Beginning in the fall of 2024, the Department of Philosophy will award two new tri-campus undergraduate essay prizes: the Spinoza Award (for students in their first two years of undergraduate study) and the Hypatia Award (for students in advanced years of their undergraduate degree).
Submissions for the 2025 awards will open in the fall of 2025.
The inaugural Spinoza Award (2024) went to Willow Macdonald (St. George) for “Kant and Spinoza on the Transcendental Ideality of Space“.
The inaugural Hypatia Award (2024) went to Dihan Niloy (St. George) for “The Impingement Account: A Peircean Response to Radical Skepticism“.
Want to know more about these two award-winning writers? Read an interview with Dihan and Willow.
Spinoza Award
- best philosophy essay by an undergraduate with at most 10.0 completed course credits (any program) at the time of submission
- open to students from all three University campuses
- essays may be pieces previously handed in for coursework or work written independently
- prize amount: $2,250
- deadline: TBD
Hypatia Award
- best philosophy essay by a senior Philosophy undergraduate student who is enrolled in a Philosophy program and has completed at least 3.0 Philosophy course credits at the time of submission
- students may be a major, minor, or specialist in Philosophy (including the Bioethics programs on the St. George campus)
- open to students from all three University campuses
- essays may be pieces previously handed in for coursework or work written independently
- prize amount: $2,250
- deadline: TBD
Information needed at time of submission
(for either award)
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student’s full name
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student number
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student’s degree program (indicating major/minor/specialist)
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if submitting for the Hypatia Award, the number of philosophy credits at the time of submission (no matter when the paper was written); if submitting for the Spinoza Award, the number of total credits at the time of submission (no matter when the paper was written)
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student’s current year of study
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student’s campus
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IF the paper was submitted for coursework previously, the course number and title; otherwise, just an indication that the essay was written independently
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essay title
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name of the award to which the student is submitting
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student’s written consent that their essay be submitted to TurnItIn by the Department of Philosophy
For questions about the prize, please contact Petra Dreiser.