It means a great deal to me that my PhD thesis has been recognised with this award. I’d like to express heartfelt thanks to the whole French Department for providing such a friendly institutional home, and to my supervisors and examiners for their hard work and support.
Dr Matt Lampitt
14 January 2020
French Department students awarded prizes for academic work
Three former students of the French department at King’s have been awarded prizes for their outstanding academic work.
Dr Matt Lampitt was awarded a King’s outstanding PhD thesis prize for his thesis entitled ‘Networking the March: The Literature of the Welsh Marches, c. 1180-c. 1410’ under the supervision of Professor Simon Gaunt. Matt who is now a Junior Research Fellow at St John’s College Cambridge was delighted to be awarded the prize.
Two former undergraduate students in the French department have also been awarded prizes for their excellent coursework. Araceli Iruzun Perez won the 2020 Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France Douglas Johnson Memorial Prize. She wrote an essay for the final-year module on French Anticolonial Thought, taught by Dr Stathis Kouvelakis, on the topic ‘Only Violence Can Cure the Scars of Colonial Violence’. Araceli, who is now doing a course on International Relations at the London School of Economics, said:
From translating Flaubert and Camus, debating Beauvoir and Fanon to studying the art of May 68, the modules within the French Department have satisfied my academic curiosity and granted me the critical skills needed to confidently take my studies further at graduate level. Being awarded the Douglas Johnson Memorial Prize is a testament to a department which pushes students to be their best, challenging their preconceptions but never doubting the value of their insight.
Araceli Iruzun Perez
Finally, Lou Ansaldi, who studied in the French department during the year 2018-19, won the Women in French award for the best undergraduate essay written in French for her topic, ‘La sexualité des femmes et leur rôle dans la reproduction sont à la base de leur oppression actuelle et, par conséquent, de leur libération future’. The essay can be downloaded here. Lou is now taking a Public Affairs Masters degree at Sciences Po in Paris.
It was a lovely surprise! I am very glad for the opportunity I had to study different feminist movements in King’s French department. It was a rich and fulfilling course about the evolving place of women in society and the reflection and struggles to move it forward. Thank you!
Lou Ansaldi
A huge congratulations to all three students on their academic success!
(Aug 2022 - The Department of French is now the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures)