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Essay prizes, travel fellowships to be awarded to undergraduates

Submissions are being invited for two arts essay contests and an arts/humanities fellowship.

The List Visual Arts Center has announced the Vera List Competition in Arts and Writing -- a $500 award to be presented to a full-time MIT undergraduate for unusual and thoughtful expression on some aspect of contemporary art.

Students can submit applicable coursework or pursue their own particular focus, not necessarily pertaining to List Center exhibitions. Although competition organizers expect most entries to be in prose, they note that since "art can speak to both the head and the heart, less conventional formats may be allowed." In this case, prior consultation with List Center staff is required.

The entry deadline is noon on Thursday, April 20 in Rm E15-109. The winner will be announced on Wednesday, May 3. For competition rules or further information, contact Jennifer Riddell at x3-4400 or jlr@mit.edu.

Two $626 I. Austin Kelly III Essay Prizes will be awarded to entries that must be essentially humanistic in aim and style, but may concern any field or combinations of fields in the humanities, arts or social sciences. The main topic should be meaningful to readers outside as well as within the chosen field. Technical data should not be the focus, but should be introduced as needed to illustrate whatever broadly humanistic points are being made.

All full-time MIT undergraduates except former Kelly Prize winners are encouraged to submit historical, analytical or sociological essays written during their years at MIT. The length must be 4,000-8,000 words. This is the 26th year for the I. Austin Kelly III Essay Prize.

One or two $1,000 I. Austin Kelly/Richard M. Douglas Traveling Fellowships will be awarded to current MIT juniors who are committed to further work in the humanities or arts and to travel that will enhance their understanding of their chosen field. Applicants must submit two letters to Mary Cabral, Rm 14N-207 or mcabral@mit.edu. In the first, they will describe their travel and study plan, and in the second an MIT instructor will endorse this plan. This is the first year this fellowship will be awarded.

All Kelly essay and Kelly/Douglas fellowship submissions must be delivered to the music and theater arts office in Rm 14N-207 by Wednesday, April 12 at 5pm. Guidelines for both are available in that office. Guidelines for the essay prize are also on the web.

A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on April 5, 2000.

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