Essay Award

The purpose of the award is to encourage the writing of original essays which enhance the understanding of industrial archaeology. Essays should deal with general themes or overviews, including typologies: fieldwork reports are not eligible. There will be two prizes of £100 each: a general award and a student award open to anyone on a full-time course in higher education. Entries from both AIA and local society members are strongly encouraged. Students may submit essays or dissertations produced as part of their coursework.

• Any entry must be the original work of the author(s), but this would not preclude papers drawing conclusions based on previously published research by others.
• The work should not have been previously published and should not have been entered for any other awards.
• The maximum length should be 5,000 words, excluding footnotes, picture captions and appendices, though these latter should not be lengthy.
• Three copies of the essay to be submitted.
• The judging criteria will include: academic quality; originality of thought or topic; illustrations where appropriate; and style and layout.
• The closing date for entries will be 31 March in each year of the award. Winners will be notified in early August and the awards announced at the annual AIA conference, usually held in September.
• The Association reserves the right to publish any entry in IA News or the Industrial Archaeology Review without fee, but copyright in text and pictures would remain with the author(s). A copy of each entry will be lodged in the Association archive.
• Should the essay be published as an article, it would be the authors' responsibility to obtain copyright clearance for material such as photographs and diagrams for which they do not own copyright.
• All entries will be considered by at least three judges appointed by AIA Council. The judges' decisions are final.

For a copy of the rules and an entry form for this Award please click here.

AIA Awards rules

AIA Awards entry form

These forms are in pdf format. A free Adobe pdf reader can be downloaded here.

Application forms are also available from the AIA Liaison Officer, School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH