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ASCS Prizes and Awards
| ASCS is an inclusive organisation. It encourages entries for its prizes and awards from Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, Maori and Pasifika students, students who are living with disabilities, students of diverse gender and sexuality, mature-age students, and students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. |
Greek and Latin Language Competition
The Greek and Latin Unseen Translation Competition was introduced in 2007. From 2021, ASCS introduced a new form of the competition. Please see the attached files for details of the latest round.
The competition will be run over the following dates: 12 pm (noon) Friday, October 13 to 12 pm (noon) Thursday, October 19. There is a prize of AUD$250 for the best entry in each language.
2023 Competition
Greek winner: James Hughes, Australian National University
Latin winner: Cecilia Arsenovic, Australian National University
2022 Competition
Greek Winner: Andrew Branchflower (UNE)
Latin Winner: Bryce O’Connor (Macquarie)
Honourable Mention: Maximilian Sundram (Melbourne)
Co-ordinator: Dr Estelle Strazdins (University of Queensland)
Past competitions
Past passages:
2018 Greek | 2018 Latin
2017 Greek | 2017 Latin
2016 Greek | 2016 Latin
2015 Greek | 2015 Latin
2014 Greek | 2014 Latin
2013 Greek | 2013 Latin
2012 Greek | 2012 Latin
2011 Greek | 2011 Latin
2010 Greek | 2010 Latin
2009 Greek | 2009 Latin
Past prize winners
Reports: 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2007–2012
Douglas Kelly Australian Essay Competition
 (Formerly the ASCS Australian Essay Competition)
This annual Competition, which has been running since 1990, is open to undergraduate students in Australian universities. The essay submitted may be a revised version of an essay, tutorial paper or seminar paper by a student enrolled in a first, second or third-year course. The subject of the essay may reflect any aspect of Classical Studies broadly defined: the languages, literatures, thought, histories, religions, archaeology and receptions of the ancient world. This means that essays on Egyptian and Near Eastern topics will be accepted. The length should be between 2000 and 3000 words, and the entry should be submitted through the ASCS Representative in each Australian university. The first prize is currently $500, and there are up to two prizes of $100 each for “runner-up” entries. In 2015 the competition was renamed in honour of long-time ASCS member Douglas Kelly.
A named prize should encourage curiosity about the person whose name it bears. Douglas Kelly (24 April 1941 – 15 December 2015) was a notable scholar in Classics and Ancient History who served both the discipline and the Society over many years with surpassing generosity of time and professional expertise (indeed he was elected ASCS President from 1993 – 1998). He studied first in New Zealand before going on to Cambridge (PhD 1975 on ‘Sources and interpretations of Spartan history in the reigns of Agesilaus II, Archidamus III, and Agis III’), and then took up university positions in Australia, first in Sydney at Macquarie University and subsequently in Canberra at the Australian National University. He was renowned as an inspirational teacher and supervisor, who dedicated innumerable hours to supporting students fortunate enough to work with him: his dedicated attention to detail was the stuff of legend, his breadth of knowledge acknowledged by all. He inspired respect and affection in equal proportion within the Australasian community of Classicists and Ancient Historians. It is hoped that the title of the ASCS Douglas Kelly Australian Essay Prize will encourage the winners from year to year to enquire further about the ‘eponymous hero’ and to discover his record of accomplishments that is so highly regarded by those who knew him.
2023 Competition
Winner: Elsa Tonkinwise, University of Sydney, ‘Corporeal themes in Bellum Catilinae’
Runner Up: James Hughes, Australian National University, ‘Potential and Promotion. The importance of social status in choosing a life of Christian asceticism, as according to the Life of Matrona’
2022 Competition
Winner: Angus Llewellyn Jacobson (University of Tasmania): ‘The Senecan Paradigma Boni Regis’
Runner-up: Jeremy Yu Chen Ho (University of Melbourne): ‘The Farmer and His Coin: The Problem of Monetisation in Ptolemaic Egypt’
Co-ordinator: Assoc. Prof. Peter Davis (University of Adelaide)
Past competitions
John Barsby New Zealand Essay Competition
This annual Competition was initiated by the Classical Association of Otago in 2002 and named in honour of John Barsby, the Professor (now retired) of Classics at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. In 2009, ASCS assumed responsibility for the funding of the prizes, which currently are AUD$350 for first place and AUD$150 for second place.
