humanities essay prize

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2024 Essay and Poetry Prizes

The English department wishes to recognize the creativity of its undergraduate students and continue to foster the talent of our poets and essayists. You are invited to apply to the following prizes. 

The Howard Babb Memorial Essay Prize is open to all Humanities Undergraduate Students. The best essay or research paper will be awarded $500. The essay or research paper has no minimum of maximum length, but should have some bearing on the topic of literature.  The Brett Baldwin Prize in Poetry   is open to all Humanities Undergraduate Students. Students may submit a total of 3 poems not to exceed a total of 10 pages. One winner will receive $500.  The James McMichael Prize for Excellence in Poetry  requires completion of one course from Writing 30 or Writing 90 by the end of Winter 2024 in order to apply.  Students may submit a total of 3 poems not to exceed a total of 10 pages. First place will win $2000.  The Undergraduate Award for Excellence in Poetry  also requires completion of one course from Writing 30 or  Writing 90 by the end of Winter 2024 in order to apply.  Students may submit a total of 3 poems not to exceed a total of 10 pages.  First place will win $3000. 

For additional submission information, please click on the submission links of the desired prize. The names of the prizes are the submission links.  The deadline for submission for all awards will be FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2024.  May the odds be ever in your favor!

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Essay  COMPETITION

2024 global essay prize.

The John Locke Institute encourages young people to cultivate the characteristics that turn good students into great writers: independent thought, depth of knowledge, clear reasoning, critical analysis and persuasive style. Our Essay Competition invites students to explore a wide range of challenging and interesting questions beyond the confines of the school curriculum.

Entering an essay in our competition can build knowledge, and refine skills of argumentation. It also gives students the chance to have their work assessed by experts. All of our essay prizes are judged by a panel of senior academics drawn from leading universities including Oxford and Princeton, under the leadership of the Chairman of Examiners, former Cambridge philosopher, Dr Jamie Whyte.

The judges will choose their favourite essay from each of seven subject categories - Philosophy, Politics, Economics, History, Psychology, Theology and Law - and then select the winner of the Grand Prize for the best entry in any subject. There is also a separate prize awarded for the best essay in the junior category, for under 15s.

Q1. Do we have any good reasons to trust our moral intuition?

Q2. Do girls have a (moral) right to compete in sporting contests that exclude boys?

Q3. Should I be held responsible for what I believe?

Q1. Is there such a thing as too much democracy?

Q2. Is peace in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip possible?

Q3. When is compliance complicity?

Q1. What is the optimal global population?  

Q2. Accurate news reporting is a public good. Does it follow that news agencies should be funded from taxation?

Q3. Do successful business people benefit others when making their money, when spending it, both, or neither?

Q1. Why was sustained economic growth so rare before the later 18th century and why did this change?

Q2. Has music ever significantly changed the course of history?

Q3. Why do civilisations collapse? Is our civilisation in danger?

Q1. When, if ever, should a company be permitted to refuse to do business with a person because of that person’s public statements?

Q2. In the last five years British police have arrested several thousand people for things they posted on social media. Is the UK becoming a police state?

Q3. Your parents say that 11pm is your bedtime. But they don’t punish you if you don’t go to bed by 11pm. Is 11pm really your bedtime?

Q1. According to a study by four British universities, for each 16-point increase in IQ, the likelihood of getting married increases by 35% for a man but decreases by 40% for a woman. Why? 

Q2. There is an unprecedented epidemic of depression and anxiety among young people. Can we fix this? How?

Q3. What is the difference between a psychiatric illness and a character flaw?

Q1. “I am not religious, but I am spiritual.” What could the speaker mean by “spiritual”?

Q2. Is it reasonable to thank God for protection from some natural harm if He is responsible for causing the harm?

Q3. Does God reward those who believe in him? If so, why?

JUNIOR prize

Q1. Does winning a free and fair election automatically confer a mandate for governing?

Q2. Has the anti-racism movement reduced racism?

Q3. Is there life after death?

Q4. How did it happen that governments came to own and run most high schools, while leaving food production to private enterprise? 

Q5. When will advancing technology make most of us unemployable? What should we do about this?

Q6. Should we trust fourteen-year-olds to make decisions about their own bodies? 

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS & FURTHER DETAILS

Please read the following carefully.

Entry to the John Locke Institute Essay Competition 2024 is open to students from any country.

Registration  

Only candidates who registered before the registration deadline of Friday, 31 May 2024 may enter this year's competition.

All entries must be submitted by 11.59 pm BST on  the submission deadline: Sunday, 30 June 2024 .  Candidates must be eighteen years old, or younger, on that date. (Candidates for the Junior Prize must be fourteen years old, or younger, on that date.)

Entry is free.

Each essay must address only one of the questions in your chosen subject category, and must not exceed 2000 words (not counting diagrams, tables of data, endnotes, bibliography or authorship declaration). 

The filename of your pdf must be in this format: FirstName-LastName-Category-QuestionNumber.pdf; so, for instance, Alexander Popham would submit his answer to question 2 in the Psychology category with the following file name:

Alexander-Popham-Psychology-2.pdf

Essays with filenames which are not in this format will be rejected.

The candidate's name should NOT appear within the document itself. 

Candidates should NOT add footnotes. They may, however, add endnotes and/or a Bibliography that is clearly titled as such.

Each candidate will be required to provide the email address of an academic referee who is familiar with the candidate's written academic work. This should be a school teacher, if possible, or another responsible adult who is not a relation of the candidate. The John Locke Institute will email referees to verify that the essays submitted are indeed the original work of the candidates.

Submissions may be made as soon as registration opens in April. We recommend that you submit your essay well in advance of th e deadline to avoid any last-minute complications.

Acceptance of your essay depends on your granting us permission to use your data for the purposes of receiving and processing your entry as well as communicating with you about the Awards Ceremony Dinner, the academic conference for essay competition finalists, and other events and programmes of the John Locke Institute and its associated entities.  

Late entries

If for any reason you miss the 30 June deadline you will have an opportunity to make a late entry, under two conditions:

a) A late entry fee of 20.00 USD must be paid by credit card within twenty-four hours of the original deadline; and

b) Your essay must be submitted  before 11.59 pm BST on Wednesday, 10 July 2024.

To pay for late entry, a registrant need only log into his or her account, select the relevant option and provide the requested payment information.

Our grading system is proprietary. Essayists may be asked to discuss their entry with a member of the John Locke Institute’s faculty. We use various means to identify plagiarism, contract cheating, the use of AI and other forms of fraud . Our determinations in all such matters are final.

Essays will be judged on knowledge and understanding of the relevant material, the competent use of evidence, quality of argumentation, originality, structure, writing style and persuasive force. The very best essays are likely to be those which would be capable of changing somebody's mind. Essays which ignore or fail to address the strongest objections and counter-arguments are unlikely to be successful .

Candidates are advised to answer the question as precisely and directly as possible.

The writers of the best essays will receive a commendation and be shortlisted for a prize. Writers of shortlisted essays will be notified by 11.59 pm BST on Wednesday, 31 July. They will also be invited to London for an invitation-only academic conference and awards dinner in September, where the prize-winners will be announced. Unlike the competition itself, the academic conference and awards dinner are not free. Please be aware that n obody is required to attend either the academic conference or the prize ceremony. You can win a prize without travelling to London.

All short-listed candidates, including prize-winners, will be able to download eCertificates that acknowledge their achievement. If you win First, Second or Third Prize, and you travel to London for the ceremony, you will receive a signed certificate. 

There is a prize for the best essay in each category. The prize for each winner of a subject category, and the winner of the Junior category, is a scholarship worth US$2000 towards the cost of attending any John Locke Institute programme, and the essays will be published on the Institute's website. Prize-giving ceremonies will take place in London, at which winners and runners-up will be able to meet some of the judges and other faculty members of the John Locke Institute. Family, friends, and teachers are also welcome.

The candidate who submits the best essay overall will be awarded an honorary John Locke Institute Junior Fellowship, which comes with a US$10,000 scholarship to attend one or more of our summer schools and/or visiting scholars programmes. 

The judges' decisions are final, and no correspondence will be entered into.

R egistration opens: 1 April, 2024.

Registration deadline: 31 May, 2024. (Registration is required by this date for subsequent submission.)

Submission deadline: 30 June, 2024.

Late entry deadline: 10 July, 2024. (Late entries are subject to a 20.00 USD charge, payable by 1 July.)

Notification of short-listed essayists: 31 July, 2024.

Academic conference: 20 - 22 September, 2024.

Awards dinner: 21 September, 2024.

