The French and Italian department would like to congratulate Ariel Munyer on winning the History Department's History of Religious Liberty Award! Ariel is a recent graduate, she graduated this April. As her submission, Ariel used her Projet Zeitgeist paper from Dr. Sara Phenix’s French 362 course. For this paper, students have to make an argument about the zeitgeist (the spirit of the time period) of a significant year in French history. Ariel chose to write about the conflicts surrounding church inventories in 1906. In 1905, the French legislature passed a law that definitively separated church and state -- this separation began over a century prior during the Revolution of 1789. We have included a statement from Ariel about the argument of her winning paper:
“The main argument of my paper is that the church inventories of 1906 reveal that the Church vs. State dichotomy that often colors the interpretation of French history is actually much more complicated. Viewing French revolutionary heritage as a dichotomy hinders a more nuanced approach to France’s history and the church inventories suggest that the French view this heritage more as a toolbox that can be employed in the defense of any cause deemed worth.”
If you would like to read Ariel's winning article, you can check it out here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/16qrjM4GqwzTljE1PHxsXVYkGLaB7FqzF/view?usp=sharing
Congratulations Ariel!