The ESCL Excellence Award for Collaborative Research has been awarded since 2021 for an outstanding edited volume that makes an original contribution to the field of comparative literature. The award promotes collaborative comparative research in recognition of the often undervalued creative work of editors.

CURRENT CALL (deadline October 31, 2025)

The ESCL invites editors of academic volumes to present their application for the ESCL Excellence Award for Collaborative Research, to be awarded for an outstanding edited volume which makes an original contribution to the field of Comparative Literature.
The award encourages collaborative comparative research, in recognition of the often undervalued creative work of editor(s).

The Excellence Award consists of a single cash prize of 500 € given to the editor(s) of the volume, and certificates attributed to both the editor(s) and the contributors. Candidates who are on the short-list will be informed in March 2026, and the winning volume will be announced at the ESCL’s next biannual congress in Leeds at the end of August 2026, where the editor(s) will receive their prize and the contributors their certificates.

Eligibility Criteria and Rules

• The award will be attributed to an edited volume in comparative literature of 80,000 words minimum: for instance, a collection of articles, of book chapters or a special issue of an academic journal. The volumes need to have already undergone a rigorous peer-review process.
• Its publication date must be comprised between July 31, 2023 and July 31, 2025. The volume needs to be either originally written in English or in French (the two communication languages of ESCL), or to have been translated into one of these languages.
• This award will consider volumes with a strong connection to at least one European literature, which adopt a comparative approach and analyze texts from two or more different literary cultures, languages, mediums (painting, photography, film AND literature, for example) or disciplines (philosophy, sociology, photography AND literature for example).
• Publishers, editors and contributors are allowed to propose a volume to the award. The editor of the submitted volume must be a paying member of the ESCL at the time of submission. Membership fees are 20–35 € and the ESCL is non-profit: its revenues are used to fund the biannual congress and travel grants. For guidelines on membership fees see https://escl-selc.eu/become-a-member/. We advise the applicants to pay their membership at least a week before the submission deadline. It is not necessary that all contributors to the edited volume be paying members.

Ineligible works

Individual articles, standard journal issues that do not meet the required comparatist approach and length, single-authored monographs, conference proceedings without significant editorial input and substantial changes to the original presentations and reference works such as encyclopaedias will not be accepted. Only one submission per editor is accepted.

A note on conference proceedings

Please note that conference presentations can serve as the basis of an edited volume, but the presentations need to be reworked for the purposes of scholarly publication. Additional articles solicited for the purpose of a themed volume are a particularly productive way to ensure the standards of a scholarly edited volume.

Submission Process

• Submissions must be made in electronic form (.pdf), to the following email address: Marijan Dović <marijan.dovic@zrc-sazu.si>
• Printed submissions will not be accepted. Submissions comprise 3 documents that must be attached as pdfs to the submission email:

1. the edited volume;
2. a letter from the editor(s) introducing the volume and explaining in 200 words how it contributes to the field of comparative literature specifically. This letter should also contain their contact information; and
3. a proof that membership fees have been paid to the ESCL at the moment of submission (this could take the form of a screenshot, a bank statement or an email from the ESCL treasurer for instance).

• The name of the files should start with the last name(s) of the candidate(s) (ex.: VARGAeditedvol.pdf, VARGAletter.pdf)

Timeline

Publication of the call: May 1, 2025
Deadline for submissions: October 31, 2025
Short-list announced: March 2026

Winner announced and prize awarded: ESCL Congress in Leeds, August 24–28, 2026

The ESCL Excellence Award Selection Committee: Riccardo Antonangeli (Rome); Francesco de Cristofaro (Naples); Marijan Dović (Ljubljana, Chair); Antonella Ippolito (Potsdam); Rosa Mucignat (London).

PAST AWARDS

ESCL EXCELLENCE AWARD FOR COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH 2024
(for edited volumes published between 2021 and 2023)

THE AWARDED BOOK
Göttsche, Dirk, Rosa Mucignat and Robert Weninger (vol. 1); Svend Erik Larsen, Steen Bille Jørgensen and Margaret R. Higonnet (vol. 2): Landscapes of Realism: Rethinking Realism in Comparative Perspective. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2021/2022.

OTHER SHORTLISTED BOOKS
Gimeno Ugalde, Esther, Marta Pacheco Pinto and Ângela Fernandes. Iberian and Translation Studies: Literary Contact Zones. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2021.
Le Juez, Brigitte and Metka Zupančič. Le mythe au féminin et l’ (in)visibilisation du corps. Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2023.

AWARD CEREMONY
September 5, 2021, ESCL Congress in Paris

AWARD SELECTION COMMITTEE
Riccardo Antonangeli (Rome)
Marijan Dović (Ljubljana)
Caroline Fischer (Pau)
Patricia García (Alcalá)
Zsuzsanna Varga (Glasgow), Chair

ESCL EXCELLENCE AWARD FOR COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH 2021
(for edited volumes published between 2017 and 2020)

THE AWARDED BOOK
Dović, Marijan, Jón Karl Helgason. Great Immortality: Studies on European Cultural Sainthood. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2019.

OTHER SHORTLISTED BOOKS
Finch, Jason, Lieven Ameel and Markku Salmela. Literary Second Cities. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.
Karkulehto, Sanna, Aino-Kaisa Koistinen and Essi Varis. Reconfiguring Human, Nonhuman and Posthuman in Literature and Culture. Perspectives on the Non- human in Literature and Culture. New York: Routledge, 2020.
Reynolds, Matthew. Prismatic Translation. Cambridge: MHRA, 2019.

AWARD CEREMONY
September 17, 2021, virtual round table

AWARD SELECTION COMMITTEE:
Ana Calvete (Helsinki)
Patricia García (Alcalá)
Zsuzsanna Varga (Glasgow)
Metka Zupančič (Tuscaloosa), Chair