The committee of the Irish Association for American Studies is pleased to announce that entries are now being accepted for the 2009 WTM Riches Essay Prize. The prize-winner will receive €100 in book vouchers and the winning essay will be published in the Irish Journal of American Studies.
The WTM Riches Essay Prize was established in 2004 to recognise and reward high-quality work being done by younger scholars in many of the areas that are covered by the term “American Studies,” including history, politics, literature, film, geography, the visual arts, architecture, and cultural / critical theory. The 2004 prize was shared between Genevieve Stevens (TCD) for an essay on T.S. Eliot, and Alex Herman (TCD) for an essay on Wallace Stevens. Sharon McCann (TCD) won the prize in 2005, for an essay on representations of masculinity in African-American literary and visual culture. The winning essays in 2004 and 2005 have been published in the Irish Journal of American Studies. The 2007/8 winner was Renaud Contini from NUI Maynooth. The title of his essay is: "William Carlos Williams and the American grain: from a peculiar history of fighting to a distinctively democratic culture." No prize was awarded in 2006.
The competition is open to undergraduates and students in the first year of research or taught postgraduate programmes. The following rules apply:
• Essays must be no more than 5,000 words in length (including notes);
• Essays must be written in English and typed on A4 paper;
• The author’s name must not appear anywhere on the essay;
• Essays must be formatted in accordance with the MLA style manual;
• Author’s name or institutional affiliation must not appear on the essay;
• Author’s details must be submitted on a separate sheet.
In addition to the above, authors must be members of the IAAS. Further information about membership of the IAAS may be found on this website:
Queries may also be addressed to the association’s secretary, Dr Marisa Ronan: marisa.ronan@gmail.com