The Sidney Prize recognizes outstanding journalism that exposes social and economic injustices. Each month, one winning piece will receive $5000; two runners-up each receive $750; the winning story will appear in our autumn 2024 edition with all entries featured online alongside it. Overland would like to thank all entrants for their excellent writing this year and extend our sincerest gratitude.
This prize honors Professor Sidney Cox, who spent his career fostering undergraduate student writing of outstanding originality and integrity. This contest is open to any undergraduate paper that meets 5,000 words (excluding title page, footnotes, bibliography and index) (excluding title page footnotes bibliography and index). Multiple short papers may be submitted together as one manuscript submission.
This year’s Sidney Prize recognizes a wide array of work that reflects our readers’ diverse interests. Ranging from an insightful essay about democracy’s death to an investigation of long-term harms associated with hook-up culture, these winners remind us it is vitally important to look beyond daily struggles and consider bigger picture considerations.
At a time when it may seem as though nothing else remains up for debate, these pieces remind us that civil rights and human dignity remain key concerns. A wider perspective can help us appreciate why immigration remains such an important topic of conversation within the United States while marriage equality fight is integral to upholding values of family life.
As we enter an era when liberalism’s core principles are being tested, Walter Russell Mead’s article in The American Interest on “The Once and Future Liberalism” highlights its wider scope by asserting that our current political argument involves not just Democrats and Republicans but two distinct visions for running America.
This prize honors Sidney Altman, a molecular biologist who received the 1989 Nobel Prize in Chemistry jointly with Thomas R. Cech for their discovery that RNA, traditionally believed to simply transmit genetic codes between parts of cells, also serves to trigger and accelerate vital chemical reactions within living cells – opening new avenues of biological research and biotechnology development.
The prize is generously funded by Harvard Law School’s Project on Private Law. Students analyzing legal topics from an economic viewpoint are eligible to compete for this prize, with submission deadline set as 15 May. Prior to submission, a student should request their professor email Professor Steven Shavell an evaluation statement regarding their work prior to submission. Other HLS student prizes include Leonardo da Vindi Prize, Melvin Kranzberg Dissertation Fellowship Award, Abbot Payson Usher Prize Joan Cahalin Robinson Prize and Bernard S Finn IEEE History Prize Award – see prize pages for more details!