CCWH Prelinger Award Winner

PAMELA STEWART (2001)

A graduate student completing her degree at the University of Arizona under the direction of Laura Tabili, Pamela Stewart is now completing her dissertation entitled "'Women Only When Dead': Gender Transgression and the Formation of the French Third Republic". She will use the Prelinger Award to cover costs of travel to the Archives Nationale, Archives de Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, and Bibliotheque Marguerite Durand in Paris, and the International Institute for Social History in Amsterdam, where she will explore the rich collections of data from the Paris Commune of 1871.

The award committee was impressed by the research project she has developed for the dissertation that she is now completing at the University of Arizona. Her project explores the violent uprisings and repression of the Paris Commune and focuses on women's agency in those events. A representative government formed by the lower classes of Paris, the Commune came in response to the Third Republic's attempt at economic and political marginalization of Parisian lower classes in the wake of the Franco-Prussian War. Stewart focuses on the experiences of Communard women, arguing that women's words and actions reveal their understandings of themselves as citizens, feminists, socialists, women, republicans, and people. She seeks then to determine whether republicanism in the Third Republic was constructed as essentially anti-feminist, even anti-woman, and whether the Republic's efforts to kill, deport, or imprison as many "un-feminine" women as possible was a primary and not tangential component in the creation of that Republic. Although the brutal treatment of women through assault, torture, rape, and murder is now acknowledged as a tool of war and state formation in fascist and totalitarian regimes, violence specifically targeting women during the formation of a republic, ostensibly founded on universal principles of liberty, equality, and "brotherhood" remains unanalyzed. Stewart's research seeks to fill that void and to serve as a basis of comparison for the use of gendered violence in other settings. Finally, Stewart seeks to set the events of the Commune within the context of the history of French feminism.

The committee was also impressed by Stewart's non-traditional life course and by her ability to redirect herself and find her way into the historical profession. Youthful but significant choices left her outside academe for two decades, but when she opted to return to college, she rediscovered her intellectual ability and found a new perception of herself as a woman. She is now deeply devoted to countering the sexism that continues to pervade society. Sexism has affected and inhibited her own life and the lives of her daughters and Stewart's enjoyment of teaching is increased by her recognition that the teaching and production of Women's History is a fundamental personal and political tool in fighting sexism.

Ms. Stewart offers her deepest appreciation to Dr. Laura Tabili, as chair of her doctoral committee, and to Professors Rachel Fuchs, Arizona State University and Kathleen Jones, San Diego State University, who have provided ongoing and substantial support and guidance.

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The Coordinating Council for Women in History, an organization for women in the historical profession, is committee to exploring the diverse experiences and histories of all women. Its primary goals are to educate men and women on the status of women in the historical profession and to promote research and interpretation in the areas of women’s history.

Information about the Prelinger Prize and other CCWH awards is available here.