Any queries regarding the essay competition should be sent to [email protected] . Please be aware that, due to the large volume of correspondence we receive, we cannot guarantee to answer every query. In particular, regrettably, we are unable to respond to questions whose answers can be found on our website.

If you would like to receive helpful tips  from our examiners about what makes for a winning essay or reminders of upcoming key dates for the 2024  essay competition, please provide your email here to be added to our contact list. .

Thanks for subscribing!

The John Locke Institute's Global Essay Prize is acknowledged as the world's most prestigious essay competition. 

We welcome tens of thousands of submissions from ambitious students in more than 150 countries, and our examiners - including distinguished philosophers, political scientists, economists, historians, psychologists, theologians, and legal scholars - read and carefully assess every entry. 

I encourage you to register for this competition, not only for the hope of winning a prize or commendation, and not only for the chance to join the very best contestants at our academic conference and gala ceremony in London, but equally for the opportunity to engage in the serious scholarly enterprise of researching, reflecting on, writing about, and editing an answer to one of the important and provocative questions in this year's Global Essay Prize. 

We believe that the skills you will acquire in the process will make you a better thinker and a more effective advocate for the ideas that matter most to you.

I hope to see you in September!

Best wishes,

Jamie Whyte, Ph.D. (C ANTAB ) 

Chairman of Examiners

• HRI Research Prizes
• Fellowships & Research Support

The HRI Prizes for Research in the Humanities celebrate excellence in humanities scholarship with awards given at the undergraduate, graduate, and faculty levels.

Submissions are invited from scholars in all sectors of the university with focus on the humanities and humanities-inflected research. The awards will be presented at a reception on May 2, 2024.

View past prize recipients .

Application Deadline Date

Eligibility.

The awards are open to all full-time University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign students and faculty (tenure-line and specialized). For details regarding the eligible date range for a published essay or a student’s essay for a course, please see the appropriate guideline category below.

The winners in the faculty and graduate student categories will receive awards of $500. For faculty, this sum is awarded as research funds deposited to the appropriate departmental account.

Application Guidelines

All submissions must be accompanied by a completed nomination form (if you open this PDF in Adobe Acrobat, it is a fillable form). The submissions must contain NO references to the applicant’s name or other identifying details. Submissions that do not follow these guidelines will be disqualified from consideration.

Please email the submission and the nomination form as two separate attached PDF documents to [email protected]. Please note that scans of journals or book pages are not acceptable. Submissions should be in manuscript form, double-spaced, in 12-point Times New Roman font, with all identifying details removed (including self- citations or references), and conform to the length limitations specified for the appropriate entry category (faculty, graduate student, or undergraduate student).

Faculty Guidelines

• Submission must be double-spaced and single-sided, in 12-point Times New Roman font, with a length of 15–25 pages ( exclusive of notes, bibliography or works cited, and/or picture/illustration appendices); the submission may be an excerpt of appropriate length from a longer work. Self-references and self-citations should be redacted or otherwise edited to remove identifying information from the essay.
• Submissions must have been published between January 1, 2023 and the application deadline in a book, journal, edited collection, or peer-reviewed electronic or online publication. (Accepted but still forthcoming works are not eligible.)
• Ideally submissions are limited to one per faculty member, but as publications often come in clusters, faculty are limited to a maximum of two submissions per award cycle.
• The submission may be nominated by a full-time U of I faculty member, or self-nominated.

Graduate Student Guidelines

• Submissions must be double-spaced and single-sided, in 12-point Times New Roman font, with a length of 10–20 pages ( exclusive of notes, bibliography or works cited, and/or picture/illustration appendices). Excerpts of an appropriate length from a longer work are acceptable.
• The submitted essay must have been completed for an Urbana campus course taken for credit during the 2023–24 academic year (or submitted from March 3, 2023 to May 15, 2023 for a course taken for credit in the spring of the previous academic year), or the submission may be an excerpt of appropriate length from the graduate student’s thesis, dissertation, or equivalent research project.
• The submission may be nominated by the thesis director or faculty member who taught the course for which the paper was written, or self-nominated, with the signature-approval of the faculty member/thesis director required on the nomination form, in either case.
• Graduate students are limited to one submission per award cycle .

Undergraduate Student Guidelines

• Submissions must be double-spaced and single-sided, in 12-point Times New Roman font, with a length of 8–15 pages ( exclusive of notes, bibliography or works cited, and/or picture/illustration appendices).
• The submitted essay must have been completed for an Urbana campus course taken for credit during the 2023–24 academic year (or submitted from March 3, 2023 to May 15, 2023 for a course taken for credit in the spring of the previous academic year, or submitted during the summer 2023 academic session).
• The submission may be nominated by the faculty member of the course for which the paper was written, or self-nominated, with the signature approval of the faculty member required on the nomination form in either case.
• Undergraduate students are limited to one submission per award cycle .

Application Deadline Details

All materials must be submitted by 5:00 p.m. on March 1, 2024 . See above for full application guidelines.

Selection Criteria

The applications will be read by a selection committee comprised of members of the HRI Advisory Committee and the HRI Director and Deputy Director (both of whom serve on the committee in an ex officio capacity). Submissions will be judged in a blind review process; names and any other identifying details must not be included in the essay itself. The essays will be evaluated on their scholarly merit, the intellectual rigor of the questions being posed, and the quality of the writing.

Notification

All applications will be acknowledged via email, and all applicants will be notified in mid-April 2024, when the prize selection process is concluded.

Questions about these awards and the nomination procedures should be addressed to Nancy Castro at  [email protected] .

• Central List of Opportunities
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• HRI Summer Faculty Fellowships
• Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Humanities as Social Practice
• NEH Summer Stipends
• Communications and Outreach Internship
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• Odyssey Project Internship
• Reading Groups

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Think Essay Prize

The Royal Institute of Philosophy is pleased to announce the inaugural essay competition for Think .

The winner will be published in an issue of Think , the shortlisted candidates will win a year’s free subscription to  Think , and other prizes will be awarded to all those who make the longlist.

About the prize 

We look forward to receiving your essay submission and hope you are enjoying the programmes and activities that the Royal Institute of Philosophy delivers.

School of Humanities

As researchers and scholars, our faculty is second to none. We are proudest, though, of our students who are learning to probe the big questions and develop the analytical and interpretive skills to address them.

Best Essay Competition Archive

2020 winners were:

Best Essay – Creative category

1 st prize: Emma Every, for her essay “Hospice: The House Between Worlds”

2 nd prize: Yunee Park, for her essay, “Pretty”

Best Essay – Critical Essay category

1 st prize: Lily Wieland, for her essay, “Optimism, Despair, and ‘Balanced Hope’”

2 nd prize: Rishab Ramapriyan, for his essay, “Coming face-to-face with death in When Breath Becomes Air ”

Honorable Mention: Neha Tallapragada, for her essay, “Being Transgender in America”

Best Essay Winner Archive

MAGDALENE COLLEGE

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Arts and Humanities Essay Competition 2023 Winners

The competition invited Year 12 students from UK state-maintained schools to submit a response to one of twelve essay questions, which encompassed a variety of Arts and Humanities subjects available to study at undergraduate level at the University of Cambridge. In its first year, the competition attracted over 110 excellent entries.

First Prize was awarded to Edward Morgan from King James’s School in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire. Edward’s fantastic essay addressed the question ‘Can artificial intelligence create art, and what issues does this raise?’.

Two entries were deemed deserving of Second Prize, which was awarded jointly to Ansruta Ayyalasomayajula from Rugby High School in Warwickshire, and Evie Neppl from Brentwood Ursuline Convent High School in Essex. Ansruta’s essay discussed the merits of English as an ‘international language’, whilst Evie’s reflected on the concept of evil and its implications for studies of philosophy and religion.

Third Prize was awarded to Isaac Sallé from Aylesbury Grammar School for his essay on reading literature for escapism.

Honourable Mentions were also awarded to Ayman Hussain (Archbishop Blanch School, Liverpool), Erin O’Hare (Upton Hall FCJ, Wirral), and Lucy Smith (Beverley Joint Sixth Form, East Yorkshire).

All winners and their guests have been invited to a prize-giving celebration at Magdalene College.

The judging panel, composed of Magdalene Fellows from across the Arts and Humanities, provided the following feedback to entrants:

The judges were extremely impressed with the overall quality of the essays that they read, and in particular with the range of responses given to the different set questions. These showed ingenuity, independence of mind, critical thinking, and creativity, as well as a great deal of research and effort. The essays were characterful, interesting, and enjoyable to read, and it was very difficult to pick winners. We recognise that many excellent essays have unfortunately gone unrewarded, but congratulate everyone on their efforts.

You can read the prize-winning essays below.

