Graduate Prize
The annual NAVSA Graduate Award recognizes the best paper presented by a graduate student at the annual NAVSA conference. All graduate students presenting a paper at the 2008 conference are invited to submit their papers for the competition by Thursday, November 20 (that's a receipt deadline). Please note that this year’s deadline occurs only four days after the conference concludes and that you are welcome to submit your paper before you actually deliver it at Yale. Also note that to be eligible, you must be a graduate student at the time of your presentation.
Essay length is strict: absolutely no more than 12 double-spaced pages, including notes and works cited. If your talk includes images or a handout, you may include these materials as an appendix at the end of your paper (not included within the 12-page limit). Please do not include any appendix materials that are not a part of your official presentation.
Submit three hard copies of your essay along with a cover sheet containing the following information
- your name
- rank/position and institution
- the title of the paper
- snail mail and email address
- phone
- the name and address of your dissertation director, if applicable
to the following address:
Melissa Valiska Gregory
Department of English
Mail Stop 126
University of Toledo
Toledo, Ohio 43606
Please contact melissa.gregory@utoledo.edu if you have any further questions.
The winning paper will be selected according to the same criteria as the Gray Award: 1) Potential significance for Victorian studies; 2) Quality and depth of scholarly research and interpretation; 3) Clarity and effectiveness of presentation. The judges will choose one essay for the award and may also choose two honorary runners-up. A decision will be made by the time of the Winter newsletter. The Award winner will receive $250 and a year's free NAVSA membership (including a subcription to Victorian Studies). If the judges are deadlocked, the final decision will be made by the NAVSA Executive Committee.
Past Winners
2007 Conference
winner: Paul Fyfe, U of Virginia, "Accidents of a Novel Trade: Insurance, Industrial Catastrophe, and Mary Barton"
hon. mention: Maeve Adams, New York U, "Commendable Objects: Marginal Utility, Financial Realism, and the Novel in 1870s England"
hon. mention: Jesse Rosenthal, Columbia U, "Gamblers' Fallacies: Materialism, Realism, and Daniel Deronda at Play"
2006 Conference
winner: Jason Lindquist, Indiana U, "On 'Imagination' and the Rise of a Victorian Aesthetics of Complexity"
hon. mention: Melissa McLeod, Georgia SU, "Acoustic Science and Racial Identity in Daniel Deronda"
hon. mention: Lisa M. Smith, U of Toronto, "Dorothea Through the Pier-Glass"
2005 Conference
winner: David Kurnick, Columbia U, "Empty Houses"
hon. mention: Lisa Brocklebank, Brown U, "Psychic Reading"
hon. mention: Nathan Hensley, Duke U, "'Sir Richard Burton,' Orientalist"
2004 Conference
winner: Heather Morton, U of Virginia, "Swinburne and Wilde on Whitman"
hon. mention: Sarah Rose Cole, Columbia U, "The Temple"
hon. mention: Kathleen O'Neill Sims, U of Virginia, "'Old Gardens,' 'Fresh Flowers'"
