French Colonial Historical Society Honors Mélanie Lamotte

Mélanie Aimée Marie Lamotte, assistant professor of History and a historian of race, colonialism and slavery in the early modern period, has been awarded the 2026 Boucher Book Prize for her book, “By Flesh & Toil: How Sex, Race, and Labor Shaped the Early French Empire” (Harvard University Press). 

Presented annually by the French Colonial Historical Society, the Boucher Book Prize recognizes the best book on French colonial history before 1815. In “By Flesh & Toil,” Lamotte examines how French colonies in the Atlantic and Indian Ocean worlds were connected through legal regimes, racial policies, and the circulation of people and ideas, with particular attention to sex and labor. 

The committee praised the book’s trans-imperial scope, which includes sites such as New France, Lower Louisiana, Senegambia, Guyana, Guadeloupe, Madagascar, Isle Bourbon, Isle de France and French outposts in India. It also commended Lamotte’s richly textured archival research and her contributions to the histories of French colonialism, race, labor and law. 

Lamotte joins Hannah Conway and Philip Stern as History faculty members to have recently received prestigious awards.   

“These accomplishments reflect the extraordinary scholarship and intellectual vibrancy of our department,” said Tamika Nunley, William & Sue Gross Professor of History and Department Chair. “We are fortunate to count Mélanie, Philip and Hannah among our colleagues.”