Magdalene College Arts and Humanities Essay Competition 2023

First Prize

Joint Second Prize

Third Prize

Honourable Mention

The TORCH Humanities and Science Essay Competition

How can musicians use concepts about randomness and order developed by physicists and mathematicians to enrich their compositions? How far is the image showing a patient’s brain scan an aesthetic choice made by the clinician? How can humanities scholars and policy makers help engineers to explore the potential social and cultural impact of their innovations? Is mathematical proof a form of narrative? What can mental health practitioners learn from the arts?

With this competition, we want you to explore the relationship between the humanities and the sciences. We want to examine how new answers can be found – and new research questions can be set – by bringing the disciplines together. To this end, we propose that you write an engaging short essay about a notable scientific moment, invention or discovery and its impact on humanity. 

For example, you could write an essay on the steam turbine, invented by Charles Parsons in 1884, and the Industrial Revolution’s impact upon the arts and culture. You could write about Rosalind Franklin’s X-ray photograph of B-DNA, which was central to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA. Or, you could write about gunpowder, which was invented in China in the 9th century. It has been a major factor in military technology, and the resulting wars have changed the course of human history.

You might argue that the Humanities and the Sciences are fundamentally different. Alternatively, do they share roots, values, aspirations and a common, contemporary predicament? Persuade us. The most successful essays will be astutely researched and written in a creative and engaging manner.

For inspiration, check out Professor Sally Shuttleworth’s Diseases of Modern Life project, which explores the medical, literary and cultural responses in the Victorian age to the perceived problems of stress and overwork, anticipating many of the preoccupations of our own era. Alternatively, read the blog post Plants, Brain and Imagination by Dr Sarah Watkinson, which outlines a TORCH SciPo event centred around poetry at the Botanic Garden and St Hilda's College, or Dr Jenny Oliver’s wonderful piece on Fungus and fertility in sixteenth-century French poetry: how is a poem like a mushroom?

Categories: 

Entrants must be under 17 years of age (inclusive). 

Entrants may be 18 years or older. 

Please indicate which category you are entering. 

Prizes for each category

First prize = £75

Two runners up will each receive £25 

DEADLINE: 5pm, Tuesday 19th May. 

Rules and regulations: .

1. Your entry must be in English, your own unaided work, and not a translation of another writer. 

2. Your essay must be shorter than 1,500 words . 

3. Please send all entries as a pdf or Word document to [email protected] . Judging is anonymous. Your name and address must not appear on the pieces entered, nor any other marks that could identify you. Please identify yourself in the body of the email, not the attached entry itself. 

4. Maximum two entries per person. 

5. The closing date is 5pm, Tuesday 19th May 2020 . The winning entry, and two runners-up will be notified by 5pm, Friday 12th June 2020 . 

6. TORCH reserves the right to publish the top three entries from each category on our website and social media channels ad infinitum. Authors may also publish their pieces elsewhere. 

7. We will not enter into any correspondence about the winner or entries, nor will we make changes to entries received. Incomplete submissions will not be accepted. The judges’ decisions will be final. Your entry in the competition means you accept these rules.

8. We will abide by good practice in the running of this competition, but cannot be held responsible for circumstances beyond our control such as being unable to access our website services. Prizes may be withheld or altered if we receive no outstanding entries, or insufficient entries.

9. Entry is FREE. No entry form is needed. 

10. Notification of receipt of entry will be by email.

11. Essays cannot be altered or substituted once they have been entered.

12. Entry is taken to be acceptance of these rules.

13. Plagiarism in any form will not be tolerated. 

14. This essay competition is international and welcomes entrants in English from all countries.

15. Entering or winning the competition does not confer a lasting association of any kind with TORCH.

16. In the body of your email, please indicate which category you apply to.

Click here to start your application. Apply now

The Essay Competition is now closed.

Northeastern University London is inviting competition entries from students who are currently in their penultimate year of secondary education (equivalent to Year 12 in the English education system, or Grade 11 in India).

Our selection of essay titles engage across a broad range of technology, social science and humanities topics and we look forward to receiving entries from talented and intellectually curious students who show passion in their subject area. We welcome entries from students located anywhere in the world.

If you have any further questions please see our  FAQ page before contacting us.

Choose your essay question

Applied Digital & Technology Solutions: Discuss the societal risks and rewards associated with generative AI (such as ChatGPT). 

Business: Is it possible to reconcile the cost-of-living crisis consumers are experiencing with the need for sustainable consumption?

Computer & Data Science: Describe a modern application of data science based on machine learning, generative AI or data analytics. Discuss its context in terms of topic, domain, and societal implications. 

Economics: Does the expanding gig economy contribute positively to sustainable economic growth? 

English: Is it fair to say that literature is another name for language which has no practical use? 

History: How have empires throughout history shaped the societies we live in today? 

Law: Ed Sheeran said “Defending copyright infringement lawsuits has become as much a part of the job description for top musicians as the performance of hits”. Discuss whether UK copyright laws are out of date and should be reviewed by Parliament. 

Philosophy: To what extent, and in what ways, can the past be a good guide to the future? 

Politics & IR: Is environmental degradation a greater threat to the international community than war? 

Psychology: Discuss to what extent mental factors impact ageing.

The following prizes will be awarded:

Overall winner across all essay subjects- £1000

Winner in a subject category- £500

Runner up in a subject category- £250

How to enter

1. Register for the competition – After registering you will be emailed detailed instructions on how to enter.

2. Choose one of the titles

3. Write your 1,500-word essay

4. Submit your essay via our online form (URL will be emailed to you after you register) by 1pm GMT Sunday 31st December 2023 .

If you have any further questions please see our FAQ page before contacting us.

Who can enter?

The Northeastern University London Essay Competition is open to students who are currently in their penultimate (second to last) year of secondary education (Year 12 in England or Grade 11 in India). This is a global competition, so we encourage entries from those studying anywhere in the world. Find full competition rules here .

Register here

We are no longer accepting registrations for the essay competition. If you have any questions please refer to our FAQ .

Global Outlook::Digital Humanities Essay Prize Winners Announced

We are pleased to announce the winners of the first University of Lethbridge , Global Outlook::Digital Humanities , Digital Studies/Le champ numérique   Global Digital Humanities Essay Prize .

How we determined these results

The competition received 53 entries in 7 languages, with 38 submissions in English. These were adjudicated by an international committee with competency in all submitted languages and topics.

Each essay was reviewed by two readers. In most cases, the readers of the paper included at least one native speaker of the language of submission (the exceptions were a few papers in English that were assigned to referees with strong L2 skills). The second reader too, in most cases, was also a native speaker of the language of submission.

Referees were asked to give a score of 1-5 (with 1 being the lowest score, and 5 the top) on the following three questions:

• To what extent is the abstract intellectually compelling? I.e. Is the problem or topic non-trivial? Is it well defined? Is the proposed solution or approach effective or convincing?
• To what extent is the abstract methodologically sound? I.e. does the author take an appropriate approach? propose the use of appropriate tools or arguments? use appropriate and/or convincing evidence?
• To what extent is the presentation of the abstract careful? I.e. is it clearly written? Free from typos? Appropriately structured? (Not this is not a test of artistry: many of our contestants are not writing in a second language and we should not hold them to native-speaker rhetorical style)

An additional question allowed referees to assign between 0 and 3 bonus marks for papers they thought were particularly exceptional, well suited to the goals of competition, or otherwise deserving of special attention. Submissions were then ranked on the basis of their average scores. Although mechanisms were in place for resolving cases in which the referees showed a wide divergence of opinion, there were in the end few papers on which referees’ opinions diverged markedly and none among the top four.

Although language was not considered as an adjudication criteria, the results reflect the linguistic diversity of the GO::DH community. Four of the top nine essays were in a language other than English.

The winning papers

The top essays/abstracts fall into three categories: “ First Prize ,” “ Second Prize ,” and “ Honourable Mention .”

First Prize

There were four “First Prize” winners. First Prize includes an immediate award of $200 (all amounts are in Canadian dollars) plus a further $300 upon submission of a final paper suitable for review by the editors of Digital Studies/Le champ numérique . Funding for these prizes comes from a grant provided by the University of Lethbridge. The first prize winners, listed in alphabetical order, are

• Dacos, Marin (Open Edition, France). La stratégie du Sauna finlandais: Les frontières de Digital Humanities. Essai de Géographie politique d’une communauté scientifique.
• Gawne, Lauren (University of Melbourne, Australia). Language documentation and division: Bridging the digital divide.
• Pue, A. Sean, Tracy K. Teal, and C. Titus Brown (Michigan State University, USA). Bioinformatic approaches to the computational analysis of Urdu poetic meter.
• Raval, Noopur (Jawaharlal Nehru Univesity (JNU), New Delhi, India). On Wikipedia and Failure: Notes from Queering the Encyclopedia.

