ISCH Prize Competition for Cultural Historians

In order to support cultural historical research and encourage scholars in their early career, the International Society for Cultural History (ISCH) has offered over the years a prize for the best unpublished article on cultural history. In 2023, the ISCH decided to turn the competition into a prize for the best ISCH conference presentation by an early career scholar in the annual ISCH conferences.

The Prize competition for 2025 has ended! The competition will be organised again at the ISCH conference in Paris on on 10-12 September 2026.

The prize for 2025 is 350 €. The author of the winning paper will also be encouraged to rework it as an article and submit it to the society’s journal, Cultural History where its acceptation will be subject to normal peer review.

The ISCH welcomes original texts that make an insightful contribution to scholarship on cultural history through methodological innovation, theoretical originality or historiographical significance. Papers on any aspect of cultural history, on any historical period or geographical area will be accepted for consideration.

Submissions should be original, unpublished works in English, presented in person at the Rovaniemi conference, written by scholars who, when applying for the prize, are either preparing their PhD or have completed their PhD during the last five years. Candidates should send the same paper (with possible minor modifications) they read at the conference: the papers will be evaluated as conference presentations, and there is no need to rework it as an article/essay at this point. Text should be double spaced, and no more than 3000 words in length (excluding notes and bibliography).

The submissions should include a cover sheet with author information, a short CV, and the paper itself. If the candidate has presented a paper accompanied by slides, they should be included too. All files should be in PDF format.

To submit an entry, please send a complete application by email to alessandro.arcangeli@univr.it

Your submission must be sent not later than 13 July 2025. The winner will be announced by October.