The Phi Beta Kappa Society Announces 2026 Winner of the Walter J. Jensen Fellowship
WASHINGTON, DC – September 21, 2026 – The Phi Beta Kappa Society has selected Abby H. Shepherd, a Ph.D. candidate in Romance Studies at Duke University, as the winner of the 2026 Walter J. Jensen Fellowship in recognition of her exceptional work as a scholar of French language, literature, and culture. 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.
Shepherd is also pursuing a graduate certificate in Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies at Duke University and earned a bachelor’s degree in French from Auburn University. Her research traces sartorial expressions of identity in literature and cinema, with a particular focus on representations of dress in 19th- and 20th-century Metropolitan France and Francophone Louisiana.
Shepherd will use the Jensen Fellowship to advance her dissertation, “Seams of the South: Fashioning the Franco-Louisiana Dialogue.” The project examines the interplay between French and Southern fashions and how colonial histories shaped that exchange through literary, filmic, and cultural representations. Her research brings French and Francophone Studies into conversation with New Southern Studies while drawing on social history, fashion theory, and literary and film studies.
With support from the Jensen Fellowship, Shepherd will conduct archival research in Paris to further investigate the circulation of fashion and cultural representations between France and the American South. Her research will examine literary and cinematic materials alongside fashion history, deepening her study of the historical and cultural relationship between France and the Deep South.
Applications for the 2027 Jensen Fellowship will open in mid-fall 2026. Learn more at pbk.org/awards/jensen.
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About The Phi Beta Kappa Society
The Phi Beta Kappa Society was founded on Dec. 5, 1776, and is the nation’s premier honor society. It has chapters at more than 290 colleges and universities, nearly 50 alumni associations and more than 700,000 members worldwide. Noteworthy members include 17 U.S. Presidents, 42 U.S. Supreme Court Justices and more than 150 Nobel Laureates. The mission of The Phi Beta Kappa Society is to champion education in the arts and sciences, foster freedom of thought and recognize academic excellence.