Every year New York Times columnist David Brooks awards Sidney prizes, which honor the year’s best long-form essays about politics and culture. This year’s winner is “The Coddling of the American Mind,” an engrossing piece about students whose hypersensitivity leads them to avoid anything that might offend their fragile sensibilities—even if it means missing out on lifelong opportunities. The essay aptly coined the term “vindictive protectiveness” to describe this mindset and its harmful effects on the young.
It’s a worthy winner and well worth your time to read it in full. You can do so on the Times’ website. It’s an important reminder of why long-form journalism is so important in our age of zipless, electronic media. The prize has been named after a 19th-century philosopher, Sidney Hook, who wrote on the power of ideas and the danger of dogmatism. The winners this year exemplify those values.
Other notable winners include Matt Labash’s sympathetic, gripping profile of Marion Barry, the rascally former mayor of Washington, D.C., who was also a crack-smoker and girlfriend-stalker. It’s not easy to write about such a complicated man and pull it off with the grace and clarity Labash did.
The winner of the prize that honours the memory of Sydney University alumnus Sir Sidney Poitier has been chosen – Professor Philippe Sands QC. He has demonstrated extraordinary leadership, displaying the public spirit of Sir Sidney through his professional advocacy for those without money or power to defend their civil and human rights, address the legacies of colonialism, and protect the global environment.
If you’re looking for more long-form journalism and thought, Overland publishes a range of articles that are well worth a look. You can get a free digital subscription to the magazine when you sign up here.
At the bottom of the page, you can sign up for a free trial, which will give you four issues to decide whether Overland is for you. It’s a great way to discover new voices and think about the big questions of our time.
Many faculties, schools and disciplines award prizes for their top students based on academic merit. You can find these below, sorted by university school. Some require an application, but others don’t. The Faculty of Science Postgraduate Research Prize for Leadership celebrates the work of HDR students who lead their studies through involvement in their school, faculty and University committees, and community outreach. No application is necessary, as eligible candidates are nominated by their school. Read more here.