Humanities Writing Competition
The 2026-27 Competition is now live!
This is an opportunity for students in Year 12 (England/Wales), S5 (Scotland), or Year 13 (Northern Ireland) to research and write beyond the curriculum, using one or more of five selected objects from the Lawrence Room museum as their focus.
Essays or creative responses (such as dramatic monologues, short stories or poems) are equally welcome.
Please read this page in full, including the Competition Rules, before applying.
Deadline: Friday 5 March 2027, 5pm (UK time).
Further information:
The prize fund consists of £500 cash and books to the value of £400 from Cambridge University Press, the latter to be shared between the winning entrant/s and their school/s. The prize fund may be divided among winning entrants, typically a first, second, and third prize winner.
Girton is grateful to Cambridge University Press and The C. Anne Wilson Fund for kind sponsorship of the competition.
- All applicants must be resident in the UK at the time of the award ceremony (Thursday 6 May 2027). 'Resident' is defined as 'living somewhere on a long-term basis'.
- All applicants must be in Year 12 (England/Wales), S5 (Scotland), or Year 13 (Northern Ireland) in the 2026-27 academic year.
- Read the Information for Entrants and Competition Rules.
- Read the Item Information. Choose one or more objects to write on.
- Upload your Cover Sheet and Entry to the form by Friday 5 March 2027 at 5pm (UK time).
Applicants to the competition are encouraged to look out for information on our annual People, Pots & Poetry Taster Day. This is an event which explores the study of Classics, Archaeology and Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic Studies at the University of Cambridge. Attendees will also have the opportunity to view the Lawrence Room, and the objects selected for this year's competition. Nominations can be made by teachers only and will go live in January 2027 on our webpage.
Item Information:
https://lrc.girton.cam.ac.uk/object-record.php?get_object_record=663
Material: linen cloth, animal remains
Length: 27.5 cm
Place: Egypt
Date: Ptolemaic, about 330 BC
Acquisition source: not recorded
In ancient Egypt, crocodiles were associated with the Sobek, the god of the River Nile, and large numbers of them were deliberately raised, killed and mummified as offerings to the divinity.
You may want to explore:
New York Metropolitan Museum of Art website:
https://lrc.girton.cam.ac.uk/object-record.php?get_object_record=796
Material: terracotta
Height: 8.4 cm
Place: Boeotia, Greece
Date: 300–200 BC
Acquisition source: Hon. Evelyn Saumarez, 1902
‘Tanagra’ figures, dating from the third century BCE, are named after the town in Greece where they were first found in large quantities, most often in tombs. They are small terracotta human figures made in hollow moulds, painted after firing. Although they follow an older tradition of terracotta figures used as cult images or votive objects, they may have been used simply as ornaments. Most are graceful figures of young women or athletes. But what may have been the purpose of this miniature figure of a child in a conical cap (pilos), huddled and almost completely hidden under a cloak? Is the figure playful or sad?
You may want to explore:
- Alexandra L. Heller, ‘The representation of children in Hellenistic sculpture : continuity or change?’ Northern Illinois University, 2018. Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations. 6216. https://huskiecommons.lib.niu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=7215&context=allgraduate-thesesdissertations
- https://www.carleton.edu/ocs/greece/news/week-9-ellie-simon/
- HWC_202627_Tanagra_Figurines.pdf
https://lrc.girton.cam.ac.uk/object-record.php?get_object_record=147
Material: steatite (soapstone)
Height: 2.5 cm
Place: Egypt
Date: BC 664–525
Acquisition source: Gwendolen Crewdson, 1918–19
A finely carved falcon with a loop on the back allowing it to be hung on a necklace or bracelet. The falcon represented various deities in ancient Egypt, particularly the sky-god Horus, and to wear an amulet representing the god would bring his favour and protection.
