BFE Student Prize

The BFE Student Prize is awarded annually for the best student paper presented at the BFE annual conference. All students who present papers at an Annual BFE Conference are encouraged to submit their papers for consideration. Only papers from students who are BFE members at the time of submission are eligible. Although the prize is a modest sum, this initiative is designed to support and recognise the work of student members of our scholarly community.
 The papers are reviewed by a BFE subcommittee, and current submission guidelines can be found at the foot of this page.

Please note that your paper should not be significantly revised prior to submission. The text should be as for your 20 minute presentation. Please do not submit a longer version of your paper as submissions that are clearly over length will be disregarded. For full details of the 'Guidelines for submission’ please see the ‘Files' link to a word document at the bottom of this page. 

BFE Student Prize Winner 2017:

The BFE Student Prize for 2017 recognises an outstanding paper presented by a student at this year’s BFE Annual Conference, hosted by the University of Sheffield (20-23 April 2017). We are delighted to award this year's prize to Hamidreza Salehyar of University of Toronto, and to give honourable mention to Lyndsey Hoh of Oxford University: their outstanding papers are described below. We would also like to thank everyone who submitted a paper this year, and encourage students to submit papers for next year’s conference at the University of Newcastle in 2018.

Beyond Resistance and Subordination: The Paradox of Popular Music in Shi’ite Rituals in Post-Revolutionary Iran - Hamidreza Salehyar

This well-written and convincingly-argued analysis of Shi’a Muharram mourning rituals examines the controversial spaces where popular music influences religious life. Using clear language to convey complex ideas, the author articulates a dialectical, rather than binary approach to religion, politic ideologies  and popular culture. It is a valuable contribution to the discipline as a troubling of scholarly hierarchies of the religious and the popular, and will be a useful resource to anyone studying contemporary Islam.

Brass Instruments in Benin and Experiences of the Historical - Lyndsey Hoh

This sophisticated and compelling paper examines the multiple cultural meanings of brass instruments in post-colonial Africa. Based on a phenomenological approach and extensive ethnographic evidence from interviews, the author makes the case that these instruments hold unique value in Benin. Arguing that brass instruments constitute “entangled objects” (Thomas 1991) and “imperial degree” (Stoler 2013), the paper is an innovative and original contribution to organology.

Former winners of the BFE Student Prize: