The ECARE Committee of the ICLA holds the following prizes open to graduate students and early career researchers*:

1. Best Graduate Paper Prize: This triennial prize is awarded to a graduate student who delivers an excellent paper at an International Congress of the AILC-ICLA. The paper can be nominated by any active ICLA member who heard the paper given on the ICLA programme by using a designated nomination form. The nominee must be an active ICLA member and enrolled in a doctoral programme in comparative literature or in a related field at the time of the Congress when the paper is given. The nominations will be sent to the Chair of the ECARE Committee before the General Assembly Meeting of the given edition of the International Congress. The nominations will be announced at the General Assembly, and ECARE will contact the authors of the papers and ask for a clean copy of the paper and a CV to be submitted after the conference. The length of the paper should remain at the 20-minute length as given on the programme. Winners will have their names, affiliations, and paper titles announced in the AILC-ICLA Newsletter and on the website. Winners will receive a cash prize of US $250 and publication of their paper in the Association’s journal Recherche Littéraire/Literary Research. Winners will also be mentioned at the General Assembly of the following International Congress.
2. First Book Subvention: This annual award provides funding for a subvention for an early-career scholar’s first book to be published as a monograph, in any language, in the field of comparative literature, broadly conceived. As more publishers are requiring authors to assume partial or full costing for the publication of their books, the high fees can be prohibitive for early-career scholars.

The prize consists of:

• Award of the equivalent of USD $1500 to be used for costs related to publishing a monograph including the subvention amount required by the publisher, costs with indexing, copy-editing and royalties.
• Announcement of the name and institutional affiliation of the winning author and their publication on the AILC-ICLA Website and Newsletter.
• Announcement of the name and institutional affiliation of the winning author and their publication during the General Assembly of the Triennial 2025 AILC-ICLA Congress in Seoul.
• Book review to appear in issues of Recherche Littéraire/Literary Research subsequent to the book’s publication.

Application process:

• Deadline for application: 31^st October 2023.
• The applicant must be an active ICLA member at an early-career stage (ECR) at the time of the application.
• Awards are expected to be announced on 2^nd April 2024.
• Applications must be made via email addressed to the ECARE Committee Chair, Dr Emanuelle Santos, at ecare@gmail.com and must contain the following attached files (all should be in PDF format, and all – but the sample book chapter –  should be in English or French):
  • A complete academic CV.
  • A cover letter including the book proposal and information on what costs the prize of the award is meant to cover and whether the costs can be covered via reimbursement to the awarded ECR or if they must be paid directly to a specific supplier.
  • A copy of the book contract. In case the eventual award of the prize is intended to cover subvention costs, these should the mentioned in the contract. If the contract is not originally in English or in French, its content should be translated in a separate PDF document.
  • A sample chapter from the proposed book. This should be left in the original language of the publication.

Please note that any payments related to the award of this prize will be made after the planned award announcement date. The payment lead time can also be affected by procedures related to international payment procedures which are beyond the control of the AILC-ICLA.

3. Best Translation Prize: This award is for an outstanding translation in the form or an article, chapter, or other short work, published by an early-career scholar in the period between ICLA Congresses. The nominee or candidate must be an active ICLA member. More information regarding the cut-off dates of publication for nomination/application eligibility, as well as deadline for submission are soon to be announced. Nominations/applications will also be considered by the ICLA Research Committee on Translation. The translation can be between any two languages and applicants/nominees are required to submit the published translation, the source text, and a CV. The award will be announced at the General Assembly of the subsequent AILC-ICLA. International Congress and carries a cash prize of US $1000. The winner’s name, institutional affiliation, and title of the translation piece will be announced in the AILC-ICLA Newsletter and on the website, and an abstract of the translation published in the Association’s journal Recherche Littéraire/Literary Research.

Completed applications from nominees or applicants with the required documentation for the First Book Subvention and Best Translation Prizes are due by the deadlines stated above, and those nominating must make sure their nominees meet the stated deadlines for these prizes.

Late nominations or applications will not be accepted. Nominees for the Best Graduate Paper Prize will be contacted by ECARE and invited to send in clean copies of their papers given at the ICLA Congress after the event.

* Given the volatile academic job market and the growing scarcity of entry-level, full-time, tenure-track or permanent-track academic positions in many parts of the world today, the ECARE Committee considers an ECR any academic in possession of a doctoral degree, or equivalent, who either hold or are in search of post-doctoral positions, fellowships and/or in temporary or part-time academic posts. ECARE also consider ECRs those who have obtained a full-time, tenure- or permanent-track academic position up to 36 months from their date of employment.

Donations

The AILC-ICLA gratefully welcomes donations to its ECARE Prize fund. These can be made by contacting one of our Treasurers (details here) or by making a credit card payment and selecting the Donations option. Thank you.