The Sidney Prize is an award for a piece of journalism that exposes social and economic injustices. The winner is announced on the second Wednesday of each month. The winner receives a $500 honorarium and a certificate designed by New Yorker cartoonist Edward Sorel. Nominations may be submitted by any undergraduate student. Nominations should be submitted by the last day of each month.

The prize was established in memory of Philip Sidney Ardern, lecturer and associate professor of English at Auckland University College from 1912 to 1947. It is offered annually for “that piece of undergraduate writing which most nearly meets those high standards of originality and integrity which Mr. Ardern set for his students in his teaching and in his book, Indirections for Those Who Want to Write.” Nominations are not restricted to students majoring or minoring in English.

This year’s winners are two articles that show how a single idea can transform a whole field of study. The first, from John Luhrmann in The Atlantic, takes us into the dark heart of the global opioid crisis. It’s not a pretty picture. In a rare moment of balance, he asks whether the drugs are truly dangerous or just a problem that’s getting worse.

In the second article, Helen Andrews in First Things describes the vicious online vitriol that erupted after she appeared on a panel about conservatism with her ex-boyfriend and former employer, Todd Seavey. The discussion turned into a bitter argument about alleged cruelty. The episode was a reminder of how far we have to go to combat the tyranny of the right wing.

Each year, the Sydney Film Festival awards a film from the Official Competition line-up with the Sidney Prize, recognizing its “audacious, cutting-edge and courageous” nature. Each Sydney Film Festival Award Winner is presented with the Festival’s mesmeric swirl award, designed and handmade by Louise Olsen and Stephen Ormandy of Dinosaur Designs.

The Society for the History of Technology has awarded its 2023 Sidney Edelstein Prize to York University Professor Edward Jones-Imhotep, for his book A Dam for Africa: Akosombo Stories from Ghana (Indiana University Press, 2022). This is one of the most prestigious prizes in the field.

A Dam for Africa was inspired by a series of letters between the author and his former mentor, the late historian Sidney Edelstein, who devoted his life to studying the development of technology in the African diaspora. The book is the first of its kind to explore these interconnections between technology, culture and politics in Africa, a subject that has been largely neglected until now. The prize was established in 1998 to honor the work of Dr. Edelstein and to encourage excellence in the scholarship of the history of technology. It carries his name and a monetary prize. Previously the prize was known as the Leonardo da Vinci Award, and in its present form is the most prestigious prize in the field of history of technology.