Megan Brown, associate professor of history, received The Nanovic Institute’s 2025 Laura Shannon Prize in Contemporary European Studies for her book The Seventh Member State: Algeria, France, and the European Community (Harvard University Press 2022). Each year, the prize is awarded to the best book that transcends a focus on any one country, state, or people to stimulate new ways of thinking about contemporary Europe as a whole.

The Seventh Member State is an “exciting and original book presenting a careful case study of the complex relationship between European integration, imperial ambitions, and decolonization in the post-World War II era,” according to the Laura Shannon Prize jury.

The jury, comprised of accomplished scholars including Rüdiger Bachmann (University of Notre Dame), Alexander Beihammer (University of Notre Dame), Kristen Ghodsee (University of Pennsylvania), Mark Gilbert (Johns Hopkins University), and Stathis Kalyvas (University of Oxford), recognized Brown’s book as a groundbreaking exploration of the role of Algeria in the European Economic Community.

“Megan Brown focuses on Algeria’s role as a temporary member of the European Economic Community due to its status as a French colony until it reached independence in 1962,” the jury said. “This compelling narrative spans from the French insistence on including Algeria in the Treaty of Rome in 1957 — which aimed to mitigate anti-colonial sentiments during the Algerian Revolution — to the Cooperation Agreement of 1976, which formalized Algeria’s exclusion from the European Community.

“Brown analyzes the political and socioeconomic implications, legal issues, and moral challenges that the emerging European Community faced while being confronted with Europe’s colonial past,” the jury added. “She explores the delicacies of negotiating future relations with nations that had suffered centuries of oppression and exploitation, aiming for equality and mutual respect. Brown skillfully avoids oversimplification and refrains from any black-and-white painting. Her narrative captures the competition among European nations for resources and leadership, as well as the ambiguous attitudes toward race and religion that effectively excluded Muslim Algerians from European integration.”

Brown will give a public talk and accept the prize at the University of Notre Dame during the 2025-26 academic year.