Aurora Borealis Prizes

Each year the Society honors graduate student contributions to our conference by awarding three student presenters the Aurora Borealis Prize for the best oral paper presentations, one in the category of History, one in the category of Social Science and Area Studies, one in the field of  Arts and Humanities, and one for an outstanding undergraduate paper. Nominations for the prizes will be accepted from all members of the Society until November 1 annually. 

The Aurora Borealis Prize Committee operates a paperless submission process. Nominating SASS members may submit their nominations via the link below. Nominees will receive an automated notification requesting that they submit their papers as delivered, without revisions, along with any accompanying audio-visual or handout materials, to auroraborealis@scandinavianstudy.org. Please put “Aurora Borealis YEAR” in the subject line.  Papers must adhere to professional citation standards and include a bibliography.

Nominations must include the following information:

  • Name of presenter
  • Presenter’s institutional affiliation
  • Presenter’s e-mail address
  • Session name/number
  • Title of paper
  • Nominator’s recommendation regarding the papers eligibility for either History, Social Science, or Arts and Humanities
  • Nominator’s comments regarding reasons for the nomination, including information about the paper’s oral presentation, argument, originality, use of relevant sources/existing scholarship, and so forth.

Society of Historians of Scandinavia Aurora Borealis Prize in History 

The Society of Historians of Scandinavia have generously donated funds to support a third Aurora Borealis prize in the field of history, broadly defined, for papers presented by graduate students at the annual meeting. Attendees are encouraged to submit nominations for this prize using the link below by November 1.

Click here to nominate a graduate student paper

Undergraduate Aurora Borealis Prize

The Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study is happy to accept nominations for the Undergraduate Aurora Borealis prize. SASS will award a $500 prize for one outstanding undergraduate paper submitted for their coursework in the calendar year preceding the nomination deadline (January 1). Students are welcome to revise their papers, provided submissions are received by the January 1 deadline. Undergraduate papers may be in any field as long as the topic is relevant to the field of Scandinavian Studies. Papers will be evaluated on the following criteria: clarity of argument; rigor of scholarship and appropriateness of sources cited; interest and engagement with the field of Scandinavian Studies. 

We will accept papers of 10-15 pages (double-spaced, 11-12 pt. font) in a variety of styles and disciplines, as a complete research paper or as an excerpt of a longer capstone or term paper. Students are encouraged to include a one-paragraph narrative (in the same file, placed before the introduction) reflecting on the learning, writing, and revision process.

Faculty and Teaching Assistants are strongly encouraged to nominate outstanding student work using the link below. Note that you will need to provide the student’s name, institutional affiliation, email address, and the nominators comments regarding reasons for the nomination (wherein we encourage you to reflect on the evaluation criteria above). 

The nomination link is always open. The committee will review all nominations for the previous calendar year in January and February. Prize winners will be notified in March. 

Click here to nominate an undergraduate paper