The Gender and Medieval Studies Group offers a postgraduate student essay prize, which is awarded at the GMS conference each year. The competition is open to students at all levels of graduate study including those who will be completing their degree in the coming year.

Essays should be between 4,000 and 6,000 words in length. This word limit is inclusive of footnotes but exclusive of the bibliography. Entries should engage with questions of gender and/or sexuality in the Middle Ages and follow a recognised academic referencing system (such as MHRA). A full bibliography should be included, and all images should be captioned.

Submissions from postgraduates working within any discipline in the field are encouraged.

The prize gives free conference fee registration to the GMS conference (held every year at a different UK institution) for two years (2026 and 2027).

The winning essay will also be considered for publication in the academic journal Medieval Feminist Forum, run by the Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship (SMFS).

There may be years when no prize is awarded, depending upon submissions in any given year.

Electronic submissions should be submitted to Dr. Laura Kalas (L.E.Kalas@swansea.ac.uk), by the student themselves, by Friday 31 July 2026. In submitting an entry to this competition, entrants declare that the essay represents their own, original work.

The sixth Middle Ages in the Modern World conference (MAMO) will take place in Oxford (Lincoln College) on 22-24 June 2027.

Further details to follow; see the MAMO website.