The Society for French Historical Studies is very pleased to announce the Research Travel Award, jointly conferred by the Western Society for French History and the SFHS, the Farrar Memorial Awards, and the Institut Français d’Amérique Fund Research Fellowships for 2021.
Research Travel Award
Kelly Presutti, Cornell University, “Agglomerations”: Accretive History in New Caledonia
Kelly Presutti’s study focuses on so-called agglomerations, man-made objects fused with ocean sediment recovered from the wrecks of two ships in La Pérouse’s expedition to New Caledonia in 1788. Found, collected and displayed in various institutional contexts both in France and in New Caledonia since the mid-nineteenth century, they function as palimpsests of the complex ties between metropole and colony. Part of a larger book project on the scientific and cultural work of the French Navy under colonialism, this highly interdisciplinary study will transform our understanding of the nexus of material culture, collecting, and imperialism, not least by drawing on the insights of curators and members of the public in contemporary New Caledonia.