Second Prize

An anonymous donation allows the committee to recognise five additional papers with a “Second Prize” of $100. While no additional funding is available for these papers, the authors are also strongly encouraged to consider developing their work further for publication in Digital Studies or other Digital Humanities journals. The second prize winners, listed in alphabetical order, are

• Arauco Dextre, Renzo (Memoragram, Lima, Peru). Memogram, un Cloud-Service Para la Memoria Colectiva.
• Carlson, Thomas A. (Princeton University, USA). Digital Maps are still not territory: Challenges raised by Syriaca.org’s Middle Eastern places over two millenia.
• Tomasini Maciel, Julia (University of Maryland, USA). Humanidades Digitales y traducción literaria: Latinoamérica entre el portugués y el español.
• Portales Machado, Yasmín Silvia (Havana, Cuba). Perfil demográfico de la blogosfera hecha en Cuba en diciembre de 2012.
• Tasovac, Toma and Natalia Ermolaev (Centre for Digital Humanities, Belgrade, Serbia). Interfacing diachrony: Rethinking lexical annotation in digital editions.

Honourable Mention

The following sixteen abstracts/essays (listed in alphabetical order) are recognised by the committee as particularly deserving of an “honourable mention.” While the committee did not have the funds available to award prizes to these papers, it nevertheless also encourages the authors of these papers to consider developing their work further for publication in Digital Studies or other Digital Humanities journals. The papers given an honorable mention, again listed in alphabetical order by first author, are

• Arbuckle, Alyssa (University of Victoria, Canada). The risk of digital repatriation for indigenous groups.
• Baryshev, Ruslan, Igor Kim, Inna Kizhner, Maxim Rumyantsev (Siberian Federal University, Russia). Digitial Humanities at Siberian Federal University.
• Calbay, Francis Raymond (HayPinas.org, Taipei, Taiwan). User-Generated vitriol: Ethnic stereotypes in online comments on media reports of a South China Sea shooting incident.
• Farman, Jason (University of Maryland, USA). Mapping virtual communities: The production of crisis maps and cultural imaginaries of the Diaspora.
• Finney, Tim (Vose Seminary, Australia). How to discover textual groups.
• Ives, Maura and Amy Earhart (Texas A&M University, USA). Establishing a digital humanities center: Vision, reality, sustainability.
• Kaltenbrunner, Wolfgang (Leiden University, The Netherlands). Transparency strategies in digital scholarship.
• López Villaneuva, José Manuel (Mexico). Reflexiones sobre la RedHD en México: desarrollo y alcance de la RedHD en la comunidad académica universitaria.
• Menon, Nirmala (Indian Institute of Technology Indore, India). Multilingual digital publishing: A postcolonial Digital Humanities imperative.
• O’Sullivan, James (Ireland). The emergence of Digital Humanities in Ireland.
• Ouellette, Jessica (University of Massachussetts, USA). Blogging borders: Transnational feminist rhetorics and global voices.
• Perozo Olivares, Karla (Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Venazuala). Una aproximación al desconocimiento de las masas digitales.
• Riedel, Dagmar (Columbia University, USA). The digitization of books in Arabic script and the digital divide in Muslim societies.
• Sandstedt, Jørgen (University of Iceland, University of Oslo, Iceland/Norway). Text-dependent automated methods in scribal hand identification.
• Schmidt, Desmond (University of Queensland, Australia). Towards a model for the digital scholarly edition.
• Sobczak, Anna (Szczecin University, Poland). A co z humanistami? – Cyfrowa humanistyka jako lekarstwo na obecny stan postrzegania humanistyki w mediach elektronicznych?

Other submissions

As the number of winners, runners up, and honorable mentions suggests, the competition was extremely strong, with only a few points separating the top from the bottom entries in each category. Several essays and abstracts not listed above also scored very close to the cut-off point or were otherwise remarked upon by the judges. We are currently gathering referees’ comments together and will be passing these on to the authors as soon as they are ready.

The adjudication committee would like to thank all who submitted abstracts or essays to this competition. The quality of the entries was extremely high and the process by which the winners were determined very difficult as a result. More than a few excellent papers had to be left off the list of named finalists.

Future competitions

Although this competition exhausts the funding received from the University of Lethbridge, we are actively seeking additional money to offer similar competitions in the future. We appreciate the patience and enthusiasm of all.

Adjudication panel

The adjudication panel consisted of the following members:

• Daniel O’Donnell (Lethbridge, AB, Canada) (Chair)
• Titi Babalola (Lethbridge, AB, Canada)
• Marcus Bingenheimer (Philadelphia, PA, USA)
• Barbara Bordalejo (Saskatoon, SK, Canada)
• Hilary Culbertson (Durham, NC, USA)
• Elie Dannaoui (Balamand, Lebanon)
• Heide Estes (Monmouth, UK)
• Domenico Fiormonte (Rome, Italy)
• Neil Fraistat (Baltimore, MD, USA)
• Alex Gil (New York)
• Elena Gonzalez-Blanco (Madrid, Spain)
• Jieh Hsiang (Taipei, Taiwan)
• Joey Jenjou Hung (Taipei, Taiwan)
• Anna Kijas (Storrs, CT, USA)
• Ernesto Priani (Mexico City)
• Gurpreet Singh (Punjab, India)
• Laurie Taylor (Gainesville, FL, USA)
• Christian Wittern (Kyoto, Japan)
• Jamie Jungmin Yoo (Cambridge, MA, USA)

Thank you very much to all adjudicators for their thoughtful work.

Cambridge Essay Competitions

Essay competitions are brilliant for a number of reasons!

You can use them to:

The essay competitions usually become open for submissions after the winter holidays. Be sure to check any eligibility criteria, requirements and deadlines. This page will be updated when new competitions are announced, and when deadlines are passed, so check back regularly! All essay competitions and events at Cambridge (both online and in-person) can be found here 🔗 🌟.

Magdalene College Arts and Humanities Essay Competition 2024 🔗 🌟 Any student in their penultimate year at a state school can enter this competition, which will open in early 2024. Last year, there were 12 questions covering a variety of topics within the arms and humanities - you can read the winning entries here 🔗. To register your interest in this competition for 2024, fill in this form 🔗.

Fitzwilliam College Essay Competitions: various subjects 🔗 🌟 Fitzwilliam College runs a variety of competitions in Ancient World and Classics, Archaeology, History, Land Economy, Medieval World, Architecture, and Economics (this last one is for state-school UK students only). All competitions are open to Year 12 students and are designed to encourage students to pursue their interests in subjects they might not be able to study in depth at school. Last year, the deadline for all competition entries was the 1st of March, so make sure to check back in early 2024 for updates.

Newnham College Woolf Essay Prize 🔗 🌟 The Woolf Essay Competition is focussed on women in literature, history, society and culture. There are also competitions for other subjects - more information these will be coming soon. Webinars to help support your entry can be found here 🔗 . The deadline for the Woolf Prize last year was the 14th of July.

Girton College Humanities Writing Competition 🔗 An opportunity for students interested in pursuing any humanities subject to write creatively! Year 12 students may enter with an essay or piece of creative writing using an object from Girton College’s small antiquities museum, the Lawrence Room, as their prompt.

Robinson College Essay Prize: various subjects 🔗 Year 12 students may submit an essay of up to 2,000 words in response to one of the set questions, which cover a wide variety of academic subjects. The prize did not run in 2023, but may in 2024.

Trinity College Essay Prizes 🔗 These competitions give entrants the opportunity to write an essay of up to 2,000 words in response to the set question/(s). Last year there were competitions for English Literature, Launguages, Linguistics, Philosophy, Politics, Law, and History.

Did you spot a typo or formatting issue? Let us know by emailing us at [email protected] .

Spring & Summer 2024 Admissions Open Now. Sign up for upcoming live information sessions here .

Discourse, debate, and analysis

Cambridge re:think essay competition 2024.

Competition Opens: 15th January, 2024

Essay Submission Deadline: 10th May, 2024 Result Announcement: 20th June, 2024 Award Ceremony and Dinner at the University of Cambridge: 30th July, 2024

We welcome talented high school students from diverse educational settings worldwide to contribute their unique perspectives to the competition.

Entry to the competition is free.

About the Competition

The spirit of the Re:think essay competition is to encourage critical thinking and exploration of a wide range of thought-provoking and often controversial topics. The competition covers a diverse array of subjects, from historical and present issues to speculative future scenarios. Participants are invited to engage deeply with these topics, critically analysing their various facets and implications. It promotes intellectual exploration and encourages participants to challenge established norms and beliefs, presenting opportunities to envision alternative futures, consider the consequences of new technologies, and reevaluate longstanding traditions. 

