The Phi Beta Kappa Society Announces 2025 Winner of the Walter J. Jensen Fellowship 

WASHINGTON, DC – The Phi Beta Kappa Society has chosen Lucy Whiteley, a Ph.D. candidate and Provost Fellow in French and Francophone Studies at the University of Southern California, as the winner of the 2025 Walter J. Jensen Fellowship in recognition of her exceptional work as a scholar of French culture and history. Established in 2001 by Professor Walter J. Jensen (ΦΒΚ, UCLA), this award provides this year’s winner with a stipend of $17,000 and round-trip travel to France for six months of continuous study.

Whiteley (ΦΒΚ, Cornell University) earned her Master of Studies from the University of Oxford, and her Bachelor of Arts with Distinction in all Subjects in French and History from Cornell University. She intends to use the Jensen Fellowship to complete research for her dissertation, “After la Zone: The Poetics of Negative Space.”  

Whiteley’s research contends that “the legacy of la Zone - the peripheral ring that surrounded Paris from 1841 until 1944 - irrevocably altered how French filmmakers approached and presented liminal spaces in their work following 1944, with lasting impact on cinematic representations of space.” She explores how this legacy “continues to transform political and artistic landscapes in France and abroad.” 

With support from the Jensen Fellowship, Whiteley will conduct archival research and visit locations significant to the filmmakers she examines, further investigating how la Zone has influenced the spatial poetics of French cinema. Her findings will also inform the design of future courses, helping to make this material more accessible. 

Applications for the 2026 Jensen Fellowship will open in early fall 2025; the deadline is January 31, 2026.