Guidelines & Submission Instructions

Submission Guidelines · Contest Kit · Judges · Host a Workshop

Eligibility

You must be a currently enrolled undergraduate or graduate student (or have graduated within two years of the contest submission deadline of March 1, 2016) in an institution of higher learning in any country. (If you win, you will need to send us the name of a faculty member or college/university administrator who agrees to verify your eligibility.)
You can enter the contest as an individual or a team. All team members must have been a student within two years of the contest submission deadline. (Teams including a graduate student will be judged for the graduate-student prize.)
Your entry must be in English or be accompanied by an English-language version. Award of prizes is subject to confirmation of your eligibility as a student. (Awards are also subject to restrictions of U.S. law pertaining to transfer of funds to a few proscribed nations.)

Submission Guidelines

Individuals or teams are limited to a single submission, due by March 1, 2016. Please submit Parts A, B, and C of your submission as follows. No hard-copy or other physical media will be accepted.

Part A – Application Form (online): Please open, fill out, and submit this online form.
Parts B & C – Email as attachments to contest@4humanities.org. Part B (your biography) and Part C (the creative content of your submission) should be sent as separate attachments to contest@4humanities.org in an email with a subject header beginning “Contest submission” and including the title of your submission and your name (matching the title and name submitted online in Part A). For example, your email header would be: “Contest submission: Your submission title, Your name”.
To simplify the judging and later posting of your materials, the emailed attachments of Parts B and C should be PDFs where possible (preferred but not required format), with any additional non-document-like materials (e.g., video or audio files) attached separately. For example, put your biography in one PDF document and the texts, images, and links for your submission in another PDF document; additionally attach multimedia files that cannot be treated in that way. (See further details about submission of Part C below.)
- Part B – Biography: Please write a short biography of yourself (less than 300 words). Include links to any relevant online materials (curriculum vitae or résumé, projects, blogs, etc.). Attach the biography as a document (preferred format: PDF) to your email addressed to contest@4humanities.org. Your biography may be used by 4Humanities.org for publication in connection with your submission. Both winning submissions and other submissions may be posted on our site (See “Use of Your Submission” below.) If you wish to include information in your biography that is not for public release, please clearly label it as such. No anonymous or pseudonymous submissions will be accepted. (However, if there are specific reasons you need to make an anonymous or pseudonymous submission, please contact us in advance at contest@4humanities.org.)
- Part C – Creative Content of Your Submission: Where possible, attach the content of your submission as a document (preferred format: PDF) to your email addressed to contest@4humanities.org, and additionally attach any media files (e.g., audio, video) that cannot be put in the document. Submissions that cannot be sent this way (e.g., very large files or sets of files; complicated mixed-media or dynamic digital works; online sites) may be put on the Web or in cloud storage (e.g., Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.) to allow for access by multiple contest judges. Please include in your emailed submission the link(s) to such material with any necessary explanation. If you have questions about how to submit your work, please contact us in advance at contest@4humanities.org.
  Note: In the case of any material (e.g., image-based or audio-based work) whose relevance to the theme of the contest is not evident or would not be clear without explanation, please include a written description of how the material bears on the idea of the contest.

Evaluation Criteria & Judging Process

Your submission will be judged by an international panel of distinguished judges for message, quality, and impact no matter your medium or format. (See list of judges.) Judging will occur in March-April 2016, and winners will likely be announced by the end of May 2016. Judges will recuse themselves from evaluating any submission by a student they have taught or who is affiliated with their institution.

Use of Your Submission & Other Intellectual Property Issues

4Humanities.org will feature prize-winning submissions with attribution on its Web site and in future online, social-media, and print advocacy campaigns for the humanities. 4Humanities.org may also select other submissions to be put online. We will also create online showcases for all student submissions from any institution organizing a “creativity workshop” for the contest. (See call for “Creativity Workshops.”)
Your entry must be submitted under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license allowing others to reuse or adapt your work (non-commercially) with attribution to you, so long as they share in the same way. (Please contact us at contest@4humanities.org if you wish to license your submission under Creative Commons BY-SA instead, which is similar but allows for commercial use.)
You warrant that your submission is your own. Where submissions include component ideas or materials by others, you warrant that any intellectual property owned by others and used in your submission is approved for use and appropriately attributed. Responsibility for acquiring permissions for use of materials by others is your responsibility; 4Humanities.org is not liable for intellectual-property and also libel issues arising from your submission.

Privacy Statement

Personal information will be collected as defined by the submission process. This information is used to confirm eligibility, evaluate applications, and administer the awards. This personal information will be disclosed only as needed to the contest administrators and, where necessary, to contest judges for the purposes of evaluation and the operation of the contest. Email addresses, postal addresses, and any information designated by contestants as private will not be made public, sold, rented, or provided to third parties by 4Humanities.org.

The terms of the contest are that information from Parts A, B, and C of your submission, whether you are a contest winner or not–but excluding your email, postal address, and any other information you explicitly designate as private–may be made public by 4Humanities.org. This includes your name, nationality, college or university, educational level (graduate or undergraduate), and degree program, plus your biography in Part B and the creative content of your submission in Part C.

4Humanities.org will post online all student submissions from any institution organizing a “creativity workshop” for the contest (excluding private information as specified above) in a way that showcases that institution on its own page. (See call for “Creativity Workshops.”)

Note: Personal information received in connection with the competition may be released as required by subpoena, law or a court of competent jurisdiction. Personal information may also be disclosed in the event that an individual’s safety or security is at risk or in order to protect the integrity, safety and security of the competition’s website.