The Sidney Prize is awarded to individuals and organisations whose outstanding contribution to Australian society through the performing arts has been recognised by a panel of judges. A special consideration is given to those who have made an ongoing contribution over time and who show potential to continue their contribution into the future.

Art history major Sophia Jactel has won this year’s Sidney Thomas Prize for the best undergraduate art history paper. Her work, “Domesticity and Diversions: Josef Israels’ The Smoker as a Symbol of Peasant Culture and the Role of the Home in Nineteenth-Century Holland” was based on research she conducted in the Syracuse University art galleries. Sophia also joined her fellow senior art history students last Fall to curate Domesticities: The Art of Daily Life, an exhibition which included her own research on Israels’ prints.

The annual Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards recognise excellence in the Australian performing arts over the previous year. The award was established to celebrate the rich cultural and artistic legacy of Australia and recognises an individual, group or organisation for their outstanding contribution to Australian society through the performing arts over a sustained period. The prize was founded in 1988 by the late Sir Sidney Myer to recognise an individual’s or company’s exceptional achievements and contributions across a range of performance disciplines in the performing arts.

Stephan Miescher was awarded the 2023 Sidney Edelstein Prize from SHOT for his book A Dam for Africa: Akosombo Stories from Ghana (Indiana University Press, 2022). The prize is named in memory of Sidney M. Edelstein, a pioneer in the study of dyes and the founder of Dexter Chemical Corporation. The prize is supported by the Sidney Hillman Foundation.

This is the fifth year in a row that a Sidney student or graduate has won this award. The prize was previously called the SHOT / SEIU Award for Reporting on Racial and Economic Justice, and is now known as the Sidney Hillman Foundation – SEIU Award for Reporting on Racial & Economic Justice. The Hillman Foundation also awards monthly Sidney Awards for investigative journalism in service of the common good, and each month’s winner is automatically considered for a U.S Hillman Prize.

Overland has announced Annie Zhang as the winner of its 2024 Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize, for her story ‘Who Rattles the Night?’. Supported by the Malcolm Robertson Foundation, the prize seeks excellent short fiction, loosely themed around the notion of ‘travel’. The judges, Andre Dao and Jennifer Down, selected a shortlist of ten stories from the entries and chose a first place winner, two runners-up and one highly commended.

The Project on Private Law at Harvard Law School awards, annually, up to two prizes for the best student papers addressing questions of private law. Papers may be written in conjunction with a course, seminar, clinic, or independent study and must have been written during the current academic year. More information is available on the project’s page.