Book Prize
The BAVS-Rosemary Mitchell Prize 2024 goes to:
Alexander Bubb, Asian Classics on the Victorian Bookshelf: Flights of Translation (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023)
Honourable Mention:
Fabrice Bensimon, Artisans Abroad: British Migrant Workers in Industrialising Europe, 1815–1870 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023)
Annually, BAVS awards the Rosemary Mitchell Book Prize to the best second monograph published that year in Victorian studies. The prize is judged by a panel of BAVS scholars.
The prize winner is normally announced in mid-June and will be expected to attend the following BAVS conference (conference fee, accommodation and travel expenses will be paid by BAVS) later in the summer. A panel will be devoted to the prize winning book. There will also be a cash prize of £500.
The BAVS-Rosemary Mitchell Prize for a Second Monograph 2025
Annually, BAVS awards the Rosemary Mitchell Book Prize to the best second monograph published that year in Victorian studies. The prize is judged by a panel of BAVS scholars.
Unlike other book prizes, this is specifically intended to honour the work of mid-career Victorianists in all disciplines who publish a monograph over the past year. The Prize will draw the attention of the Victorian Studies community to important new work in the field. The Prize also represents a celebration of the monograph as a form. Full rules are below.
Judges: Dr. Melissa Gustin, Dr. Vicky Mills (Chair), Dr Rieko Suzuki.
Rules
This is a prize awarded by the British Association for Victorian Studies (BAVS) which is intended for mid-career scholars. The winning book will be the second book by a scholar.
Eligible contenders must have published a scholarly work in Victorian Studies between 17 February 2024 and 17 February 2025. In order to submit, an author has to be a paid up member of BAVS on 30 April 2025. This will be checked. Members of BAVS outside the UK can enter books for the prize. Applicants for the prize do not need to have a university post.
The work needs to be a scholarly monograph in Victorian Studies (multi-authored books of articles will not be acceptable but joint-authored monographs will be and the prize can be shared). We will not accept scholarly editions of Victorian texts, neo-Victorian novels or websites.
We will accept monograph studies devoted to the long nineteenth century (broadly defined) but will also accept texts that deal with neo-Victorian Studies as well. The work in question does need to have some post-1830 content (up to 1914). The prize is open to scholars in any discipline that deals with nineteenth-century Britain (including Britain’s relationship with the wider world).
Publishers or authors may nominate a book. A covering letter (either by the author or the publisher) must indicate the name and publication details of the author’s first book. We accept that the author’s first book may not have been in Victorian Studies: they simply have to have published an earlier book. If publishers or authors wish to check if a work is eligible or not, they should email v.mills@bbk.ac.uk before 15 April 2025. The covering letter can be sent separately by email (to the Chair Victoria Mills at the above address) if desired.
The judges will need to be provided with THREE hard copies of the nominated work (paperback copies are acceptable). IMPORTANT: The author/publisher needs to email v.mills@bbk.ac.uk with details of the book. Victoria Mills will then provide the addresses to which the author/publisher needs to send the books.
The final deadline for receipt of books is 1st May 2025. Volumes received after that date will not be eligible and will not be returned. It is the responsibility of authors to make sure that publishers send over copies of the book. We do not expect authors to pay for copies and take no responsibility for this. Books sent for consideration will not be returned. Dispatch of the books by authors or publishers grants BAVS ownership of them.
The cash prize is £500. If a monograph is joint authored, the prize money will be divided between the authors. The prize winner is normally announced in mid-June and will be expected to attend the following BAVS conference later in the summer. (conference fee, travel expenses and a contribution to accommodation will be paid by BAVS). A panel will be devoted to the prize-winning book. There will also be a cash prize of £500.
All judges are required to declare any conflict of interest.
The Judges’ decision is final.
The Prize is named after the late Professor/Reverend Rosemary Mitchell (1967-2001). Rosemary was a brilliant scholar who served on the board of BAVS. Her superb work which covered history, literature and art history, embodied the interdisciplinary project for which BAVS stands. Naming the Prize after her serves as an inspiration to Victorianists well into the future.
Previous winners
In 2023, the prize was awarded to Lara Kriegel, The Crimean War and its Afterlife: Making Modern Britain (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022), with an honourable mention given to Rosalind Crone for Illiterate Inmates: Educating Criminals in Nineteenth Century England (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022).
The prize was awarded in 2022 to Bill Bell’s Crusoe’s Books: Readers in the Empire of Print, 1800-1918 (Oxford University Press).
This prize was awarded for the first time in 2021 to Jen Manion’s Female Husbands: A Trans History (Cambridge University Press) with an honourable mention for Rachel Teukolsky’s Picture World: Image, Aesthetics and Victorian New Media (Oxford University Press).
BAVS marked the event with a Zoom session on 28 July 2021 when Jen Manion discussed her book with a group of scholars. Click here to watch the recording.