Ultimately, our aim is to create a platform for students and scholars to share their perspectives on pressing issues of the past and future, with the hope of broadening our collective understanding and generating innovative solutions to contemporary challenges. This year’s competition aims to underscore the importance of discourse, debate, and critical analysis in addressing complex societal issues in nine areas, including:

Religion and Politics

Political science and law, linguistics, environment, sociology and philosophy, business and investment, public health and sustainability, biotechonology.

Artificial Intelligence 

Neuroengineering

2024 essay prompts.

This year, the essay prompts are contributed by distinguished professors from Harvard, Brown, UC Berkeley, Cambridge, Oxford, and MIT.

Essay Guidelines and Judging Criteria

Review general guidelines, format guidelines, eligibility, judging criteria.

Awards and Award Ceremony

Award winners will be invited to attend the Award Ceremony and Dinner hosted at the King’s College, University of Cambridge. The Dinner is free of charge for select award recipients.

Registration and Submission

Register a participant account today and submit your essay before the deadline.

Advisory Committee and Judging Panel

The Cambridge Re:think Essay Competition is guided by an esteemed Advisory Committee comprising distinguished academics and experts from elite universities worldwide. These committee members, drawn from prestigious institutions, such as Harvard, Cambridge, Oxford, and MIT, bring diverse expertise in various disciplines.

They play a pivotal role in shaping the competition, contributing their insights to curate the themes and framework. Their collective knowledge and scholarly guidance ensure the competition’s relevance, academic rigour, and intellectual depth, setting the stage for aspiring minds to engage with thought-provoking topics and ideas.

We are honoured to invite the following distinguished professors to contribute to this year’s competition.

The judging panel of the competition comprises leading researchers and professors from Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Cambridge, and Oxford, engaging in a strictly double blind review process.

Keynote Speeches by 8 Nobel Laureates

We are beyond excited to announce that multiple Nobel laureates have confirmed to attend and speak at this year’s ceremony on 30th July, 2024 .

They will each be delivering a keynote speech to the attendees. Some of them distinguished speakers will speak virtually, while others will attend and present in person and attend the Reception at Cambridge.

Why has religion remained a force in a secular world? 

Professor Commentary:

Arguably, the developed world has become more secular in the last century or so. The influence of Christianity, e.g. has diminished and people’s life worlds are less shaped by faith and allegiance to Churches. Conversely, arguments have persisted that hold that we live in a post-secular world. After all, religion – be it in terms of faith, transcendence, or meaning – may be seen as an alternative to a disenchanted world ruled by entirely profane criteria such as economic rationality, progressivism, or science. Is the revival of religion a pale reminder of a by-gone past or does it provide sources of hope for the future?

‘Religion in the Public Sphere’ by Jürgen Habermas (European Journal of Philosophy, 2006)

In this paper, philosopher Jürgen Habermas discusses the limits of church-state separation, emphasizing the significant contribution of religion to public discourse when translated into publicly accessible reasons.

‘Public Religions in the Modern World’ by José Casanova (University Of Chicago Press, 1994)

Sociologist José Casanova explores the global emergence of public religion, analyzing case studies from Catholicism and Protestantism in Spain, Poland, Brazil, and the USA, challenging traditional theories of secularization.

‘The Power of Religion in the Public Sphere’ by Judith Butler, Jürgen Habermas, Charles Taylor, and Cornel West (Edited by Eduardo Mendieta and Jonathan VanAntwerpen, Columbia University Press, 2011)

This collection features dialogues by prominent intellectuals on the role of religion in the public sphere, examining various approaches and their impacts on cultural, social, and political debates.

‘Rethinking Secularism’ by Craig Calhoun, Mark Juergensmeyer, and Jonathan VanAntwerpen (Oxford University Press, 2011)

An interdisciplinary examination of secularism, this book challenges traditional views, highlighting the complex relationship between religion and secularism in contemporary global politics.

‘God is Back: How the Global Rise of Faith is Changing the World’ by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge (Penguin, 2010)

Micklethwait and Wooldridge argue for the coexistence of religion and modernity, suggesting that religious beliefs can contribute to a more open, tolerant, and peaceful modern world.

‘Multiculturalism’ by Tariq Modood (Polity Press, 2013)

Sociologist Tariq Modood emphasizes the importance of multiculturalism in integrating diverse identities, particularly in post-immigration contexts, and its role in shaping democratic citizenship.

‘God’s Agents: Biblical Publicity in Contemporary England’ by Matthew Engelke (University of California Press, 2013)

In this ethnographic study, Matthew Engelke explores how a group in England seeks to expand the role of religion in the public sphere, challenging perceptions of religion in post-secular England.

Gene therapy is a medical approach that treats or prevents disease by correcting the underlying genetic problem. Is gene therapy better than traditional medicines? What are the pros and cons of using gene therapy as a medicine? Is gene therapy justifiable?

Especially after Covid-19 mRNA vaccines, gene therapy is getting more and more interesting approach to cure. That’s why that could be interesting to think about. I believe that students will enjoy and learn a lot while they are investigating this topic.

The Hall at King’s College, Cambridge

The Hall was designed by William Wilkins in the 1820s and is considered one of the most magnificent halls of its era. The first High Table dinner in the Hall was held in February 1828, and ever since then, the splendid Hall has been where members of the college eat and where formal dinners have been held for centuries.

The Award Ceremony and Dinner will be held in the Hall in the evening of  30th July, 2024.

Stretching out down to the River Cam, the Back Lawn has one of the most iconic backdrop of King’s College Chapel. 

The early evening reception will be hosted on the Back Lawn with the iconic Chapel in the background (weather permitting). 

King’s College Chapel

With construction started in 1446 by Henry VI and took over a century to build, King’s College Chapel is one of the most iconic buildings in the world, and is a splendid example of late Gothic architecture. 

Attendees are also granted complimentary access to the King’s College Chapel before and during the event. 

Confirmed Nobel Laureates

Dr Thomas R. Cech

The nobel prize in chemistry 1989 , for the discovery of catalytic properties of rna.

Thomas Robert Cech is an American chemist who shared the 1989 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Sidney Altman, for their discovery of the catalytic properties of RNA. Cech discovered that RNA could itself cut strands of RNA, suggesting that life might have started as RNA. He found that RNA can not only transmit instructions, but also that it can speed up the necessary reactions.

He also studied telomeres, and his lab discovered an enzyme, TERT (telomerase reverse transcriptase), which is part of the process of restoring telomeres after they are shortened during cell division.

As president of Howard Hughes Medical Institute, he promoted science education, and he teaches an undergraduate chemistry course at the University of Colorado

Sir Richard J. Roberts

The nobel prize in medicine 1993 .

F or the discovery of split genes

During 1969–1972, Sir Richard J. Roberts did postdoctoral research at Harvard University before moving to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he was hired by James Dewey Watson, a co-discoverer of the structure of DNA and a fellow Nobel laureate. In this period he also visited the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology for the first time, working alongside Fred Sanger. In 1977, he published his discovery of RNA splicing. In 1992, he moved to New England Biolabs. The following year, he shared a Nobel Prize with his former colleague at Cold Spring Harbor Phillip Allen Sharp.

His discovery of the alternative splicing of genes, in particular, has had a profound impact on the study and applications of molecular biology. The realisation that individual genes could exist as separate, disconnected segments within longer strands of DNA first arose in his 1977 study of adenovirus, one of the viruses responsible for causing the common cold. Robert’s research in this field resulted in a fundamental shift in our understanding of genetics, and has led to the discovery of split genes in higher organisms, including human beings.

Dr Aaron Ciechanover

The nobel prize in chemistry 2004 .

F or the discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation

Aaron Ciechanover is one of Israel’s first Nobel Laureates in science, earning his Nobel Prize in 2004 for his work in ubiquitination. He is honored for playing a central role in the history of Israel and in the history of the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.

Dr Ciechanover is currently a Technion Distinguished Research Professor in the Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and Research Institute at the Technion. He is a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the Russian Academy of Sciences and is a foreign associate of the United States National Academy of Sciences. In 2008, he was a visiting Distinguished Chair Professor at NCKU, Taiwan. As part of Shenzhen’s 13th Five-Year Plan funding research in emerging technologies and opening “Nobel laureate research labs”, in 2018 he opened the Ciechanover Institute of Precision and Regenerative Medicine at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen campus.

Dr Robert Lefkowitz

The nobel prize in chemistry 2012 .

