The Prize is intended to honor the memory of John J. ("Jack") Winkler, a classical scholar, teacher, and political activist for radical causes both within and outside the academy, who died of AIDS in 1990 at the age of 46. Jack believed that the profession as a whole discourages young scholars from exploring neglected or disreputable topics, and from applying unconventional or innovative methods to their scholarship. He wished to be remembered by means of an annual Prize that would encourage such efforts. In accordance with his wishes, the John J. Winkler Memorial trust awards a cash prize each year to the author of the best undergraduate or graduate essay in any risky or marginal field of classical studies. Topics include (but are not limited to) those that Jack himself explored: the ancient novel, the sex/gender systems of antiquity, the social meanings of Greek drama, and ancient Mediterranean culture and society. Approaches include (but are not limited to) those that Jack's own work exemplified: feminism, anthropology, narratology, semiotics, cultural studies, ethnic studies, and lesbian/gay studies.
The winner of the 2009 Prize will be selected from among the contestants by a jury of four, as yet not named.
The deadline for submissions is March 1, 2009. Essays should not exceed the length of 30 pages, including notes but excluding bibliography and illustrations or figures. Electronic submission is required. Essays should be sent in .pdf format. Please include an email with your essay in which you provide the following information: your college/university, your department or program of study, whether you are a graduate or undergraduate, your email and regular mail addresses, a phone number where you can be reached in May of 2008, and the title of your work.
The Prize is intended to encourage new work rather than to recognize scholarship that has already proven itself in more traditional venues. Essays submitted for the prize should not, therefore, be previously published or accepted for publication. The Trust reserves the right not to confer the Prize in any year in which the essays submitted to the competition are judged insufficiently prizeworthy.
Contestants may send their essays and address any inquiries to: Kirk Ormand, Dept. of Classics, Oberlin College; kirk.ormand@oberlin.edu.
The John J. Winkler memorial Trust was established as an independent, charitable
foundation on June 1, 1990. Its purpose is to honor Jack Winkler's memory
and to promote both his scholarly and his political ideals. Inquiries about
the
Prize, tax-deductible gifts to the Trust, and general correspondence may
be addressed to: Kirk Ormand, John. J. Winkler Memorial Trust, Dept. of
Classics, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH 44074.
| 1991 | Kirk Ormand | The Use and Abuse of Ariadne, 55BCE-1984CE |
| 1992 | Denise McCoskey | Is there a 'Thesmophoria' in This Text? Women's Spheres in Aristophanes' Ecclesiazousae and Thesmophoriazousae |
| 1993 | John Ma | Black Hunter Variations |
| 1994 | Shane Butler | (Un)Masking 'The Greek Miracle': Performativity in Fifth and Fourth Century Athens |
| 1995 | Sara Lindheim | Setting Her Straight: Ovid Re-Presents Sappho |
| 1995 | Christopher Spelman | Marriage and Ideology in Catullus |
| 1996 | Mark Buchan | Penelope as Parthenos |
| 1997 | Tamara Chin | Mapping the Scythians: Anti-nomad techniques in Herodotus and Niebuhr |
| 2002 | Tamara Chin | Compulsory Heterotextuality: Sappho (31) meets Shijing [Book of Songs] (1) |
| 2003 | Mary Frances Brown | Medusa's Eyes: Gender, Subjectivity, and Ekphrasis in Ovid's Metamorphoses |
| 2003 | Jennifer Benedict | The Matrix of Identity: Gender and Representation in the Works of Lucian |
| 2004 | Brooke Holmes | Catachreses: Epic Pain and the Wound of Agamemnon |
| 2004 | Lyra Monteiro | Colonial Origins: New Approaches to History, Archaeology, and Ethnicity at Metapontum |
| 2005 | Marianne Hopman | From Devouring Monster to Femme Fatale: Scylla in the Greek and Roman Imagination |
| 2005 | Dana Longton | 'Beastly Obscenity' and the Serious Irrumator |
| 2006 | James Uden | A Virgin Martyr and a Phallic Prayer: New Connections in the Elegies of Maximianus |
| 2006 | Taylor Coughlan | The Voice Which Is Not One: Narrative, Intertext, and Gender in the Metamorphoses 4.274-415 |
| 2007 | Alexander Dressler | The Sophist and the Swarm: Platonism and Feminism in Achilles Tatius |
| 2007 | Michael Pelch | The Danger of Drag in Aristophanes' Thesmophorizusae |
| 2008 | Danielle Meinrath | The Ancilla and her Ass: Re-reading Photis in Apuleius' Metamorphoses |
| 2008 | Alison Fields | Megilla/us: The (Fe)Male Penetrator in Lucian's Dialogue of the Courtesans |
(If the author's name appears as a link, you may click on it to see an abstract of her/his paper in .pdf format.)