School of English Professor’s book scoops third award in two years
Antislavery in the Dissenting Atlantic: Archives and Unquiet Libraries, 1776-1865 has won a further award and has been nominated for another
Professor Bridget Bennett has been awarded the American Studies Network (ASN) / European Association for American Studies (EAAS) 2026 Book Prize for her acclaimed monograph, Antislavery in the Dissenting Atlantic: Archives and Unquiet Libraries, 1776–1865.
The Book Prize awards €500 for a “remarkable book published in English by a European scholar on any aspect of American Studies”. The jury for the prize is composed of representatives from the EAAS and the ASN.
Published by LSU Press, Antislavery in the Dissenting Atlantic examines the transatlantic connections forged by religious nonconformist communities in England and Pennsylvania from the American Revolution to the Civil War. By drawing on extensive archival work, it brings to light the alliances, everyday cultures and often-overlooked individuals whose dissent and commitment to social justice and education helped shape antislavery activism.
Professor Bennett, Professor of American Literature and Culture at the School of English, completed the research with the support of a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship. Her work has led to the installation of a blue plaque on the University campus to honour local Quaker abolitionists.
Professor Bridget Bennett (second from the left) at the unveiling of a blue plaque commemorating Quaker abolitionists Mary and Wilson Armistead
The Book Prize jury said: “Focusing particularly on Quaker and Moravian communities in Britain and the United States, Bennett brings new attention to groups whose position as religious outsiders enabled distinctive forms of political and cultural dissent. The book is especially innovative in recovering the everyday, grassroots practices through which antislavery ideas circulated across the Atlantic -from correspondence, tracts, and libraries to material objects and domestic practices.
“Combining meticulous archival research with a compelling transatlantic perspective, Antislavery in the Dissenting Atlantic makes a major and original contribution to the histories of abolition, religion, material culture, and transatlantic American Studies.”
The prestigious recognition for Antislavery in the Dissenting Atlantic comes months after the book received an Honourable Mention for the 2026 Book Prize by the British Association of American Studies (BAAS) and the 2025 Shelley Fisher Fishkin Prize from the American Studies Association. The Shelley Fisher Fishkin Prize led to the publication in the Transnational Journal for American Studies of a chapter of the book, preceded by an introduction from the editors and a framing piece by Professor Bennett.
Antislavery in the Dissenting Atlantic has also been shortlisted for the North American Victorian Studies Association's 2026 Book Prize. The winner will be announced on 14 November.
