2010 Awards
Emily Clark, Distinguished Book Award
Presented to Dr. Emily Clark on the occasion of the Eighth Triennial Conference on the History of Women Religious held at the University of Scranton, Scranton, Pennsylvania, June 27–30, 2010.
Whereas Dr. Emily Clark, in her work Masterless Mistresses: The New Orleans Ursulines and the Development of the New World, 1727–1834, has made a remarkable contribution in presenting the work of the early Ursulines in the United States and their profound influence on colonial society…
Whereas Dr. Clark discusses these masterless women as their work intersected gender, class, and race and has shown how these women served effectively in their relationships with other entities in city, church, and government…
Whereas Dr. Clark shows how even as the Ursuline sisters adhered to the “custom of the country” in possessing enslaved people, they also cared for them in a manner which fostered strong family life among them and a vibrant Afro-Catholic community which affected the lives of the enslaved socially as well as spiritually…
Whereas Dr. Clark has demonstrated how the sisters included in their schools girls from different ethnic groups and classes and found ways to blur the lines of separation expected by the established social order of the time…
Whereas Dr. Clark has demonstrated her scholarly abilities in this comprehensive study of the Ursuline sisters in their origins in France, their ability in dealing with the Spanish and French cultures of New France and ultimately with the new American nation. Dr. Clark shows very well the sisters’ ability to negotiate the expectations of Catholic church practice regarding women religious…
Whereas Dr. Clark has shown how these “masterless” women knew the intricacies of the economic and financial world which enabled them to be effective participants in the secular society…
Be it resolved that the Conference on the History of Women Religious here assembled confers on Dr. Emily Clark the Distinguished Book Award. Given the twenty-ninth of June in the year of our Lord two thousand ten, at the conference “Confronting Challenges: Women Religious Respond to Change,” gathered at the University of Scranton, Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Elizabeth M. Smyth, Lifetime Achievement Award
Presented to Dr. Elizabeth M. Smyth on the occasion of the Eighth Triennial Conference on the History of Women Religious held at the University of Scranton, Scranton, Pennsylvania, June 27–30, 2010.
Whereas Dr Elizabeth Smyth has promoted research on Catholic female religious orders in Canada at a time when little scholarly attention was given to the subject, and personally engaged in such research beginning with preliminary studies for her doctorate; and
Whereas she has been responsible for editing and contributing essays to collections on the history of women religious in Canada that have featured interdisciplinary approaches and related sisters’ history to the overarching themes of gender and ethnicity, most recently Changing Habits: Women’s Religious Orders in Canada (Novalis, 2007); and
Whereas she has inspired and encouraged scholars throughout the English-speaking world to collaborate and compare their studies on women religious and to present their findings publically by herself delivering papers at conferences in the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as by publishing articles of in highly accredited academic journals; and
Whereas Dr. Smyth has made use of diverse methodologies within her specialized field of the history of education, particularly in her use of memoirs, and has secured grants during her tenure at the Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, that have advanced the documentation of primary sources in the archives of women religious;
Be it resolved that the Conference on the History of Women Religious here assembled confers on Dr. Elizabeth M. Smyth the Lifetime Achievement Award. Given the twenty-ninth of June in the year of our Lord two thousand ten, at the conference “Confronting Challenges: Women Religious Respond to Change,” gathered at the University of Scranton, Scranton, Pennsylvania.
These award citations were presented at the Conference on the History of Women Religious in 2010.