PhD candidate Louise Swaffer was awarded聽the 2024 Atlantic Studies Early Career Essay Prize for her article聽鈥淲omen鈥檚 Protestant Foreign Mission Work and Settler State Formation in Canada: A Re-examination of the Scottish Diaspora.鈥�
From the Atlantic Studies announcement:
The judges for the 2024聽Atlantic Studies聽Early Career Essay Prize are pleased to select Louise Swaffer as the winner of the Award.
Based on extensive archival research, Swaffer鈥檚 essay, 鈥淲omen鈥檚 Protestant Foreign Mission Work and Settler State Formation in Canada: A Re-examination of the Scottish Diaspora鈥� (Vol. 21, no. 4), is a theoretically sophisticated case study of Women鈥檚 Protestant foreign missions in Canada, undertaken in a broadly comparative historical and global context of British Empire and diaspora. Clearly written and cogently argued, Swaffer demonstrates the intertwined relationship of Presbyterianism and (mild Lowland) 鈥淪cottishness,鈥� of a 鈥渕aternal鈥� side to the British Empire, and of the role of the language of domesticity and gender inequality in its establishment. A particular touch is the inclusion of the 鈥淪cottish household鈥� category, of becoming Scottish by marriage rather than being it by descent. This has much relevance to studies of ethnicity and gender that assign identity by ancestry only, not by choice of spouse. With its focus on the interrelationship of gender, empire, and religion, Swaffer鈥檚 essay can serve as a model for studies of many other groups.