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Hans Turley Prize in Queer Eighteenth-Century Studies

The Hans Turley Prize recognizes the best paper on a topic in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Asexual, or Queer Studies delivered at the ASECS Annual Meeting or a regional affiliate conference by a graduate student, an untenured faculty member, or an independent scholar. The annual prize includes an award of $250. The prize committee will consist of senior members of the ASECS Queer and Trans Caucus (formerly Lesbian and Gay Caucus).

The prize is awarded to honor the memory of Hans Turley, whose pioneering work helped establish ASECS’s Lesbian and Gay Caucus in 1993. In addition to serving at the editorial helm of The Eighteenth Century: Theory and Interpretation from 1997 to 2005, Turley authored Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash: Piracy, Sexuality, and Masculine Identity (NYU Press, 1999). Sadly, Turley passed away in 2008. A 2012 special issue of ECTI recognizes the lasting effect of Turley’s work and activism. In correspondence, this annual prize further acknowledges innovative, path-forging work in eighteenth-century queer studies. 

The next prize is the 2025 Hans Turley Prize, for which papers read at the ASECS Annual Meeting or a regional affiliate conference between Sept. 30, 2023-Oct. 31, 2024 are eligible. The award will be presented at the 2025 Virtual Annual Meeting.. 

Submissions should be submitted via this Google form in Word or .pdf format in order to be eligible for consideration and by 1 November 2024: Hans Turley Prize Submission Form. 

Should uploading a file to the form prove an obstacle for submission, or if you have questions, please contact the Executive Director Benita Blessing (director@asecs.org) for an alternate means with the subject line “Hans Turley Prize.”

Hans Turley Prize, Previous Awardees

As of 2023, the prize was re-established as an annual prize; regional affiliate conference presentations also became eligible.

2023: Shelby Johnson, “‘Bone of My Bone’: Samson Occom and Cosubstantial Kinship.” 

2021: Not awarded.

2019: Jade Higa, “Bisexuality Studies and Women of Eighteenth-Century England”

2017: Ula Klein, “Female Cross-Dressers as (a) Category of (the) Lesbian in the Eighteenth Century”

2015: DeClan Kavanagh, “‘A Model Figure of the Fribble Tribe’: Charles Churchill’s Poetry and the Racialization of Effeminate Discourses”

2014: Not Awarded. The prize was re-established as a biennial prize.

2013: Jason Farr, “The ‘Merry Widow’ and the ‘Lame Duck’: Queer Widowhood and Empowered Disability in Frances Burney’s Camilla“

2012: Fiona Brideoake, “‘Keep Yourselves in Your Own Persons, Where You Are’: The Ladies of Llangollen and Queer Self-Fashioning”

2011 : Derrick R. Miller, “Moravian Familiarities: The Necessity of Thinking Queer Belongings”

Awards/Prizes