You may want to explore:
New York Metropolitan Museum of Art website:
https://lrc.girton.cam.ac.uk/object-record.php?get_object_record=827
Material: pottery
Height: 17 cm
Place: Attica, Greece
Date: 500–400 BC
Acquisition source: unknown
A lekythos was a slender one-handled ceramic vessel used for storing oil, especially for use in funeral rituals, and they are often found in tombs. Many are elaborately decorated, but this one is plain ‘white-ground’ (i.e. painted with a white slip), with traces of red and black paint on the base. On one side has been scratched a graffito ‘stick figure’ of a person wearing a head-dress. There is a similar, unfinished stick figure on the opposite side. These may be modern.
You may want to explore:
This portable wooden writing-desk is thought to have belonged to one of the founders of Girton College, Emily Davies (1830–1921). It had apparently belonged to at least one generation of Emily’s family before her, and Emily ‘used it all her life’, according to the friend who eventually gave it to the College in 1936. It stands in the Lawrence Room as a memento of Emily Davies’s long life of activism on behalf of women’s suffrage and education.
You may want to explore:
Need help getting started?
Further information on the objects will be shared on our website and social media (@GirtonOutreach on Instagram) over the coming months.
- Continuity and change in ancient Egypt
- Divine animals
- The sacred and the everyday
- Representations of childhood
- Problems of authenticity and provenance in museum collections
- Memorials and mementoes
2025-26 Winners
Further information on the prize-giving ceremony can be read here.
‘Holding a god: the human desire to touch the divine’
Harry’s essay discussed the eye idol and the Apis bull as two objects which in different ways tried to collapse the distance between the divine and the human. The argument paid close attention to the two objects themselves and also drew on a wide range of comparative material. A judge described this as ‘an amazingly confident, flowing, well-structured essay’ and another as ‘a serious piece of work, thoroughly referenced’. This is university-level writing with a sophisticated point of view informed by in-depth knowledge.
‘Feed’
Taking the eye idol as a starting point, this poem explores the theme of seeing and being seen, from the enigmatic gaze of the idol to the all-encompassing gaze of social media. A judge commented that ‘the verse is authoritative, alert and non-gimmicky’. Another said: ‘I would love to hear this read aloud and the text and recording QR’d with the eye idols in the Lawrence Room.’
‘To Be Seen: the eye idol and the secular afterlife of sacred attention’
Starting from a glimpse of a visitor taking a selfie with the idol in the Lawrence Room, it explores the idea of intervisibility between worshipper and divine protector, and the blurred lines between divine recognition and social fame, through an impressive range of examples from different cultures. Very confidently done: a genuinely personal take supported by wide knowledge, and good referencing too.
Emeline Ang - ‘Mapping Lei Gong’s iconography’
This essay is a deep dive into history, a well informed and fully referenced account of the changing image of the thunder deity over the centuries, from the Tang dynasty to his latest incarnation as a Marvel hero.
Ciara Herbert - ‘The Offering’
This was the best of many short stories that were submitted. It worked the eye idol (again) into a poignant story about a normal day that ends tragically for two Syrian children. The children’s experience was vividly rendered both familiar and unfamiliar through the lens of a different culture. The work of a talented and practised writer.
Abby Lam - ‘How do the objects in the Lawrence room of Girton College symbolise the human need for physical anchors in metaphysical journeys?’
The Egyptian seated man, the Apis bull and the Romano-British lion heads were all discussed as varied embodiments or defences for the dead against non-being, and there was a neat ending about the role of the museum in continuing this embodiment. A very well thought through and philosophically ambitious essay.
Leyi Wang - ‘Commercialisation of votive offerings: sacralising or secularising?’
Another essay that found a way to discuss the parallels and contrasts between several different objects – the seated man, Apis bull and eye idol. It looked at how votive offerings – ‘a conditional exchange of gifts between men and gods’ in Burkert’s words – could work to extend the moral community created by a religion. A well-chosen and interesting perspective and a good bibliography.
