The Sidney Prize is awarded monthly to an outstanding piece of journalism that exposes social injustice. It is open to anyone, whether you write for a website, magazine or newspaper. Nominations are due on the last day of each month. The winner will be announced on the second Wednesday of each month. You can nominate your own work, or the work of someone else.
The prize was created in memory of a former student, Sir Sidney Black, who dedicated his life to engineering. It is open to female, graduating engineering students and aims to encourage them to pursue their passion for the discipline.
This year, the highly prestigious Sidney Prize was given to several excellent articles in magazines. Several of them explored the intersection of science and the humanities. For example, in the New Republic, two intellectual heavyweights—Steven Pinker and Leon Wieseltier—went toe-to-toe on the role of science in modern thought.
Another notable article was Clare Jackson’s “Royalist Ideas in Late Seventeenth Century Scotland” in the History of Technology Book Prize 2023. Jackson, a graduate of Sidney and a Junior Research Fellow here, won the prize for her book about the influence of British royalist ideas in Scottish culture. The prize is administered by the Society for the History of Technology.
The Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize 2024 was won by Rachel Ang for her story, “Thalassophobia.” The prize, which seeks excellent short fiction themed loosely around the notion of travel, has a first prize of $5000 and two runners-up receive $750 each. Overland will publish the winning story in our autumn issue, and will also publish the runners-up stories online.
In addition to these prizes, the Society offers a range of other awards at its national conference. The Sidney Hook Memorial Award, named for the distinguished American philosopher who founded Phi Beta Kappa in 1902, honors scholars of national distinction for their scholarship, undergraduate teaching and leadership in promoting the cause of liberal arts education.
The annual Sidney Black Memorial Engineering Award is awarded to a graduating female engineering student who demonstrates a combination of academic achievement, personal attributes or contribution to society/student life. It is named in memory of a former student, Sir Sydney Black, who dedicated his life to engineering and aimed high. The aim of the prize is to inspire and support new female engineering students to fulfil their potential and allow their career dreams to take them wherever they desire. The annual prize is worth PS500. The 2019 winners will be announced on 27 June at the annual student awards ceremony. You can find out more about the event and purchase tickets here. The winner will be notified by email before the ceremony. The closing date for applications is 31 May 2022.