Pembroke Alumna Awarded Dissertation Prize by Society for the Study of French History

Pembroke alumna Sofia Panourgias (2021, History and Modern Languages) has been awarded the Society for the Study of French History Dissertation Prize for her undergraduate thesis. Nominated by the Board of Examiners for this prestigious award, Sofia was selected out of candidates from across the UK and Republic of Ireland. 

Her thesis, titled ‘Que la femme choisisse’: The question of bodily autonomy in the fight, explored how different activist groups conceptualised the ‘woman's right to choose’ in the fight for contraception and abortion in France, 1984-1980.

Building on her research conducted whilst in Martinique for her year abroad, Sofia’s thesis focused on the experiences of women from French overseas departments, including Réunion, Martinique, and Guadeloupe, and women who otherwise self-defined as ‘immigrants’.

‘My analysis hinged on the paradoxical policy of the French government: the encouragement of contraception in the “colonies” in contrast to its total prohibition in mainland France,’ explained Sofia. 

‘I sought to expose the complicated way in which these women fit (or didn't—there were a lot of archival gaps) into the narrative about this fight, challenging the notion that it was a unified feminist struggle, and exposing common lines between disparate groups: activists, doctors, and midwives, for example.’

‘Moving forward, I would like to stay in this field but widen the scope of my analysis, comparing the experiences of migrant women in Britain and France. I hope to return to the Caribbean and focus on cross-cultural dialogues and links between family planning organisations, focusing as much as possible on how everyday women navigated reproductive politics.’ 

Sofia is currently part of the Quill Project team at Pembroke, working on the constitutional conventions of South Carolina (1868) and Ohio (1912). 

Many congratulations to Sofia on this impressive achievement!