2023 Competition
Winner: Georgia Adcock Bramley, University of Canterbury, ‘The Representation of Monarchs in the Hellenistic Period’
Runner Up: Antonio Sidonio, University of Canterbury, ‘How Tacitus presents Germanicus and why; Accurate or Literary?’
2022 Competition
Winner: Friederike Voit (2nd (University of Auckland): ‘Lenitas Caesaris: Understanding Caesar’s Mercy on His Own Terms’
Runner-up: Barnaby Elder (VUW): ‘A built Garden and a Forum that Grew: spaces for otium and negotium’
Co-ordinator: Dr Babette Puetz (Victoria University of Wellington)
Past competitions
• Past winners
• Competition reports: 2021
OPTIMA
(“Outstanding Postgraduate Talk In a Meeting of ASCS”)
This annual Award, introduced at ASCS 31 (2010) in Perth, is aimed at rewarding the outstanding postgraduate presentations at the ASCS annual conference. First prize for the Award is AUD$500, with up to two runner-up prizes of AUD$100 each.
Postgraduate students planning to enter the OPTIMA prize should note the following:
- The written version of the presentation you submit is important because first impressions are formed by it – and these impressions count a lot in the initial judgment of the committee. The written version also allows for a far less subjective judgement as all the judges read the written versions but they cannot all hear the oral presentations.
- There is no ‘marking schedule’ and no ‘points-weighting’ applied to any specific aspect of the paper, whether it is the written paper or the oral presentation or question-time.
- The combination of written and oral presentation is judged inclusively. A good written version of the paper and then a good presentation (and question session) will go a long way towards success.
- Given the strength of the competition, being good in only one area (written/oral/question-time) is unlikely to win the competition.
2024 Competition
Winner: Fenella Palanca, University of Melbourne, ‘Wool, Women, and War: Reconstructing the Textile Economy of the Roman Republic’
Runner Up: Chelsea Schwartz, University of Adelaide, ‘Rest in Peace? The Debate on Asclepiades of Bithynia’s Death and its Significance’
Runner Up: Saskia Moorrees, Monash University, ‘Wrestling with the Issue: scribal and communal influence in some Athenian curse tablets’
2023 Competition
Winner: Isaac Bennet-Smith (VUW): ‘Flair and Allusion in the Ancient Greek Translation of Harry Potter’
Runner Up: Jemima McPhee (UNE): ‘“Look at these places”: learning science from the Latin poem “Aetna”’
Co-ordinator: James HKO Chong-Gossard (Melbourne)
Past competitions
Previous winners
Early Career Award
This annual Award, introduced in 2005, is intended to offer acknowledgement and some financial support to those who are ‘early career’ scholars. There are currently two awards, each worth AUD$3000. The aim of the Award is to assist the winner with the publication of their PhD thesis or other research project. Applications are open to those who have completed a doctorate by research in the last five years at an Australian or New Zealand university, and who do not hold a full-time teaching or research position at a university or tertiary institution or who are in a full-time but non-academic position.
2023 Competition
Winners:
Kristen Mann: ‘The Material Home in Geometric Greece: A Social Archaeology of Zagora on Andros’
Connie Skibinski: ‘Reimagining Warrior Women for Premodern Times: Queen Penthesilea of the Amazons and the Trojan War’
2022 Competition
Winner: Dr Natalie Mylonas Project: 'Emotions of Exile: The role of place attachment in ancient Israelite spatial ideologies and identity formation'
Co-ordinator: Dr Sarah Lawrence (University of New England)
Past competitions
Past winners
ASCS Conference Travel Subsidies
ASCS has set aside limited funds to provide subsidies towards the cost of travel to present a paper at its annual conference. Postgraduate students, as well as unfunded postdoctoral, unwaged and part-time scholars—not yet retired—may apply. Subsidies are provided to cover part of the cost of attending the conference and applicants must declare all other funds that they have been granted by their affiliated institution or any other granting body. Applicants are encouraged to investigate whether funding for conference travel is available from their own department or university.
It is a condition of applying for a subsidy that the applicant be a current member of ASCS. Applications are usually called for in October each year. The current postgrad travel subsidy form can be found on the ASCS Conference page. For further information, please contact the ASCS Hon. Secretary (secretary@ascs.org.au).
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