Robins Prize

Once every two years PhilSoc holds a competition for the R. H. Robins student Prize for an article on a linguistic topic that falls within the area of the Society's interests. It is named after the former PhilSoc President Professor R. H. (“Bobby”) Robins.

The Prize is awarded in open competition to anyone who is both:
(i) a registered student (at the time of submission); they should submit a letter from their supervisor, or from a person of similar standing, attesting to their status and that the submission is their own work); and,
(ii) a Member or Student Associate Member of PhilSoc.

Submissions can be singly or jointly authored, and can (but need not) have been based on some part of a projected doctoral or masters dissertation. The submission should not have been published before (except possibly in a departmental working paper or the like), nor should it have been submitted for publication elsewhere.

The author(s) of the winning submission will receive a cash prize of £500 (shared equally between the authors of a jointly authored submission); the author(s) of the runner-up essay will receive a cash prize of £250 (again, shared equally as appropriate).  Additionally, the prize-winning and runner-up submissions will be considered for publication in Transactions of the Philological Society, subject to the usual peer-review process. In making a submission, authors must undertake to give the Transactions first refusal to publish the article.

The prize will be awarded by PhilSoc Council on the recommendation of a prize committee formed from members of Council and selected peer-reviewers, with the President in the Chair. In awarding the prize the Council will take into consideration the originality of the submission and the theoretical and/or empirical contribution it makes to the discipline. Council reserves the right not to award the prize if there are no submissions of sufficient merit.

The winner and runner-up will be announced at the Society's Annual General Meeting in June 2023.

Past Winners: