gerson (non-voting chair)
Institute of French Studies
NYU
15 Washington Mews
New York, NY 10003