The Nicholson Center is happy to announce joint winners of the Nicholson Prize for best BA thesis in a British Studies Topic: History BA student Eli Wizevich, for “In Transit and Transition: Shell, the British State, and the Global Fossil Fuel Economy, 1892-1914,” and double major in History and English, Sammy Aiko Zimmerman, for “Haunted Empire: Gothic Japanism in British Literature of the Fin de Siècle.” The jury for the prize, Professors Julie Orlemanski and Fredrik Albritton Jonsson, said the following:

Eli Wizevich’s “In Transit and Transition:Shell, the British State, and the Global Fossil Fuel Economy, 1892-1914” examines the transition from coal to petroleum in the years between 1892 and 1914, focusing on the role of the Shell Corporation and the British state. It is an impressive piece of historical scholarship constructed using an array of sources, including previously classified government reports, corporate records, and personal papers. The resulting narrative calls into question prior accounts in which this transition was a straightforward result of technological imperatives or a cunning masterstroke by Churchill, with implications for our understanding of energy transitions both before and after the one under study.

Sammy Aiko Zimmerman’s “Haunted Empire: Gothic Japanism in British Literature of the Fin de Siècle” studies the emergence in anglophone literature in the late nineteenth century of a subgenre named by Zimmerman as “Gothic Japanism” — an attempt on the part of British writers to account for the perceived strangeness of Japan. It is impressive not only for its controlled analysis of British diplomatic and cultural responses to Japan and to the historical context in which they took place, but also for its insightful and vivid readings of a wide range of literary and other texts.  This is a highly original piece of interdisciplinary research and analysis, written with authority and verve.

Congratulations to the joint winners of the Nicholson BA Thesis prize!