Carrying a cash prize of $10,000, the Laura Shannon Prize is awarded annually to the author of the best book in European studies that transcends a focus on any one country, state, or people to stimulate new ways of thinking about contemporary Europe as a whole. 

Each year, the prize will be given for a book published in one of two alternating fields:

I. Humanities
Philosophy, Theology, Cultural Studies, Modern Languages and Literatures, and the Arts.

II. History & Social Sciences
History, Sociology, Economics, Political Science, Law, and Anthropology.

The inaugural award will be given for a book in the Humanities published between January 1, 2007 and December 31, 2008.

The following year, the prize will be given for a book in History & Social Sciences published between
January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2009.

Winners will be announced in major print and electronic media each spring.  To receive the prize and cash award, the author will deliver an original lecture at the University of Notre Dame in the fall of the award year.  This lecture will also be published by the Nanovic Institute for European Studies.