The Sidney Prize is an award that was created to honor work towards obtaining equal rights for African Americans. It is given out by the Sidney Hollander Foundation, in Baltimore, Maryland. The prize is named after a wealthy Baltimore businessman who worked tirelessly in the fight for equal rights for African Americans, and was a prominent figure in both local and national philanthropic organizations and civic affairs for many years.
Founded in 1950, the Hillman Foundation recognizes outstanding socially conscious journalism and deep storytelling in service to the public interest. The foundation honors journalists, in print and online, from a wide range of media outlets—including daily newspapers, magazines, and labor-based publications. It is also known for supporting investigative reporting and promoting the concept that a free press has an obligation to promote social justice.
Every month, the Sidney Prize is awarded to a piece of journalism that illuminates critical issues that need to be addressed and provides a path toward resolving them. Nominations are due the last day of each month, and submissions must be published or posted online by that date. Winners are announced the second Wednesday of each month. Past winners include the New York Times for their investigation into Haiti’s colonial debt, ProPublica for their story about hospice privatization, and More Perfect Union for their agenda-setting videos that explicate corporate greed.
In 2018, a postgraduate student from the University of Sydney was awarded the MAK Halliday Postgraduate Research Prize in honour of the late Professor MAK Halliday, founding member of the Department of Linguistics and the Chair of the department until his death in 1985. This prize is awarded to recognise the best paper presented at a conference by a departmental postgraduate research student.
This year, the prize was awarded to Dr Emily Michelson (University of St Andrews) for her book, Catholic Spectacle and Rome’s Jews: Early Modern Conversion and Resistance. It will be published by Princeton University Press in 2022.
The prize is funded by a donation from Leonie Hayne and is awarded annually on the recommendation of the Faculty of Arts to the student with the highest mark in the second year of Ancient History units. It was formerly the June Hartnett Prize for Proficiency in Second Year Ancient History, and was named in memory of Ms Hayne’s friend, who was an avid student of Latin and Ancient History.
In 2024, Overland will be publishing the winning short story, and two runners-up, in our autumn edition. First place will receive $5000 in prize money and the winner’s name will be included on a plaque at The Malcolm Robertson Foundation’s premises in Melbourne, alongside the winning works of previous years.
This scholarship was established with a bequest from the trustees of Mandelbaum House with the support of the Board of Social Study and Training which predated the University of Sydney in fostering social welfare in Australia. It is awarded each year on the recommendation of the Faculty of Arts to a student who shows the greatest proficiency in the third year of the Bachelor of Social Work degree.