Dr. Stauter-Halsted wins Joan Kelly Memorial Prize
Washington, DC— Keely Stauter-Halsted, Professor of History and Hejna Family Chair in Polish Studies, has been selected as the winner of the 2016 Joan Kelly Memorial Prize for her book The Devil's Chain: Prostitution and Social Control in Partitioned Poland (Cornell Univ. Press, 2015). The Kelly Prize is awarded annually by the American Historical Association (AHA) to honor the best book in women’s history and/or feminist theory. The prize will be awarded during a ceremony at the Association’s 131st Annual Meeting in Denver, CO, January 5-8, 2017.
“The Devil’s Chain provides a panoramic yet exquisitely detailed analysis that illuminates the place of prostitution in the political imaginary of partitioned Poland, as well as in the lived experience of reformers, physicians, politicians, and sex workers,” commented the Kelly Committee. “Unearthing rich archival evidence, Stauter-Halsted reveals how a moral panic became the staging ground for concerns about international migration, critiques of imperial government, and the emergence of women as political and social actors in a modernized nation-state.”
The Kelly Prize was established in 1984 and named in memory of Joan Kelly (1928–82) to best reflect the high intellectual and scholarly ideals exemplified by her life and work. The American Historical Association is a nonprofit membership organization founded in 1884 and incorporated by Congress in 1889 for the promotion of historical studies.