The Bruce Mitchell Award for early-career scholars honours the memory of Dr Bruce Michell (1920–2010), a distinguished scholar of Old English, his long-enduring contribution to the field of medieval English language and literature and active involvement with the Society's activities and journal in their early decades.

SELIM offers an annual Bruce Mitchell Award for a doctoral thesis or monograph, defended or published within three years to the date of submission, on any research-related topic concerning the study of medieval English language and literature, their cultures and transmissions. The dissertation or monograph must be no less than 200 pages or 80,000 words in length, excluding tables, notes, appendices, and references.

Submission criteria

The Award will be granted in open competition. Eligibility is for any individual who is both:

a member of the Society (membership must be at least one-year prior to the date of submission and cannot be applied for at the time of submission); and
an early-career scholar, defined as A) a student on a master's degree or doctoral degree programme, B) a post-doctoral scholar within five years of the award of the doctorate at the time of submission, or C) any individual possessing an undergraduate or a master's degree in subjects related to the Society's interests, awarded no more than 10 years prior to the deadline for applications.

No more than one submission is permitted in the same year.

The winner will receive 200 euros for research work and a certificate from SELIM.

The award will be granted by SELIM on the recommendation of an award committee formed from senior scholars, with two members of the SELIM Board. The award committee's decision is final. The winner will be announced on the Society's conference dinner and website.

Applications accepted: 16 January - 19 February 2023

Terms & conditions

Application form

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