The RSVP Expanding the Field Prize is awarded annually for an outstanding essay that diversifies the existing geographic, racial, and ethnic composition of nineteenth-century periodical studies. Submissions for this prize should do at least one of the following:
- Deepen our understanding of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) founders, editors, contributors, and readers of periodicals
- Interrogate Anglocentric perspectives
- Enact anti-racist or anti-colonial values
- Consider the cultural impact of the British Empire around the world
The annual awardee will receive $500 and publication of their article in Victorian Periodicals Review. A list of past awardees can be found below our submission guidelines.
Applications open May 1 and are due June 15.
Submission Guidelines
Essays should be approximately 4,000–7,500 words (or 15–25 pages), excluding notes and bibliography. Formatting should be double-spaced throughout with one-inch margins and a standard font such as Times New Roman, size 12. Please also note:
- Graduate students, independent scholars, and faculty of all ranks are eligible submit their work.
- Manuscripts should not be under submission elsewhere or previously published.
- Submissions should be emailed as an MS Word attachment.
Please email submissions directly to the VPR editor, Dr. Katherine Malone.
Previous Awardees
Congratulations to our first-ever Expanding the Field Prize winner, Sourav Chatterjee (Columbia University), for his essay “Against Imitation: Anticolonial Caricatures in Basantak or the Bengali Punch.” The committee writes: “This essay contributes to periodical studies in precisely the way this prize seeks to reward. The scope of research and scholarship is impressive, as the author’s argument and methodology decenter whiteness and advocate for a complex understanding of periodicals in India beyond the Anglocentric periodicals more commonly studied.” Look for his essay in an upcoming issue of Victorian Periodicals Review!