The 2024-2025 awards cycle is now complete, and submissions are closed.
The UT Libraries is thrilled to announce the third annual Black Queer Studies Student Awards! These awards will recognize, honor, and celebrate excellence in student scholarship and creative endeavors in the field of Black Queer Studies.
Awards
- The Monica K. Roberts Graduate Award, $1,200 (pre-tax).
- The Hogan/Schell Undergraduate Award, $800 (pre-tax).
- Awardees may be invited to publish their work on TransGriot.com, the online platform Monica Roberts bravely founded.
- Winning submissions are eligible to be archived in the Texas ScholarWorks repository. Winners retain their copyright and can publish the work elsewhere.
To Submit
- Please read the Eligibility, Submissions and Evaluation Criteria carefully.
- Submissions are due Monday, February 24th, 2025 at 11:59 pm.
- To submit, you need to do two things:
- Fill out this Google Form with your information and project abstract: https://bit.ly/BQSCAwards25
- Send your submission as a file attachment to bqscawards@gmail.com
Eligibility
- All currently-enrolled students, graduate or undergraduate, from any UT Austin college or school are eligible to apply.
- Submissions must be from the current or past academic year. Works previously published are ineligible, so that judging across submissions is as fair and equitable as possible.
- Previously exhibited or performed work is still eligible for consideration.
- Work submitted for or awarded other prizes is still eligible for consideration.
- Previous awardees are ineligible for reapplication for one academic year.
- Applicants confirm their intellectual property rights over the work by submitting to the Roberts and Hogan/Schell Awards.
Submissions
- Format: Submissions may take many forms but most may fall into two non-mutually exclusive categories: academic/research papers and creative work.
- Academic/Research Projects: An eligible academic paper must have been written in the current or previous academic year. Work from class assignments and works in-progress are acceptable, including thesis or dissertation chapters (no more than 30 pages). Works that have gone through a peer-review process or have been published in academic journals are not eligible.
All submissions must engage deeply and thoughtfully with works by Black Queer and Trans authors, artists, and scholars in the Black Queer Studies Collection. We are not necessarily looking for a large quantity of citations, but rather meaningful engagement with the collection.
- Creative/Non-traditional Works: Eligible creative works include, but are not limited to, visual art, collections of poetry and creative writing, playscripts, recordings of music or performances, podcasts, or zines. Works that have been published previously are ineligible. For example, a poem that was published in a literary magazine with an editor is not eligible, but a self-published poem in a zine is eligible.
Creative works must be accompanied by a 1-2 page cover letter, treatise and/or artist’s statement explaining and contextualizing the work along with citations or references to the Black Queer Studies Collection. The cover letter/artist’s statement is an opportunity to explain to those outside of your discipline how your creative work serves as scholarship.
- Length
- Written work: Submissions should be no longer than 30 pages. In order to remain within the page limit, authors may submit an excerpt of a longer text.
- For creative works like novels or plays, please submit a few chapters or scenes, and provide a brief plot synopsis in your artist’s statement.
- For dissertations or theses, please submit a chapter (or two if within the 30 page limit) and a brief abstract (200-300 words max) contextualizing how the selection fits within your larger work.
- There is no minimum length.
- Audio/Video Work (short films, recordings of a performance, video installation, etc.): Submissions of varying lengths are accepted, but should be no longer than 30 minutes. If the entire work is longer than 30 minutes, please provide an excerpt and include a brief synopsis (200-300 words max) contextualizing the segment within the work as whole in your artist’s statement.
Evaluation Criteria
Submissions must draw upon the body of work in the Libraries’ Black Queer Studies Collection and must include citations and references to books, films, works, or other materials in the collection.
Additionally, the prize committee is looking for submissions that demonstrate strong understandings of the field of Black Queer Studies, as well as originality, creativity, and critical analysis.
Questions?
