2026 Book Prizes

The SSCLE is delighted to announce two book awards

Best First Book

and

Best Book

to be presented at the Porto Conference in the summer of 2026.

The winners will each receive a sum of £500.

Nominations will open on 1 October 2025, and we ask that entries be submitted by 30 January 2026 to sscle123@gmail.com

In the first instance, eligible languages will reflect those of the SSCLE's journal Crusades: English, French, Italian, Spanish and German. Each entry must be accompanied by a nomination of up to 300 words indicating why the book stands as an important contribution to the field. The author or publisher must be in a position to send the committee a PDF of the published text by the closing date. Nominations can come from either the author, the publisher, or another researcher. Books with a publication date of 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 are eligible.

The Best First Book Prize is named in memory of Professor Ronnie Ellenblum (1952-2021), a recognition of his immensely innovative academic work and his boundless support of young scholars. The 2022 winner was Stephen J. Spencer for Emotions in a Crusading Context, 1095-1291 (Oxford University Press, 2019).

2026 PhD Student Best Paper Prize

The SSCLE is inviting submissions to the 2026 PhD Student Paper Prize competitions. The prize will be awarded to the best original paper to be presented at the SSCLE conference ‘Crossing Seas, Crossing Cultures’.

The competition is open to students in full or part-time education who have not yet submitted their PhD thesis. Entries will be considered by the conference organisers. The winner will receive £400 and membership of the SSCLE for a year.

To compete, send your full essay in PDF format and proof of student status to sscleconference@gmail.com by 1 June 2026. Please put ‘PhD Student Paper Prize’ in the subject heading of your email and write your name, institution, phone number and email address in the email.

Only papers presented at the conference will be considered.