F or the discovery of G protein-coupled receptors

Robert Joseph Lefkowitz is an American physician (internist and cardiologist) and biochemist. He is best known for his discoveries that reveal the inner workings of an important family G protein-coupled receptors, for which he was awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with Brian Kobilka. He is currently an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute as well as a James B. Duke Professor of Medicine and Professor of Biochemistry and Chemistry at Duke University.

Dr Lefkowitz made a remarkable contribution in the mid-1980s when he and his colleagues cloned the gene first for the β-adrenergic receptor, and then rapidly thereafter, for a total of 8 adrenergic receptors (receptors for adrenaline and noradrenaline). This led to the seminal discovery that all GPCRs (which include the β-adrenergic receptor) have a very similar molecular structure. The structure is defined by an amino acid sequence which weaves its way back and forth across the plasma membrane seven times. Today we know that about 1,000 receptors in the human body belong to this same family. The importance of this is that all of these receptors use the same basic mechanisms so that pharmaceutical researchers now understand how to effectively target the largest receptor family in the human body. Today, as many as 30 to 50 percent of all prescription drugs are designed to “fit” like keys into the similarly structured locks of Dr Lefkowitz’ receptors—everything from anti-histamines to ulcer drugs to beta blockers that help relieve hypertension, angina and coronary disease.

Dr Lefkowitz is among the most highly cited researchers in the fields of biology, biochemistry, pharmacology, toxicology, and clinical medicine according to Thomson-ISI.

Dr Joachim Frank

The nobel prize in chemistry 2017 .

F or developing cryo-electron microscopy

Joachim Frank is a German-American biophysicist at Columbia University and a Nobel laureate. He is regarded as the founder of single-particle cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), for which he shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2017 with Jacques Dubochet and Richard Henderson. He also made significant contributions to structure and function of the ribosome from bacteria and eukaryotes.

In 1975, Dr Frank was offered a position of senior research scientist in the Division of Laboratories and Research (now Wadsworth Center), New York State Department of Health,where he started working on single-particle approaches in electron microscopy. In 1985 he was appointed associate and then (1986) full professor at the newly formed Department of Biomedical Sciences of the University at Albany, State University of New York. In 1987 and 1994, he went on sabbaticals in Europe, one to work with Richard Henderson, Laboratory of Molecular Biology Medical Research Council in Cambridge and the other as a Humboldt Research Award winner with Kenneth C. Holmes, Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg. In 1998, Dr Frank was appointed investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). Since 2003 he was also lecturer at Columbia University, and he joined Columbia University in 2008 as professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics and of biological sciences.

Dr Barry C. Barish

The nobel prize in physics 2017 .

For the decisive contributions to the detection of gravitational waves

Dr Barry Clark Barish is an American experimental physicist and Nobel Laureate. He is a Linde Professor of Physics, emeritus at California Institute of Technology and a leading expert on gravitational waves.

In 2017, Barish was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics along with Rainer Weiss and Kip Thorne “for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves”. He said, “I didn’t know if I would succeed. I was afraid I would fail, but because I tried, I had a breakthrough.”

In 2018, he joined the faculty at University of California, Riverside, becoming the university’s second Nobel Prize winner on the faculty.

In the fall of 2023, he joined Stony Brook University as the inaugural President’s Distinguished Endowed Chair in Physics.

In 2023, Dr Barish was awarded the National Medal of Science by President Biden in a White House ceremony.

Dr Harvey J. Alter

The nobel prize in medicine 2020 .

For the discovery of Hepatitis C virus

Dr Harvey J. Alter is an American medical researcher, virologist, physician and Nobel Prize laureate, who is best known for his work that led to the discovery of the hepatitis C virus. Alter is the former chief of the infectious disease section and the associate director for research of the Department of Transfusion Medicine at the Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland. In the mid-1970s, Alter and his research team demonstrated that most post-transfusion hepatitis cases were not due to hepatitis A or hepatitis B viruses. Working independently, Alter and Edward Tabor, a scientist at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, proved through transmission studies in chimpanzees that a new form of hepatitis, initially called “non-A, non-B hepatitis” caused the infections, and that the causative agent was probably a virus. This work eventually led to the discovery of the hepatitis C virus in 1988, for which he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2020 along with Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice.

Dr Alter has received recognition for the research leading to the discovery of the virus that causes hepatitis C. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, the highest award conferred to civilians in United States government public health service, and the 2000 Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research.

Dr Ardem Patapoutian

The nobel prize in medicine 2021 .

For discovering how pressure is translated into nerve impulses

Dr Ardem Patapoutian is an Lebanese-American molecular biologist, neuroscientist, and Nobel Prize laureate of Armenian descent. He is known for his work in characterising the PIEZO1, PIEZO2, and TRPM8 receptors that detect pressure, menthol, and temperature. Dr Patapoutian is a neuroscience professor and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Scripps Research in La Jolla, California. In 2021, he won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with David Julius.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why should I participate in the Re:think essay competition? 

The Re:think Essay competition is meant to serve as fertile ground for honing writing skills, fostering critical thinking, and refining communication abilities. Winning or participating in reputable contests can lead to recognition, awards, scholarships, or even publication opportunities, elevating your academic profile for college applications and future endeavours. Moreover, these competitions facilitate intellectual growth by encouraging exploration of diverse topics, while also providing networking opportunities and exposure to peers, educators, and professionals. Beyond accolades, they instil confidence, prepare for higher education demands, and often allow you to contribute meaningfully to societal conversations or causes, making an impact with your ideas.

Who is eligible to enter the Re:think essay competition?  

As long as you’re currently attending high school, regardless of your location or background, you’re eligible to participate. We welcome students from diverse educational settings worldwide to contribute their unique perspectives to the competition.

Is there any entry fee for the competition? 

There is no entry fee for the competition. Waiving the entry fee for our essay competition demonstrates CCIR’s dedication to equity. CCIR believes everyone should have an equal chance to participate and showcase their talents, regardless of financial circumstances. Removing this barrier ensures a diverse pool of participants and emphasises merit and creativity over economic capacity, fostering a fair and inclusive environment for all contributors.

Subscribe for Competition Updates

If you are interested to receive latest information and updates of this year’s competition, please sign up here.

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Studentships and Essay Prizes

We award a number of prizes and studentships at undergraduate, Master's and Doctoral levels throughout the year. These include prizes for academic performance as well as special essay prizes, such as The Merriman Essay Prize and the Lancaster Prize in Digital Humanities.

The Merriman Essay Prize

The Merriman Essay Prize (named in honour of Dr Marcus Merriman) is awarded for an outstanding undergraduate essay (2,500–3,000 words) on any topic in the fields of international and/or military history from the ancient world to the present day.

Offered by the Department of History in partnership with the Centre for War and Diplomacy at Lancaster University, the prize is open to current undergraduates at any UK or overseas university. The successful candidate is awarded a prize of £250.

Winner 2022-2023

Erlend Heier, King’s College London, for his essay ‘Japan’s Rise as a Regional Power: Implications for East Asian Balance of Power in the Late 19 th and Early 20 th Centuries’.

The judging panel for the prize included Professor Marco Wyss (Director of the Centre for War and Diplomacy) and Professor Michael Hughes, who commended that Erlend’s essay was ‘very ambitious in scope, examining how the rise of Japan impacted on the balance of power in East Asia (and indeed beyond). It made good use of a range of secondary literature as well as a useful selection of primary sources. The discussion of the wider impact of Japan’s ‘rise’ combines intelligent analysis with a review of the key historical developments in ways that are both effective and convincing. The essay was successful in showing how shifts in power in one part of the world had broader implications for the working of the global international system more broadly. It is written in an engaging fashion that pulls together a wide range of material into a coherent and readable piece of work.’

In response, Erlend said, ‘It is a great honour to receive the 2023 Merriman Prize. I wrote this piece while undergoing my year abroad in Japan, so this really ignited my interest within the field. Personally, I feel the role of Japan in shaping the international order has largely been neglected and only briefly touched upon throughout my years of studies in Europe. Therefore, I was curious to analyse the Empire's rise to power and especially the motivations behind it. Using a variety of sources, including those from Japanese scholars, I believe I obtained unique insights and perspectives. Additionally, it became clear to me that this Japanese path to power has deeply affected its contemporary policies, and I am excited to follow the development in the years and decades to come. Again, I am very grateful for the panel's decision, and I want to thank the jury for this opportunity!’

Runner-up 2022-2023

Elizabeth Scheer, University of Southampton, for her essay ‘Reunified Berlin’s Treatment of Nazi and Soviet Monuments: A Preservation of Problematic History?’.

The judging panel offered Elizabeth’s submission a special commendation noting that the essay offered ‘a valuable examination of the way in which modern Germany has sought to manage memorials dating from the Nazi and Soviet periods’

For details of previous winners, please scroll to the bottom of this page.

