Theron Rockwell Field and the John Addison Porter prize competitions

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The Theron Rockwell Field and the John Addison Porter prize competitions are open to all students enrolled in Yale University for a degree during any part of the current academic year.

  • The John Addison Porter Prize is given for a written work of scholarship in any field in which it is possible, through original effort, to gather and relate facts, principles, or both, and to make the product of general human interest.  The award was established in 1872 by the Kingsley Trust Association (The Scroll and Key Society) in honor of the late Professor Porter, who received a bachelor’s degree from Yale in 1842.
  • The Theron Rockwell Field Prize is given for “a poetic, literary, or religious work,” including creative writing or scholarship. The award was established in 1957 by Emilia R. Field in memory of her husband, Theron Rockwell Field, 1889S.

Questions can be directed to porterfield.prizes@yale.edu.

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Submitting your entry

Deadlines for submission of entries

• March 29, 2024 at 5:00 p.m. (graduate and professional students)
• May 3, 2024 at 5:00 p.m. (Yale College students)
 

Format of submissions

Entries are submitted online in one file that includes an application form on page 1 ; a one‐page non‐technical summary on page 2; and the entry paper beginning on page 3.
  • Each submission must include a one‐page summary on page 2, written in non-technical language for an intelligent but non‐expert reader. It should be headed “One‐page summary” and be typed in the same size and style of font as the entry paper and with lines double‐spaced. The one‐page summary must be included in the submission regardless of any additional abstract, précis, or summary in the entry paper.
  • The entry paper (dissertation, senior paper, essay, article, poetry, etc.) should begin on page 3.
  • If the entry is written by one than more author, the student submitting the entry for prize consideration must arrange for a faculty advisor or director of graduate studies to write an email to the judges, at porterfield.prizes@yale.edu , attesting that the entry represents substantial independent scholarship on the part of the student submitting the entry.
  • Works submitted in a language other than English must be accompanied by an English‐language translation.

Naming your file

Your entry (application form, one‐page summary, and entry paper) is submitted as one pdf or word file. Please name the file as follows, using four segments of text separated by underscores:

  • Your degree‐awarding school: YC (for Yale College), GSAS (for the graduate school), or the principal word of the professional school, e.g., Architecture (for Yale School of Architecture);
  • Your family name(s);
  • Your given name(s);
  • The discipline, department, or program of the submission (if a dissertation, senior paper, or other form of traditional research or scholarship) or the genre of the submission (if not a dissertation, senior paper, etc., e.g., poetry). If an acronym is commonly used for the department or program, use the acronym.
  • Examples:
    • YC_Schmidt_Jean_PoliticalScience
    • YC_Bull_John_English
    • GSAS_deTal_BeltranaFulana_MCDB
    • Divinity_Zhang_San_Poetry
    • Environment_Zugmir_Moishe_NonFiction

How to submit

Entries should be a single pdf or word document (application form, one‐page summary, and entry paper) and uploaded via the following secure links to Box at Yale.

Further guidance

“Excellence” is the judges’ principal consideration in determining prizewinners. In accord with the Porter Prize condition that the entry submitted “make the product of general human interest,” excellence includes literary merit (readability) and broad significance. The Field Prize is for a poetical, literary, or religious works broadly construed. The judges determine whether entries are eligible for the Field Prize. Worksof creative writing—as well as poetical, literary, or religious scholarship—can be awarded the Field Prize.
 
In addition to providing a succinct statement of the entry paper, the required one‐page summary is an opportunity to explain, as relevant, the significance of the entry and its connection to the prize conditions.
 
Questions can be directed to porterfield.prizes@yale.edu.