Dante Studies Essay Prize

Essay Prize

The Leeds Centre for Dante Studies runs an annual essay prize for undergraduate students of Dante in the UK and Republic of Ireland.  The competition is divided into two groups, for second-year and final-year students respectively.

We are now accepting entries for the 2011 competition.  Entries, on any aspect of Dante's work, should be submitted by the relevant institution, using the form that can be downloaded here.  The closing date is 30th June 2011.

Previous winners

2008    Final-year: Georgina Haacke (University of Manchester): 'The Depiction of Paolo and Francesca through illustration in Dante's Commedia.'

Second-year: Kate Sheppard (University of Bristol): 'In the Middle Ages, body and soul are considered to be a meaningful unity. Sin, by staining the soul, disfigures the body as well. Comment on the poetic construction of the sinners' aerial bodies in Inferno.'

The judges in 2008 were Simon Gilson (Warwick), Claire Honess (Leeds) and Catherine Keen (UCL).

2009    Final-year: Stephen Dyer (University of Warwick): 'A reading of the Statius episode in the Purgatorio'. 

Second-year: Fe Torrance (University of Bristol): 'The significance of the inscription over the Gate of Hell to the Inferno as a whole'.

The judges in 2009 were Simon Gilson (Warwick), Catherine Keen (UCL) and Matthew Treherne (Leeds).

2010    Final-year: Laura Hulley (York)

Second-year: Melissa Farrar (Durham)

The judges in 2010 were Simon Gilson (Warwick), Claire Honess (Leeds) and Catherine Keen (UCL).

We are grateful to the  Society for Italian Studies for supplying the prizes for this competition.