Former student wins prestigious dissertation prize

Congratulations to former School of Modern Languages student Sadie Golen who has won the Association the Study of Modern and Contemporary France (ASMCF) Douglas Johnson Memorial Essay Prize.

Sadie, who graduated with an MA (Hons) French and International Relations in June 2025, won the prize for her undergraduate dissertation "Let Them Eat Bread? The Baguette as a Tool of Gastronomic Colonialism in Senegal". Sadie's dissertation research was supervised by Professor Nicki Hitchcott from the School of Modern Languages' Department of French.

The ASMCF noted that Sadie's dissertation had made "highly perceptive points on the relationship between food and colonialism. It showed a real command of the topic area, and originality of argument. This was a nuanced, convincingly argued piece, with a strong anchoring in its analysis."

Congratulations to Sadie on her success.