The James Baldwin Essay Prize

James Baldwin

The France-Stanford Center for Interdisciplinary Studies announces a prize competition for a research essay by a Stanford PhD student in Humanities, Arts or Social Sciences on a topic concerning some aspect of French or francophone society and culture. The analysis could be historical, literary, aesthetic, sociological, economic or any combination of these, depending on the author’s field(s).

Applications for AY 2025-26 are now closed.

Our prizes are named for three people whose lives and careers spanned France and the United States, bringing French and American culture and society into dynamic conversation with one another.

An American novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, and activist, James Baldwin (1924-1987) was born in Harlem, New York City and emigrated to France in 1948 at the age of 24, first to Paris’s Left Bank, later settling in Saint-Paul-de-Vence in the South of France. In moving to France, Baldwin was seeking a setting in which to think, write and conduct his career outside the confines of American racism and race politics. From the vantage point of an expatriate, he examined the complexities of race, class, sexual and national identities. His non-fiction writing offers the subtle clarity of his irreducible perspective on these subjects, while his fiction powerfully conveys the experience of being a human at the focus of myriad social and psychological pressures. Our advanced PhD-level essay prize is named in honor of him.

Eligibility

  • Stanford graduate students who have advanced to candidacy in a PhD program in Humanities, Arts or Social Sciences (PhD students who have not advanced to candidacy should apply to the Louise Bourgeois Essay Prize instead)

Deadline (closed) - June 1, 2026

Application content

  • A biographical sketch of the applicant (500 words maximum)
  • Research essay (10,000 word maximum), Chicago-style citations, on a topic comparing some aspect of French or francophone society and culture. The analysis could be historical, literary, aesthetic, sociological, economic or any combination of these, depending on the author’s field(s)
  • Curriculum vitae (C.V.), preferably in .pdf format
  • Current unofficial transcript (download from AXESS)

Prize amount

  • $1,000

Application process

  • Send materials to Emily Engstrand, Program Manager, emeng [at] stanford.edu (emeng[at]stanford[dot]edu).

Questions

  • Emily Engstrand, Program Manager, emeng [at] stanford.edu (emeng[at]stanford[dot]edu), or Fiona Griffiths, Director, fgriffit [at] stanford.edu (fgriffit[at]stanford[dot]edu)
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