The British Association for Nineteenth Century Americanists is proud to offer two new student awards, an undergraduate and a postgraduate essay prize, designed to support the future of the field. Entries are judged anonymously and judges are barred from assessing submission from students and their own institution.
BrANCA Undergraduate Essay Prize
The prize intends to encourage and support students based in the UK and Europe who have produced outstanding work in nineteenth-century American literary and cultural studies at the undergraduate level, particularly those who may be interested in pursuing the field for postgraduate study.
We welcome essays on any aspect of U.S. literature and culture in the long nineteenth century, a period roughly spanning from 1789 to 1917. You can refer to ‘Research Interests’ on http://www.branca.org.uk/aboutus.html for an idea of the range of themes and approaches that the association encompasses. We are especially keen to see work that explores neglected figures or otherwise makes an original contribution to existing scholarship.
The winning author will receive £100.
BrANCA Postgraduate Essay Prize
The prize seeks to recognise and promote the work of a promising nineteenth-century Americanist currently enrolled on a taught or research postgraduate programme in the UK and Europe.
Essays should follow the format of a short journal article: a self-contained piece of writing no more than 5,000 words in length, excluding footnotes and bibliography. This may take the form of an excerpt from a longer piece of writing, such as a dissertation chapter. Submissions can explore any aspect of U.S. literature and culture in the long nineteenth century. Refer to ‘Research Interests’ on http://www.branca.org.uk/aboutus.html for an idea of the range of themes and approaches that the association encompasses. As with the undergraduate prize, we especially welcome work on marginalised figures or understudied topics more broadly.
The winning author will receive £100 and be invited to adapt their submission into a paper to present at the next BrANCA symposium.
These competitions have now closed and will reopen in late 2022.
2021 Winners:
Undergraduate: ‘‘The past was nothing to her’: How do American writers represent women’s relationship with the past?’, Kaya Purchase, University of Liverpool
The judging panel praised Kaya’s deft handling of the relationship between autobiographical narration and traditions of collective storytelling in Zitkála-Šá’s American Indian Stories. Elegantly written and carefully researched the essay succeeds in combining persuasive close readings of the text with larger theoretical concerns indebted to feminist scholarship in ways that illuminate the complexities of early twentieth-century Native American experience.
Postgraduate: ‘detached bones…intricacy of heaps’: The traces of pain and Melville’s taphonomic ecologies of remembrance’, Samuel Moriarty, King’s College London
The judging panel were impressed with Samuel’s highly original work that has much potential for developing into scholarly publication. In this sophisticated piece of work, Samuel laces Melville’s American Studies readers with scientific discourses, while reading Melville both widely and closely across several texts to cement his innovative argument on memory and memorialisation in the mid-nineteenth century.
BrANCA Undergraduate Essay Prize
The prize intends to encourage and support students based in the UK and Europe who have produced outstanding work in nineteenth-century American literary and cultural studies at the undergraduate level, particularly those who may be interested in pursuing the field for postgraduate study.
We welcome essays on any aspect of U.S. literature and culture in the long nineteenth century, a period roughly spanning from 1789 to 1917. You can refer to ‘Research Interests’ on http://www.branca.org.uk/aboutus.html for an idea of the range of themes and approaches that the association encompasses. We are especially keen to see work that explores neglected figures or otherwise makes an original contribution to existing scholarship.
The winning author will receive £100.
BrANCA Postgraduate Essay Prize
The prize seeks to recognise and promote the work of a promising nineteenth-century Americanist currently enrolled on a taught or research postgraduate programme in the UK and Europe.
Essays should follow the format of a short journal article: a self-contained piece of writing no more than 5,000 words in length, excluding footnotes and bibliography. This may take the form of an excerpt from a longer piece of writing, such as a dissertation chapter. Submissions can explore any aspect of U.S. literature and culture in the long nineteenth century. Refer to ‘Research Interests’ on http://www.branca.org.uk/aboutus.html for an idea of the range of themes and approaches that the association encompasses. As with the undergraduate prize, we especially welcome work on marginalised figures or understudied topics more broadly.
The winning author will receive £100 and be invited to adapt their submission into a paper to present at the next BrANCA symposium.
These competitions have now closed and will reopen in late 2022.
2021 Winners:
Undergraduate: ‘‘The past was nothing to her’: How do American writers represent women’s relationship with the past?’, Kaya Purchase, University of Liverpool
The judging panel praised Kaya’s deft handling of the relationship between autobiographical narration and traditions of collective storytelling in Zitkála-Šá’s American Indian Stories. Elegantly written and carefully researched the essay succeeds in combining persuasive close readings of the text with larger theoretical concerns indebted to feminist scholarship in ways that illuminate the complexities of early twentieth-century Native American experience.
Postgraduate: ‘detached bones…intricacy of heaps’: The traces of pain and Melville’s taphonomic ecologies of remembrance’, Samuel Moriarty, King’s College London
The judging panel were impressed with Samuel’s highly original work that has much potential for developing into scholarly publication. In this sophisticated piece of work, Samuel laces Melville’s American Studies readers with scientific discourses, while reading Melville both widely and closely across several texts to cement his innovative argument on memory and memorialisation in the mid-nineteenth century.