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ºÙºÙÊÓƵ Historian Wins Award for ‘Suicide by Proxy’ Book Made into Film

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ºÙºÙÊÓƵ Professor of History Kathy Stuart's book exposing women's mental health issues in Early Modern Europe has won a book award. (Gregory Urquiaga/ºÙºÙÊÓƵ)

ºÙºÙÊÓƵ Professor Kathy Stuart, author of Suicide by Proxy in Early Modern Germany: Crime, Sin and Salvation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023) has won the 2024 Natalie Zemon Davis Prize in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

“What to do about women (and sometimes, men) who gruesomely murdered children because of their own ‘weariness with life?’  This was a dilemma faced by elites in German-speaking lands during the 17th and 18th centuries,’ reads the description of Stuart’s book by award givers.

Woman in white shirt sitting
Stuart

of The Sixteenth Century Society: A Society of Early Modern Studies is named for Natalie Zemon Davis, a professor of history at Princeton University who died last year. The book award was announced in early November.

The text of the award to Stuart further said: “To elucidate this troubling history, she mines an impressive array of primary sources from archives throughout Germany and Austria, as well as broadsheets and other forms of art." 

…&²Ô²ú²õ±è; To her sophisticated use of empirical research and interdisciplinary perspectives Stuart adds a sense of compassion, for these desperate women and the parents of the children murdered during this time of religious and social upheaval.â€

Criteria for the award included: 

  • quality and originality of research   
  • methodological skill and/or innovation   
  • development of fresh and stimulating interpretations or insights   

Stuart’s book inspired the period film, The Devil’s Bath, which has won and been nominated for multiple awards. The film will be screened Thursday, Nov. 14, at ºÙºÙÊÓƵ Cruess Hall. The filmmakers from Austria will speak at the annual Lunn Lecture that day at the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art.

Read the full story about the book and film. 

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