Category Archives: Competitions

Husain Family Legal Essay Competition

The Liberal Arts Honors Program is happy to announce the Husain Family Legal Essay Competition. To enter the competition, please write and submit an essay that responds to the prompt below:

Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment Rights

  • The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution says that no person shall be “deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” This is commonly known as substantive due process—i.e., the rights of people that are not listed in the Constitution but which the Supreme Court has recognized as essential to daily life. Over time, the Supreme Court has identified new rights—e.g., the right to privacy, the right to interracial marriage, and the right to contract for one’s own labor—as having Constitutional protection. The right to an abortion (as a matter of privacy) was recently removed from this list, in Dobbs v. Jackson, 597 U.S. 215 (2022). But what limits or lack of limits exist on the Supreme Court to categorize or un-categorize rights as substantive due process are not clear. What should the criteria be to identify new rights or to remove rights from Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment protections?

Eligibility: Current Liberal Arts Honors Scholars

Specifications: 750 – 1,000 words, double-spaced with name, EID, and essay title.

Awards:

  • 1st Prize: $1,000
  • 2nd Prize: $500
  • 3rd Prize: $250

Submission Details: Send a pdf or doc of your essay to Husain_.7h0548w9yomv18dz@u.box.com by Monday, March 10th, 2025, at midnight. Any text in the body of the email will not come through. Please be sure to include your name and EID in the title of file and at the top of your essay.

UT Co-op Mitchell Award

Each spring, with the generous support of the University Co-op, UT recognizes undergraduate students for superior scholarly or creative achievement. Four will receive awards of $5,000, and two students will receive the top award of $7,000.

The application and all supporting materials, including a faculty recommendation, must be received by Wednesday, March 26th.

Applicants must be either a junior or senior currently enrolled at UT or a UT graduate who received their undergraduate degree in December 2024. Students must demonstrate superior scholarly or creative achievement through a notable paper or thesis, research project, creative or artistic endeavor, or other product of their academic work. Submitted work should be finished or almost finished (e.g. a complete draft of a thesis or research paper). Previous Mitchell Award recipients are eligible only if the submitted work is a completely different project.

Students can complete their applications via Interfolio. More information about the process can be found by clicking the link here!

The Bech-Loughlin First Amendment Center at Texas Law is sponsoring a Free Speech Essay Contest to encourage scholarship among UT-Austin students to promote understanding and appreciation of the freedom of speech.

The essay prompt, eligibility requirements, submission link, and other information can be found using the link here!

LAH Creative Writing Awards

The LAH Literary Awards support excellence in creative writing and acknowledge the accomplishments of our student community.  Three prizes will be offered: one in poetry, one in fiction, and one in literary nonfiction.  Please see below for detailed instructions on how to submit to each category:

Poetry:  Submit a portfolio of 6-8 poems (12pt. Times New Roman) that does not exceed 12 pages.

Fiction:  Submit a portfolio of fiction writing (12pt. Times New Roman) that does not exceed 5,000 words.

Literary Nonfiction:  Submit a portfolio of non-fiction writing (12pt. Times New Roman) that does not exceed 5,000 words.

Your contest submissions are due by 12pm CST on February 17th.  Please send your submissions to Dr. Brandon Dean Lamson utilizing his email linked here. Winning entries will be published online. Winners will also receive a $500 cash prize and will participate in a reading with the contest judges at the Cactus Cafe on April 17th.

Bookshelf Contest

The Office of the Dean of Students Cactus Yearbook Bookshelf needs a makeover, and we need your help to transform it. This is an opportunity for students from any major with a flair for design to showcase their talents and leave a lasting impact on campus. The bookshelf will predominantly feature our collection of Cactus Yearbooks from nearly every year since 1920.  The chosen student will work closely with the department to bring their design to life. The selected artist will also receive campus-wide recognition and a financial award of $500. Attend an info session to learn more about the application process, view the yearbook collection, and explore our space.

Info sessions will be held in the SSB 4.492:

Submit your design via the link here by January 31, 2025. If you have any questions, please contact paige@austin.utexas.edu.

UT GIS Day 2024

UT GIS Day is back in 2024! To highlight the innovative geospatial research being carried out here at UT Austin, we are inviting UT students to share their work in our poster competition. Any project (with a student first author) that makes use of GIS or involves geospatial data is eligible to enter. A panel of judges will score posters with monetary awards for the top scoring posters. First place will be awarded $200, second place $150, and third place $100.

Submit the proposal form if you are interested in participating in the session which will take place on Wednesday 11/20 from 4:00pm to 5:00pm in the Scholars Lab in the Perry-Castañeda Library (PCL). The deadline for poster submissions is Tuesday, November 5th and there are limited poster spaces available so consider submitting early to secure a place in the competition. If you would like to present your poster but do not to want to enter the competition you may select that option in the proposal form.

Roy Crane Award for Literary Arts

Applications are now open for the 2024 Roy Crane Award for Literary Arts.

This award is given each year for unique, creative effort in the performing, literary and visual arts. In 2024, the award(s) will be given in the area of literary arts. Awards range between $1,000 and $4,500. The application and all supporting materials must be received by Friday, April 5, at 11:59 p.m. Central.

For more information on Roy Crane, award eligibility, as well as application requirements, please click the link here!

LAH Literary Awards – Tell Your Stories

The inaugural LAH Literary Awards support excellence in creative writing and support the
accomplishments of our LAH community. Three prizes will be offered: one in poetry, one in
fiction, and one in literary nonfiction. Please see below for detailed instructions on how to
submit to each category.

Poetry: Submit a portfolio of 6-8 poems (12pt. Times New Roman) that does not exceed 12
pages.
Fiction: Submit a portfolio of fiction writing (12pt. Times New Roman) that does not exceed
5,000 words.
Literary Nonfiction: Submit a portfolio of non-fiction writing (12pt. Times New Roman) that
does not exceed 5,000 words.

Your contest submissions are due by 12pm CST on February 1 st . Please send your submissions
to Dr. Brandon Dean Lamson at brandon.lamson@austin.utexas.edu. Winning entries will be
published online.

Winners will also receive a $500 cash prize and will participate in a reading with the contest
judges.

Scheduling Community Fair: Logo design contest!

We need your help! We’re having a course scheduling professional development conference in the spring with a State Fair theme and we need a logo. Our slogan that we’d like incorporated in some way is “Come one, come all, to celebrate and share!”

The logo, which best features our theme and/or slogan, will be displayed prominently on our conference sites and other promotional materials. Multiple submissions are welcome. Selected entry will receive a $50 gift card.

The deadline for submissions is Thursday, December 1, 2022 at 11:45pm.

  • Digital images must be a high-resolution (300 dpi or greater) .tiff, .jpeg, or .png and be sized to 12×14”.

Submission form: https://forms.office.com/r/acQaSNhkAX

If you have trouble accessing the form contact: lisav@austin.utexas.edu