Undergraduate Essay Prizes

Lewis hughes prize.

The Lewis Hughes Prize was created in memory of Lewis Hughes, a former student in the Department of History, who sadly died in 2021; it has the full support of Lewis's parents. The prize is awarded for the best performance in a Special Subject - Ancient and Medieval, Early Modern, and Modern.

Winners 2022

Adam Stanney (Ancient and Medieval), Robin Griffith (Early Modern), Laura Smith (Modern).

Andrew Pearson Prize

The Andrew Pearson Prize was set up in memory of Andrew Pearson, a student of History (1985-88) who was tragically killed in an accident when on holiday in New Zealand. The award is for the single major History student who, in the opinion of the Part II board of examiners, has written the best HIST300 dissertation.

Eleanor Dawson, Phoebe Kendrew, and Lydia Thompson.

Queen Elizabeth Scholarships

The Queen Elizabeth Scholarships are available in the Department of History. Awards are made by the Senate on the recommendations of the Head of Department to the undergraduate who has done best in Part I and intends reading History as a major or combined major course (scholarship first awarded in 1966) and to the undergraduate reading history as a major or combined major course who has done best in second-year studies.

Rowan Higgins (Part I) and Asher Kreit (Part II).

A H Woolrych Prize

The prize, instituted as a result of the commemorative appeal made on the retirement of the late Professor A H Woolrych, the founding professor of the Department of History, is an annual book prize awarded to the undergraduate who during the academic year presents the best essay in a Part II History course. The prize was first awarded in 1987.

Eleanor Dawson

Lancaster Prize in Digital Humanities

The Lancaster Prize in Digital Humanities is awarded for an outstanding undergraduate essay on any topic in a humanities discipline—such as history, archaeology, literature, theology, religious studies, anthropology and philosophy—that uses or critiques digital technology.

Offered by Lancaster University's Centre for Digital Humanities, the prize is open to current undergraduates at any UK or overseas university. The successful candidate will be awarded a prize of £250.

Jay McGowan-Gardener, University of Nottingham, for their essay ‘Colonial Interactions Between the British Museum and Papua New Guinea: Spatial Analysis of Artefact Acquisition, Distribution, and Chronology in the 19th and 20th Centuries’.

The judging panel for the prize included Dr Zoe Alker and Professor Ian Gregory, who commended Jay’s submission as ‘an excellent essay that explores colonial aspects of the acquisition of museum artefacts from Papua New Guinea. It makes effective use of a range of digital techniques including databases and digital mapping’, and ‘shows the ways that digital approaches can enhance and develop more traditional historical scholarship.’

In response, Jay said, ‘I am delighted to have been awarded the Lancaster Prize in Digital Humanities. I had never had the opportunity to use GIS as a research tool before, nor had I had the chance to study Papua New Guinea in any detail. This project was a great way for me to learn a new skill, while studying something I have a true passion for, as I believe that the relationship between museums and our understanding of colonial history will change dramatically in the future. I would like to thank the judging panel and Anna Bloxam at the University of Nottingham’s Department of Classics and Archaeology for her advice and support during the writing of this paper.’

Previous scholarship and essay prize winners

Previous scholarship and essay prize winners are detailed below:

Lewis Hughes Prize - Philippa Lazarus (Ancient and Medieval), Emily Brooks (Early Modern), and Joseph Lee (Modern)

Andrew Pearson Prize - Eleanor Charlotte Hughes and Holly Rebecca Jones.

Queen's Scholarships - Matthew Staton (Part I), Laura Kate Nutter (Part II) and Thomas Roberts (Part II).

A H Woolrych Prize - Natasha Jane Robinson.

Andrew Pearson Prize - James Lockwood and Georgia Megan Britton.

Queen's Scholarships - Anna Drury, Phoebe Mia Kendrew and Holly Parsons (Part I). Jennifer Kehlenbeck, Gergana Tsvetanova, Molly Lawson and Grace Olivia Sewell (Part II).

A H Woolrych Prize - James Andrew Clarke, Ignas Gulbinas, Georgia Megan Britton, Conor Walker and Georgia Whelan.

Andrew Pearson Prize - Dabeoc Stanley, Caroline Winstanley and Caitlin Cheshire.

Queen's Scholarships - David Comerford, Louise Varley, Eve Hood, Jude Rowley, Sofia Skiming, Bridget Morgan and Kiera Collins.

A H Woolrych Prize - Dabeoc Stanley.

Winner - Adam Stanney, Lancaster University,for his essay ‘Why did Muslim political power in the Western Mediterranean fragment in the first half of the 1000s?. His essay adopted an international approach to assessing the political decline of the medieval powers of Kalbid Sicily and Umayyad Spain.

The judging panel – Professor Michael Hughes, Professor Marco Wyss and Dr Sarah White – praised the essay's engagement with a wide range of secondary sources and its' skilful use of translated Arabic primary sources to provide an alternative perspective. They felt that the essay constituted a clear contribution to the scholarship and provided a fresh perspective on Muslim power in the Western Mediterranean in the first half of the 1000s.

Adam Stanney responded: "I am very happy to have received this year’s Merriman Prize. Writing the essay was a great experience and the medieval Islamic topic was far from anything I’d properly studied before. Drawing research away from what was familiar certainly proved a fulfilling exercise, developing my understanding of the medieval world on a more global scale. Moreover, the geographically and thematically comparative element to the piece kept things fresh when reading and tested my overall argument more so than a regular essay question. I would like to sincerely thank the panel for the award, and the Department of History at Lancaster University for providing an enriching academic environment."

The 2021-22 runner up was Daniel McCue, University of Glasgow, with his essay 'To what extent did the psychology of the Athenian hoplite in Classical Greece while in a state of violence conform to the psychology of the modern infantryman?'.

Winner - Cadet Daniel Berardino, United States Military Academy (West Point), for his essay ‘Revolution or Evolution? A Quantitative Analysis of the Impact of Artillery on Sieges in the Hundred Years War’.

Honorary Mention - Sterling Mancuso, University of Toronto, for his essay ‘Expulsion Compulsion: Reconsidering the Motivations and Consequences of the 1923 Turco-Greek Population Exchange’.

Winner - James McHale, Huddersfield University, for his essay ‘“Saladin’s delaying tactics gave the Crusaders little choice” – Jonathan Phillips. Is this a valid conclusion to draw about the massacre of the Muslim prisoners at Acre?’.

Winner - Naja Algreen Suhr from the University of Copenhagen for an essay on “The elderly of Copenhagen in 1885.”

Highly Commended - Two other applicants, Kanish Garg (Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee) and Lena Zlock (Stanford University) were noted as highly commended.

Humanities Writing Competition

Opportunity for year 12 students to research & write beyond the curriculum.

This annual competition is an opportunity for students to research and write beyond the curriculum, using one or more of the  Lawrence Room museum  objects, as their focus. Essays or creative responses (such as dramatic monologues or short stories) are equally welcome. We are looking for the ability to connect different areas of knowledge, to think about details and to communicate clearly.

Open to:  UK students in Year 12 (or equivalent - S5/ Y13 - N.I) who have an interest in the Humanities. 

Prizes:  Up to £200 cash and books to the value of £200 from  Cambridge University Press , the latter to be shared between the winning entrant/s and their school/s. The prize fund may be divided between winning entrants.

The competition is currently open!

Note: There is a maximum of three entries per school.

Link to enter -  https://cambridge.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eeukLYibe2Vu8IK

Deadline for entries: 5pm, Friday 15th March 2024

Previous competition winners

2022-23 winners.

First prize: Lara Orlandi (St Paul’s Girls’ School, London)

For ‘The Significance of Feng Huang Symbolism in Chinese Architecture’: a full, scholarly and beautifully illustrated account of the belief-system that informed the phoenix roof tile.

Second prize: Miranda Black (Hills Road Sixth Form College, Cambridge)

For ‘Coptic Tunic Fragment: A Woven Essay’: an intriguing piece, half essay, half story, literally weaving together very different ‘strands’ of knowledge to create an imaginative whole.

Third prize: Rosetta Millar (Harris Westminster Sixth Form)

For ‘Phoenix Ridge Tile, The Lawrence Room’: an impressively researched essay with excellent use of images, bringing in a comparison with the modern artist Ai-Wei Wei as an unexpected bonus.

2022-23 Runner-up

Denis Morine (King Edward VI Grammar School, Chelmsford)

‘Decoration, Deities, and Drinking: Delving into Ancient Sport and the Aryballos’: an original and well sustained argument about the contrasting attitudes to sport symbolised by Athena’s owl and the panther of Dionysos.

