Emily Grenon awarded the Janet Hyer Essay Prize 2024
Centre for European and Eurasian Studies (CEES), Master of European and Eurasian Studies

Emily Grenon awarded the Janet Hyer Essay Prize

Emily Grenon, a recent graduate of the MA European and Eurasian Studies, was awarded the Janet Hyer Essay Prize earlier this academic year for the exceptional quality of her Major Research Paper (MRP). Emily wrote about the role of fairs and exhibitions in diplomatic relations in the leadup to the First World War. You can read more about her experiences and future plans in the interview below. 

What does receiving this prize mean to you?

I did not realize that CEES had a graduate award for the MRP, so learning that I had won after the graduation ceremony was a very pleasant surprise! Prof. Susan Solomon gave a short speech, and it was an incredibly special experience to hear her talk about my work and what she thought was most valuable about it. This experience was the most significant for me. 

What was your MRP about?

My MRP was about how countries negotiate diplomatic relations within the context of fairs and exhibitions, particularly how countries use them as opportunities to present their alliances or their military, strategic or commercial relationships to the public. My focus was mostly on the Entente alliance in the immediate lead up to the First World War. So, I wrote about Franco – Russian relations at the Universal Exhibition of 1900, Franco – British relations at the Franco – British Exhibition of 1908, and Anglo – Japanese relations at the Japan British Exhibition of 1910. My main argument was that while these fairs reflected an optimistic belief in the power of economic and cultural connections to deter war, this idea was really fundamentally flawed. 

What inspired your research?

I just find fairs and exhibitions really fascinating. My undergraduate thesis was about displays of nationalism at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1900, it was inspired by Prof. Robert Austin’s class on the Hungarian history and this topic has just stuck with me. It might be because I’m from Calgary and people from Calgary were probably one of the last groups in the world to grow up with fair culture. The Stampede is the world’s largest rodeo, over a million people come every year to dress up like cowboys and have fun. I think that sort of helps me connect with the topic in a personal way. 

What are your tips for students writing their MRP?

I think that your topic is so important, it has to be interesting to you and you have to be able to write about something that you can scale up or down. I like to say that if I had run out of material, I would have just chucked in another fair and I would have been fine. However, in many ways, it is much more difficult to condense all the material. I would have wanted to mention another fair, but that would have been too much, so I just ended up mentioning it in a paragraph. It’s critical to find a topic where you have enough to say, but you know that you’re not going to drown in information. 

What are your future plans?

I just submitted my last applications for a PhD in History! I am very hopeful that I can continue working on fairs and exhibitions, but hopefully move away from the diplomatic element and focus on the relationships between national, imperial, and ethnic identities. In Central European history, nationality and ethnicity are usually discussed in the context of the dissolution of empire. But for many people, the construction of these identities was part of a single event. I am really looking forward to being able to continue my research on this subject.