Congratulations to our President!

Winner of the 2024 NAVSA President’s Award

Members of RSVP who happen to also be members of the North American Victorian Studies Association (NAVSA) received the wonderful news that our own President, Priti Joshi, has received NAVSA’s 2024 President’s Award!

NAVSA President Cannon Schmitt announced the winner at this year’s annual general meeting, which was held virtually as part of NAVSA’s EVENT 2024 experiment in “un-conferencing,” last Friday, November 8. According to the organization’s website, the President’s Award “honors members who have contributed in extraordinary ways both to the North American Victorian Studies Association and to promoting the diversity and vigor of Victorian studies research.”

Schmitt noted that unlike in some years when choosing a winner is difficult, this year it was clear who the winner should be, as Joshi’s nomination “received simply overwhelming support in the form of a nomination letter that runs to three pages and is signed by no fewer than thirty-eight NAVSA members.” He teased attendees by reading excerpts from the letter but omitting her name, letting her many accomplishments speak for themselves.

It should surprise no one within RSVP that amongst praise for Joshi’s “groundbreaking” scholarship on Indian periodicals and Victorian literary culture, her “generosity as a mentor of junior and mid-career colleagues, especially scholars of color and others traditionally marginalized in academic settings” was particularly highlighted. These are strengths she brings to every endeavor she undertakes, including her service as our new President.

Many congratulations on this well-deserved accomplishment, Priti!