CFA: Mark and Ruth Luckens International Prize in Jewish Thought and Culture (submissions due Oct. 25, 2021 5pm EST)

Dear Colleagues:

Please consider submitting an essay and/or encouraging graduate students you work with to do so.

Best wishes, Jan

The Jewish Studies Program at the University of Kentucky invites entries for the annual Mark and Ruth Luckens Essay Competition in Jewish Thought and Culture.  The Luckens Prize is awarded to the best unpublished original essay that is also suitable for oral presentation to a general audience and is written by a graduate student or recent Ph.D. (Ph.D from no earlier than 2020) who does not already have a tenure-track academic position.  The Luckens Prize carries an award of $500, made possible by a generous gift from the late Dr. Mark Luckens.  In addition to the cash award, the author of the winning essay will give a public Zoom lecture in connection with University of Kentucky Jewish Studies in Spring 2022; (note: if Covid-circumstances allow for it, we will try for an in-person lecture/visit).

Dr. Luckens studied secular topics in public school and Jewish topics from Torah to Talmud after school in Hebrew school. Secular education helped pave the path out of poverty and into social mobility, while Jewish education helped keep him rooted in Judaism.  Dr. Luckens taught pharmacology and toxicology for 25 years at the University of Kentucky. During that time and into retirement, he continued to study Jewish topics, and the Luckens Prize honors that commitment to Jewish learning. 

Entries for the Luckens Prize competition should be original, unpublished essays of 5000-7000 words in length including all notes and citations; essays that exceed this length will not be considered.  Essays should also be accompanied by a 100-250 word abstract and unpdated CV. All submissions must be in English.  Entries will be judged by an interdisciplinary committee of faculty affiliated with the UK Jewish Studies program.  

Submissions for the Luckens Prize competition should be sent electronically as Word or PDF documents along with a current curriculum vitae, and a 100-250 word abstract for the essay,  to Jason Carr, jpcarr4@uky.edu and cc'ed to Professor Janice W. Fernheimer, Zantker Professor and Director, UK Jewish Studies program, Professor of Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies,  jfernheimer@uky.edu. Submissions must be received by 5pm  Oct. 25, 2021 to be considered.

Inquiries concerning the 20201Luckens Prize competition should be directed to  Director of the UK Jewish Studies program, Dr.Fernheimer, jfernheimer@uky.edu