The Sidney Prize and Other Awards
The Sidney Prize is awarded to some of the best magazine essays of the year. This year, a number of the winning articles probed the intersection of science and the humanities. For instance, in the New Republic, intellectual heavyweights Steven Pinker and Leon Wieseltier went toe-to-toe over the proper role of science in modern thought. Pinker took the expansive view, arguing that, despite what blinkered humanities professors might say, science gives us insight into nearly everything.
In a similar vein, Luhrmann’s essay in the Atlantic encourages readers to step back and look at the big picture of our current political divide. Her article argues that the divide is really a conflict between two competing visions of liberalism. One is small-state, Manchester liberalism of the 1890s; the other is big-organization managerial state liberalism of the 1950s.
Other highlights include the 2024 Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize, supported by Overland and the Malcolm Robertson Foundation. The winner of this award will receive $5000 and have their story published in Overland’s autumn issue. Two runners-up will each receive $750. The shortlist was announced earlier this month. The judges have selected Annie Zhang’s story ‘Who Rattles the Night?’ as the winner. She is a writer and editor living on unceded Wangal land.
The Sidney Taylor Book Award is a monthly award given to outstanding investigative journalism that exposes social and economic injustices. AJL’s reviewers choose the winners, and their reviews can be read on The Sydney Taylor Shmooze blog. You can also hear a podcast interview with the committee chair and read more about the 2024 winners here.
Sidney Film Festival’s illustrious awards have provided momentum to filmmakers for decades. In 2024, the festival is presenting 10 prestigious prizes, with a record pool of $200,000. The Event Cinemas Rising Talent Award recognises a trailblazing NSW-based creative working in short film. The prize is worth $7000, and the winning creative will have their work showcased at the festival’s official screenings at Event Cinemas.
The Sidney Edelstein Prize is awarded annually to an outstanding scholarly book on the history of technology. The book must be of broad interest to non-specialists as well as scholars. The prize is named after Sidney Edelstein, founder of the Society for the History of Technology and a longtime editor of the journal, Technology and Culture. The Abbot Payson Usher Prize is also awarded to a distinguished scholarly work in the history of technology that addresses a topic of broad interest. The Joan Cahalin Robinson Prize is awarded to a graduate student or early career scholar presenting at the SHOT annual meeting for the first time. The Samuel Eleazar and Rose Tartakow Levinson Prize is for an outstanding unpublished essay on the history of technology authored by a student or recent graduate. The prize is sponsored by the Project on Private Law at Harvard Law School. For more information, visit the website for the SHOT journal.