Student Prizes
Frank Caldiero Humanities Award, Work from the First year
Nominations Submitted By: HSS Full-Time & Adjunct Faculty (HSS-1 & HSS-2)
Eligibility: Students enrolled in either HSS-1 or HSS-2
This prize is made possible by a donation from a student of Frank Caldiero, a longtime HSS faculty member who retired in 1973. It is awarded annually for the finest essay or essays written in either HSS-1 “The Freshman Seminar” or HSS-2 “Texts and Contexts: Old Worlds and New.”
Only essays written during the current academic year will be considered. Clean copies of written work must be submitted via a faculty member, without grades, corrections, or comments from instructors. Essays revised after having been returned by instructors are also suitable for submission; students may use the resources of the Center for Writing and Learning for help in the revising process.
The panel of judges will consist of the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Director of the Center of Writing and Learning, and at least two HSS faculty members. In the event of a tie, the award will be split.
Essay Award for Second-Year Core Curriculum
Nominations Submitted By: HSS Full-Time & Adjunct Faculty (HSS-3 & HSS-4)
Eligibility: Students enrolled in either HSS-3 or HSS-4
This prize is awarded for the best essay or group of essays by one student written in HSS-3 “The Making of Modern Society” and/or HSS-4 “The Modern Context: Figures and Topics”.
Only essays written during the current academic year will be considered. Clean copies of written work must be submitted via a faculty member, without grades, corrections, or comments from instructors. Essays revised after having been returned by instructors are also suitable for submission; students may use the resources of the Center for Writing and Learning for help in the revising process.
The panel of judges will consist of the Dean of Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Director of the Center of Writing and Learning, and at least two HSS faculty members. In the event of a tie, the award will be split. Up to two Honorary Mentions may also be presented. If, in the opinion of the judges, no work reaches the desired standard, no prize will be awarded.
The Doré Ashton Prize in Art History, Theory, and Criticism
Nominations Submitted By: HSS Full-Time & Adjunct Faculty (HTA)
Eligibility: Students enrolled in HTA course(s)
This prize is named for Dore Ashton, longtime Professor of Art History on the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences who, though known primarily for her association with the New York School, had interests and activities that spanned the globe. She disliked most forms of academic writing about art. It is awarded annually to the best paper written in an “HTA” (History/Theory of Art) course at The Cooper Union.
The panel of judges will consist of the Dean of Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Director of the Center of Writing and Learning, and at least two HTA faculty members. In the event of a tie, the award will be split. Honorary Mentions may also be presented. This award is not restricted to graduating seniors, and not restricted to students in the School of Art. Papers may be submitted by students or their faculty in either the fall or spring semester.
The Charles Goodman Essay Award in Humanities
Nominations Submitted By: HSS Full-Time & Adjunct Faculty
Eligibility: Junior or Senior of the Albert Nerken School of Engineering
This award is made possible by a gift from Charles Goodman, Class of 1905, for the purpose of stimulating interest in philosophy. It is awarded annually to a junior or senior in the Albert Nerken School of Engineering at The Cooper Union who submits the best essay dealing with the conflicts in values in contemporary society. The essay may focus on values and the conflicts they engender in literature, the arts, sciences, philosophy, history, politics, ethics or religion. The topic encourages the adoption of a both a personal standpoint and a reflective attitude – hence, “philosophy”.
The panel of judges will consist of the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Director of the Center for Writing and Learning, and at least two HSS faculty members. In the event of a tie, the award will be split. Honorary Mentions may also be presented.
The Martin J. Waters Memorial Award
Nominations Submitted By: HSS Full-Time & Adjunct Faculty
Eligibility: Graduating seniors (Art & Engineering) and fifth-years (Architecture)
This prize, establish in 1976, is named for Dr. Martin J. Waters (1940-75), a former Associate Professor of History in HSS who specialized in Irish history and died unexpectedly in Dublin while on sabbatical conducting research for a book on the relationship between social and geographic mobility and national consciousness. The prize is awarded for overall achievement in HSS courses taken in fulfillment of degree requirements at any of the three degree-granting Schools at The Cooper Union.
The panel of judges will consist of the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Director of the Center for Writing and Learning, and at least two HSS faculty members. In the event of a tie, the award will be split. Honorary Mentions may also be presented.
The Raymond G. Brown Memorial Prize
Nominations Submitted By: HSS Full-Time & Adjunct Faculty (The Raymond G. Brown Seminar)
Eligibility: Students enrolled in SS-345: The Raymond G. Brown Seminar
This prize honors the memory of Raymond G. Brown, Professor of Economics on the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Cooper Union from 1968 until his premature death in 1983. Professor Brown was born in the Bronx and earned degrees from SUNY/New Paltz and Cornell. During a fifteen-year career at Cooper, he served as Faculty Chairperson from 1972-75. Previously he had served in the Infantry and Signal Corps of the U.S. Army, played semi-pro baseball, worked for the Federal Reserve Bank, been a union organizer in Mississippi, Georgia and Florida and served as Educational Director of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. Ray Brown’s academic specialty was labor history, but he was a person of wide and liberal interests who not only thought and wrote about social and political issues but also actively engaged with them.
The Raymond G. Brown Seminar at The Cooper Union, with a variable roster of instructors, was established to reflect and to perpetuate Professor Brown’s interests and values in social and political economy.
The Prize is restricted to students in the Raymond G. Brown Seminar and is awarded annually to the best student by the Seminar’s current instructor.
The Adam T. Foley Prize in Greco-Roman Antiquity and its Reception
Nominations Submitted By: HSS Full-Time & Adjunct Faculty
Eligibility: Students enrolled in an HSS course
This prize honors the memory of Adam Foley, a classicist, historian, and 2016 recipient of the Rome Prize in Renaissance and early modern studies. Adam Foley completed his dissertation, “Homer’s Winged Words and Humanist Latinity: The Task of Translating Homer in the Italian Renaissance,” and later, driven by an insatiable curiosity and his love for literature, began several creative writing projects, including a collection of aphorisms, essays, and a novel.
The prize is awarded annually in the spring to any student in any one of Cooper’s schools who submits the best essay or project that focuses on Greek and Roman classics from antiquity to the present.
The panel of judges will consist of the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Director of the Center for Writing and Learning, and at least two HSS faculty members. In the event of a tie, the award will be split. Honorary Mentions may also be presented.
The Academy of American Poets Prize
Nominations Submitted By: Students themselves who are enrolled in HSS Course(s)
Eligibility: Students enrolled in an HSS course
This prize is awarded annually for the best poem or group of poems. The Academy, founded in 1934, is the largest organization in the country devoted to the art of poetry. The College Poetry Prize was founded in 1955 and former winners at the over 100 member colleges include Sylvia Plath and many of today’s leading poets. Any student from one of the three degree-granting schools at The Cooper Union may submit. In the event of a tie, the award will be shared. Up to two Honorary Mentions may also be awarded.
