UCL Graduate School Review Competition 2011/2012

Competition Guidelines

This competition was conceived as complementary to the Graduate School Poster Competition and was open to UCL graduate research students currently enrolled in the Faculties of Arts and Humanities, Laws or Social and Historical Sciences.

The reviews entered must be of publishable quality, in other words be worthy of publication in a major academic journal or magazine or a review or newspaper, and evaluate one of the following:

• an academic book focussing on a subject or issue in the arts and humanities, or laws, or the social and historical sciences,
• a work of art,
• a literary work,
• an exhibition,
• a film,
• a TV programme,
• a cultural event,

or take the form of a literature review designed for a non-specialised audience which outlines the current state of play in a clearly defined intellectual field or inquiry.

The following types of review are eligible: (a) unpublished, (b) in press, or (c) already published.

All of the reviews submitted this year by the deadline were assessed by the following panel composed of UCL academics and postgraduate students:

• Professor Stephen Hart, Vice-Head of the Graduate School and Dept of Spanish & Latin American Studies (Chair)
• Professor Nicola Miller, Dept of History
• Ms Susan Skelton , PhD student, Dept of Physics & Astronomy, Editor-in-Chief, Opticon 1826
• Ms Marlies Gabriele Prinzl, PhD student, Centre for Intercultural Studies, Editor of Opticon 1826

and the winners were

• First Prize (£400)
  James Rann, SSEES
  "Building the Revolution"
   
• Second Prize (£200)
  Geraldine Brodie, Centre for Intercultural Studies
  "Bringing the Translator into Focus"
   
• Joint Third Prize (£50 each)
  Alicia Rix, Dept of English Language & Literature
  "The Artist"
  Manuela Melandri, Dept of Laws
  "Humanitarian Occupation"
  

The Chair of the panel stated:

"My impression was that this competition has come of age this year; the contributions in my view were a quantum leap above earlier years. The winners, in particular, do exactly what is needed for a review, and were professionally written. So all in all a very good result!"

Winning entries will be published in Opticon 1826.