Connor Benoit is the winner of the 2026 Jefferson Caffery Research Award at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
Benoit, who earned a master’s degree in history from UL Lafayette this spring, submitted his winning historical research essay last fall as part of the Caffery competition. It is judged by a panel that includes members of the Edith Garland Dupré Library staff.
The Caffery Award is given yearly to an undergraduate or graduate student who conducts scholarly research using primary sources housed in Special Collections at Dupré Library. Special Collections is home to Caffery’s papers and other mementos of his career.
Benoit, who also earned a bachelor’s degree in history from the University in 2024, claimed this year’s Caffery Award for “Alexandre Declouet: A Study and Re-examination of Chauvinistic Heritage in Antebellum Louisiana, 1812-1860.” He received a $500 prize for his winning essay.
In it, Benoit examines topics such as slavery, suffrage, the French Creole aristocracy and Creole identity, the American Civil War and Reconstruction. He filtered it all through the life of Declouet, a sugar planter and politician from St. Martin Parish who was born in 1812 and died in 1890.
As Benoit writes in his essay: “Declouet was a product of his cultural heritage. His upbringing and career as a member of the French Creole Aristocracy resulted in his reluctance and negative attitude towards assimilation into the United States. As the country started to drift towards a Civil War, Declouet’s identity as both an isolationist Creole and sugar planter guided his decision-making throughout his career to the eventual secession of the South.”
A key source for Benoit’s project was the Declouet Family Papers, which are housed in Special Collections’ University Archives and Acadiana Manuscripts Collection.
Materials in the library’s Jefferson Caffery Louisiana Room, the Louisiana Collection, the Rare Books Collection, Ernest J. Gaines Center, the Cajun and Creole Music Collection and microforms can also be used for Caffery competition research.
The Caffery Award is provided by a fund established in 1967 by Ambassador and Mrs. Jefferson Caffery. A 1903 graduate of UL Lafayette, Caffery served as U.S. ambassador to El Salvador, Columbia, Cuba, Brazil, France and Egypt.
Find more information about the Jefferson Caffery Research Award.
Photo caption: Connor Benoit (left) has won the 2026 Jefferson Caffery Research Award at UL Lafayette. Benoit is pictured with Dr. Zack Stein, assistant dean of technical services at the Edith Garland Dupré Library. It is judged by a panel that includes members of the Dupré Library staff. Photo credit: Doug Dugas / University of Louisiana at Lafayette