The 2021 VanArsdel Prize has been awarded to Elizabeth Howard (PhD Candidate, University of Minnesota) for her essay, “‘Keeping Christmas’ on the Page: the Adelaide Observer, Alice in Wonderland, and the Australian Periodical at Play.”
The committee commented, “This is an excellently written, interesting essay that focuses on an understudied area to make an original contribution to the field of periodical studies. Its astute analysis of the Adelaide Observer highlights this newspaper’s status as a colonial/settler production but contains insights more broadly relevant to newspaper culture in the Victorian world.”
The VanArsdel Prize, established in 1990 to honor Rosemary VanArsdel, is awarded annually to the best graduate student essay investigating Victorian periodicals and newspapers. The winning essay will be published in Victorian Periodicals Review. Congratulations, Elizabeth Howard!