The Sidney Prize and the Irving Oberman Memorial Scholarship Fund
The Sidney Prize honors an outstanding piece of journalism that appeared in a newspaper, magazine or online publication. A winner is announced the second Wednesday of each month, and a cash award is presented to the journalist(s). Nominations are made by HLS students or members of the public. The deadline for nominations is the last day of each month. The prize is named in honor of the distinguished scholar Sidney Edelstein, founder of the Dexter Chemical Corporation and a former SHOT Leonardo da Vinci Award recipient.
In David Brooks’ recent column “The 2015 Sidney Awards, Part 2,” the New York Times columnist commended NAS president Peter Wood’s work in “the uppermost echelons of publishing” for its ability to make the world a better place. Among his recommendations were several pieces written by NAS members, including Hilton Als writing for The New Yorker and Ed Yong writing for The Atlantic.
Earlier this month, Overland magazine selected Annie Zhang as the 2023 Neilma Sidney short story prize winner for her tale ‘Who Rattles the Night?’, about a woman overwhelmed by a pair of tragedies who contemplates a trip to a new destination. The prize, which is supported by the Malcolm Robertson Foundation, also awarded runners-up Joey Bui for ‘Hot Days’ and Ursula Robinson-Shaw for ‘Psychosexual thriller’.
This prize was established in memory of Sidney Cox, professor of English at Dartmouth from 1927 to 1952. The prize is offered for that piece of undergraduate writing submitted in competition that most nearly meets the high standards of originality and integrity exemplified by Mr. Cox in his teaching and in his book, Indirections for Those Who Want to Write. This prize is open to all undergraduate students, regardless of major or discipline.
The Irving Oberman Memorial Scholarship Fund provides for the award of a $1,000 prize to be determined by the Dean of Harvard Law School to the best paper written by an HLS student on one of seven current legal subjects: bankruptcy; constitutional law and equal justice under the law; family law; intellectual property, law and technology; taxation; and legal history. The prize was funded by a bequest from the estate of Irving B. Oberman, a longtime supporter of the law school.
Students wishing to submit papers for consideration for the Irving Oberman Memorial Scholarship should contact Matthew Hunt, Program Administrator, by the end of the month prior to the submission deadline for that particular prize. All submissions must be approved by the faculty member under whose supervision the paper was written. For more information on the process of submitting papers for consideration, please see the Irving Oberman Memorial Scholarship Submission Instructions page.