Oliver Laxton (Woodbridge School)

‘A Cornucopia of Cockerels’ showing great enthusiasm for the subject, this essay contained wide-ranging research around the significance of these birds in ancient Greek art. 

2022-23 Awards Ceremony

It was most enjoyable to welcome four of the five prizewinners to the college on 9 May to receive their prizes from the Mistress and to be given a tour of the Lawrence Room Museum and of the college. Many thanks to Girton Classics students Zac Copeland-Greene(former competition winner), Jack Hitchcock and Anouska Cowen for leading the tour.

Girton is grateful to Cambridge University Press and The C. Anne Wilson Fund for kind sponsorship of the competition.

Art and Artefacts

Explore the art treasures on show at girton college.

Graduate Humanities Essay Contest

The Western Michigan University Center for the Humanities invites submissions to the WMU Graduate Humanities Essay Contest - Essay Submission Deadline: April 1 , 2024 .

The contest  invites essays from all graduate students at WMU. Previously published essays or essays already accepted for publication elsewhere are not eligible for the contest.

Length: 25 pages maximum. If your essay is part of a longer piece, a chapter in your dissertation for example, please indicate that on the first page of the essay.

Essays should be in English.

Call for Papers

Eligibility

The essay contest is open to currently enrolled graduate students at WMU. 

Submission deadline:   April 1, 2024

The faculty serving as respondents will select two outstanding submissions to be awarded a cash prize and publication in the Hilltop Review. The first place prize will be $1000 and the second place prize will be $600 (in the form of financial aid). The prize-winning papers may be published in the Hilltop Review.

*Some WMU graduate students may not be eligible to receive monetary awards.

Contestants will be contacted by email to confirm receipt of the essay.

Submit a Paper

Previous Winners

First-place ($1000): Kyle C. VanderWall: ‘‘‘In the beets’ Mexican Women and the Sugar Beet Industry in Michigan, 1917-1927” Runner-up ($600): Henry Curcio: “Irony in Plato’s Crito: Making Sense of Socratic Disobedience"

First-place prize ($1000) Ruth Aardsma Benton: “Challenging Colonialism through Religion: Connections Between Colonialism, Power, and Religion in Colonial Uganda" Runner-up prize ($600) Eric Morningstar: “All for The Glory of God: Reconstructing the Jesuit Perception of Odawa Female Identity in New France, 1660-1675”

First place prize ($1000) Jason Rose: “Mentalités and the Search for Total History in the Works of Annalistes, Foucault, and Microhistory" Runner-up prize ($600) Austin Avison: “Delusional Mitigation in Religious and Psychological Forms of Self-Cultivation: Buddhist and Clinical Insight on Delusional Symptomatology”

First place prize ($500) Dale Brown: “The Promise of Higher Education in Prison: Cognition, Character, and Citizenship" Runner-up prize ($300) Mitchell Winget: “Freedom’s Paradox”

GDST Humanities Essay Prize Results 2023

In the summer term of 2023, senior school students from across the Trust were invited to address the question of how the Humanities better equip us to transform the world, as part of the inaugural GDST Humanities Essay Prize, pioneered by the GDST Trust Consultant Teacher for Huma nitie s , Jake Unwin.

Collectively, they resoundingly demonstrate the importance of the Humanities to our students and our world. In the words of one of the entries,

‘ As a society we must remain cautious to not dismiss the humanities. At the core of all modern problems, such as war, climate change and political unrest, lie human beings. Science is, for obvious reasons, of great significance when it comes to solving these issues. However, in order to properly understand them, we must engage in the humanities: History, Geography, Theology, Politics and Ethics.’

The highly commended essays are:

Josephine, Year 10 – Portsmouth High School

‘How the Russian invasion of Ukraine can be better understood by looking at the Winter War between the USSR and Finland.’

Josephine’s work was highly commended for setting the conflict in Ukraine in the wider context of 20th century history. She made nuanced and sophisticated comparisons between the geopolitical objectives of the USSR and modern Russia.

Amelie, Year 12 – Blackheath High School

‘The Good Friday Agreement and Brexit, an exploration of history, religion and geography.’

Amelie impressively addressed  the complexity of Northern Irish politics and society in the context of its history, religion and geography; she did this in writing that was well-researched, reflective, and empathetic. 

Elizabeth, Year 12 – Bromley High School

‘Identity in Northern Ireland: How can a Deeper Understanding of the Humanities Prevent the Resurgence of Conflict in Northern Ireland?’

Elizabeth also tackled the issue of Northern Irish identity and presented her case study in a meticulously well-researched and well-presented essay. She addressed the topic engaging with writers from Trevelyan to the authors of the Good Friday Agreement. 

Tara, Year 12 – Blackheath High School

‘What pre-Revolutionary France can teach us about the current UK financial and economic crisis.’

Tara was highly commended for connecting financial and economic crises to potential political turmoil; she produced a provocative essay for leaders who may be tempted to underestimate the significance of economic and social change in dictating political events.

The runner up essay prize was awarded to:

Eleanor, Year 12 – Wimbledon High School 

‘Why understanding the geographies of our colonial past is the key to tackling global inequality.’

Eleanor produced a sensitive essay that synthesised a huge range of research; she compellingly made the case for the importance of understanding and studying Geography if we are going to engage effectively with the world’s post-colonial legacy.

And the winning essay prize was awarded to:

Emily, Year 12 – Sheffield High School

‘How will the Humanities change the world? A historical, geographical and political study of the Russo-Ukraine War.’

Emily won this year’s prize for an essay that powerfully demonstrated the connections between the humanities and was a fantastic case study of why it is so important for a rich, interdisciplinary approach to understand the world in which we live. The essay was ambitious and demonstrated confident use of Economics, Politics, History and Geography to draw her conclusions.

Discover more

• Education Matters
• GDST Book Club

23 independent schools and two academies in England and Wales

Check out our International Admissions page.

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Rockefeller University

Theoretical physicist carlo rovelli to receive 2024 lewis thomas prize.

Carlo Rovelli

From photons to atheism to Churchill’s extraterrestrial musings, the stunning breadth of Carlo Rovelli’s work has spurred readers to think deeply about the intersection of science and culture, transforming staggering complexity into widely accessible writing along the way.

For this artful ability to educate and engage, Rovelli will be presented with the 2024 Lewis Thomas Prize for Writing about Science at The Rockefeller University on April 9. Named after its first recipient, noted physician-scientist and essayist Lewis Thomas, the prize was established in 1993 by Rockefeller’s Board of Trustees.

“Spanning Epicurus to Einstein and white holes to top quarks, Carlo Rovelli embodies the scientist as poet,” says Jesse H. Ausubel , chair of the selection committee. “In the conflicted world of 2024, the abiding, idealistic voice of Rovelli’s essay collection There Are Places in the World Where Rules Are Less Important Than Kindness feels especially valuable.”

In his first book for the general public, Rovelli focused on Anaximander, an ancient philosopher whose willingness to challenge conventional wisdom laid the groundwork for today’s scientific method. In the international bestseller Seven Brief Lessons on Physics , he condensed the revelations of post-Newtonian physics into a handful of pithy lessons. His other books probed reality, explored the concept of entropy and its relation to time, and decoded the strange realm of quantum mechanics.

Born in Verona, Italy, Rovelli attended the University of Bologna, before earning a PhD at the University of Padua. In 1990, he accepted a faculty position at the University of Pittsburgh. There, he and several colleagues developed the pioneering Loop Quantum Gravity Theory, which aims to reconcile the seemingly contradictory realms of quantum mechanics and relativity. Rovelli is currently researching white holes, theoretical end products of black holes whose existence would provide empirical support for loop quantum gravity. In 2000, he moved to the Center for Theoretical Physics of Aix-Marseille University to lead its quantum gravity group.

Rovelli’s many academic and cultural accolades include the 1995 Basilis Xanthopoulos International Award for outstanding contributions to gravitational physics by a scientist younger than 40 years old. Foreign Policy magazine named him one of the 100 most influential global thinkers in 2019, and Prospect Magazine followed suit in 2021, listing him among the world’s top 50 thinkers.

Recent recipients of the Lewis Thomas Prize include forestry researcher Suzanne Simard, physician Siddhartha Mukherjee, astrophysicist Kip Thorne, oceanographer Sylvia Earle, and mathematicians Steven Strogatz and Ian Stewart.

Register for the 2024 Lewis Thomas Prize presentation and discussion here .

The Lewis Thomas Prize is an international award for writing about science that honors the rare individuals who bridge the worlds of science and the humanities.

Media contact

Katherine Fenz

• 212-327-7913
• [email protected]
• More information for reporters
• @RockefellerUniv

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