Theron Rockwell Field and the John Addison Porter prize competitions

The 2024–25 prizes are awarded to:

In Yale College

  • Maheen Iqbal (Yale College, Political Science), Porter Prize
  • Quentin Véron (Yale College, Comparative Literature), Field Prize

In the Graduate and Professional Schools

  • Matthew Dudley (Graduate School, History), Field Prize
Dudley’s dissertation analyzes hundreds of legal and state documents that were preserved in the geniza chambers of Cairo’s
oldest synagogues. These anti-archives of discarded texts provide unprecedented opportunities for the study of Jewish law, women’s history, sociolinguistics, and imperial administration in Ottoman Egypt.
 
  • Michael Grunst (Graduate School, Microbiology), Porter Prize
Grunst’s dissertation studies viral Spike proteins, which allow viruses to grab onto and enter host cells through driving fusion of the virus and host cell membranes. Using innovative electron microscopy techniques, he captures this elusive viral entry process in action and identifies new ways that antibodies target a vulnerable, conserved site on the viral Spike protein to block infection. These findings will inform the design of vaccines against diverse coronaviruses that may provide protection against future coronavirus outbreaks.
 
  • Emily Yankowitz (Graduate School, History), Porter Prize
Yankowitz’s dissertation presents a historical study of US citizenship before the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, focusing on the lived experiences of a wide range of people. Destabilizing the perception that citizenship has always conferred distinct rights and privileges, it draws on popular understandings, debates, and claims to reveal how citizenship evolved as a series of negotiations between individuals and officials and between states and the federal government. 
 

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The Theron Rockwell Field and the John Addison Porter prize competitions are open to all graduating students enrolled in Yale University for a degree during any part of the current academic year.

  • The John Addison Porter Prize is given for a written work of scholarship in any field in which it is possible, through original effort, to gather and relate facts, principles, or both, and to make the product of general human interest.  The award was established in 1872 by the Kingsley Trust Association (The Scroll and Key Society) in honor of the late Professor Porter, who received a bachelor’s degree from Yale in 1842.
  • The Theron Rockwell Field Prize is given for “a poetic, literary, or religious work,” including creative writing or scholarship. The award was established in 1957 by Emilia R. Field in memory of her husband, Theron Rockwell Field, 1889S.

Questions can be directed to porterfield.prizes@yale.edu.

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Submitting your entry (2024–25)

Deadlines for submission of entries

  • March 21, 2025, at 1pm (graduate and professional students)
  • May 1, 2025, at 1pm (Yale College students)

Format of submissions

  • Entries are submitted through the Yale Student Grants and Fellowships platform:
  • When submitting, you will be prompted to provide a one-page summary of the entry paper, written in non-technical language for an intelligent but non-expert reader.  This summary is required in addition to any abstract, précis, or summary within the entry paper.
  • If submitting an entry paper with multiple authors, you will be prompted to provide contact information for a faculty advisor or director of graduate studies. This person will receive an automated prompt, but you should alert them that they will be asked to attest that the submission represents substantial independent scholarship.
  • If the entry paper is written in a language other than English, you must submit a complete English translation in the same file.

Further guidance

“Excellence” is the judges’ principal consideration in determining prizewinners. In accord with the Porter Prize condition that the entry submitted “make the product of general human interest,” excellence includes literary merit (readability) and broad significance. The Field Prize is for a poetical, literary, or religious works broadly construed. The judges determine whether entries are eligible for the Field Prize. Worksof creative writing—as well as poetical, literary, or religious scholarship—can be awarded the Field Prize.
 
In addition to providing a succinct statement of the entry paper, the required one‐page summary is an opportunity to explain, as relevant, the significance of the entry and its connection to the prize conditions.
 
Questions can be directed to porterfield.prizes@yale.edu.