FORUM PRIZE
In the light of current debates about the future of the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) and the suitability of assessing research outputs in the Arts and Humanities by metrics, it seems timely to review the academic importance and scholarly value of research which may be at least 40 years in print, but which continues to renew and inform more recent criticism. Forum for Modern Language Studies was launched in 1965 specifically as a “forum”, to promote specialist, polemical and interdisciplinary debate in all areas and periods of English, French, German, Spanish and Russian literatures, languages and cultures. Our remit has subsequently widened to include Italian, other Iberian and non-European dimensions of these “Modern Languages”, both in the range of topics published in general issues and in our Special Issues.
Announcing the 'Forum Prize'
The General Editors are pleased to announce the Forum Prize of £200 for a 6,000 word article which engages directly with scholarly debates and critical issues appraised in previous volumes of the journal. Reflective, polemical articles are especially welcomed. To acknowledge Forum’s founding vision and range, and the important value of research which stands the test of time, the first Forum Prize will be awarded to the best new work submitted on a subject treated in an article published in the first five years of the journal’s history (January 1965–July 1969 inclusive).
Articles invited
We invite submissions which overtly engage with a single author/ text, period, genre or critical debate, or which advance comparative critical scholarship. In Volumes 1 and 2, examples of these are articles on Constant’s Adolphe, seventeenth-century drama, lyric poetry, “the dialectic of tradition” and the reception of Dante.
Submission Guidelines
Articles should be submitted according to Forum style and to the General Editor (articles) by 1 October 2008, marked “For consideration for the Forum Prize”.
Outcome
Forum’s normal peer review processes will pertain, but short-listed articles will then also be judged by specialists. The prize article will be announced and published in the July 2009 issue. Forum may publish other very strong essays which are runners-up in subsequent general issues.