From the Director

The McNeil Center for Early American Studies is delighted to announce the winner of the Murrin Prize for the best article published in 2014. Denise Bossy of the University of North Florida has been honored for her article entitled “Spiritual Diplomacy, the Yamasees, and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel: Reinterpreting Prince George’s Eighteenth-Century Voyage to England.” One of the judges explains that “Bossy makes an important move away from discussing Indian conversion from the viewpoint of European initiatives and towards considering religious interactions through the lens of Indian imperatives. … Rather than construing Indian conversions as reactive (as instances of assimilation or accommodation) she recasts them as active strategies of diplomacy, on a par with adoption and intermarriage in forging bonds of alliance between peoples. She offers a new term of art, ‘spiritual diplomacy,’ that may have far-reaching implications for the study of native religion.” Another reader lauds Bossy’s narrative, claiming that “the character of the central figures is almost the stuff of drama.” Congratulations to Professor Bossy and special thanks to the late C. Dallett Hemphill for her editorial wisdom, to Roderick McDonald for chairing the selection process, and to the members of the Editorial Board who read all the eligible articles.