Awards

The History Department awards three essay prizes each year.

The Barnette Miller Prize ($300)

For the best essay in the field of international history and/or international relations.

The Bollard Prize ($300)

For the best essay in the field of Early American and United States history.

The Erasmus Prize ($300)

For the best essay on an historical subject, with no restriction as to topic.

 

Application Requirements:

For all three prizes, as noted, essays must have been written for a History Department course. You may enter only one essay to only one of the prizes. While course and seminar papers are eligible to compete, please note that papers written for honors or for two terms of 350 are not eligible. Papers should be at least ten double-spaced pages, typed and documented with footnotes and bibliography. Shorter papers cannot be considered. Other course or seminar papers can be entered.

Judges will read papers as anonymous submissions.

Paper submission deadline: Friday, March 15, 2024 by 4:00 pm EST.  

Submitting your essay:

Please submit a clean copy of the paper (without name, course number, or professor’s name or comments) as a PDF attachment via email to the History Department’s Academic Administrator, Sharon Zimmer, at szimmer@wellesley.edu. The attachment should not identify either you or the course and instructor for which the paper was written.

The subject line of your email should include the name of the prize for which you are applying. The body of the email should provide the following information:

Name
Student ID Number
Class
Major
Name of the course for which the paper was written
Paper Title
 
This information will not be available to prize judges until after winners are selected. As mentioned above, judges will read papers as anonymous submissions.

All prizes are awarded in May.

If you have any questions, please contact the History Department's Academic Administrator at extension 2605.