​The Palgrave Prize

The Palgrave Prize is awarded each year for the best paper delivered at the conference by PALA student members, either as sole or co-author(s). It is judged on the basis of written versions of the papers by the Chair of PALA and one other Committee member nominated by the Chair.


We are grateful to Palgrave for offering the winner of the Palgrave Prize a choice of books up to the value of £150 from all titles in the  Language and Linguistics section of Palgrave's website (unless they are out of print or print on demand). 
Previous winners of the prize for best paper include:
  • 2024 Ivy Xiaoyang Qi (Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia)
  • 2023 Marianne Fish (University of Nottingham, UK)
  • 2022 Ella Wydrzynska (University of Nottingham, UK)
  • 2021 Naomi Adam (Liverpool University, UK)​
  • 2019 Fransina Stradling (University of Huddersfield, UK)
  • 2018 Tess Lankhuizen (Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam)
  • 2017  Matthew Collins (Birmingham University, UK)
  • 2016  Rachel Hanna (Queen's University, Belfast, UK)
  • 2015  Eri Shigematsu (Hiroshima University, Japan)
  • 2014  No prize awarded/prize temporarily suspended
  • 2013  Zoe McCaw  (Queen's University, Belfast, UK)
  • 2012  Rong Rong (Lancaster University, UK)
  • 2011  Zsófia Demjén (Lancaster University, UK) 
  • 2010  Clara Neary (Queen's University, Belfast, UK)
  • 2009  Sara Whiteley (University of Sheffield, UK)
  • 2008  Yu-fang Ho (Lancaster University, UK)
Guidelines
  • Papers may include changes to accommodate the comments received during or after the conference, but must be based on the paper that was delivered during the event by PALA student members.
  • Papers already published elsewhere  will not be considered for the prize.
  • The papers should not be longer than 6000 words, and should include full references.
  • Entries are welcomed from all postgraduate students who have not been awarded their PhD by the time of the relevant conference. They should be members of PALA (which is free to students) at the time of the conference. Single-authored written versions of individual presentations at the PALA conference will be considered, as well as joint-authored written versions of joint-presentations.  

As an international association, PALA acknowledges that authorship is defined according to specific and differing parameters around the world, e.g. PhD supervisor(s) might be listed as authors even when the paper is researched and written by PhD candidates in some academic environments. Should this be the case with a paper presented for the Palgrave Prize, students are welcome to submit their paper according to the guidelines of their academic environment, and to specify this in the accompanying email.

Furthermore, submissions jointly authored by at least one PALA student member and presenters who are not PALA student members will also be evaluated, provided that they clearly state what parts were authored by whom. In this case, the Palgrave Prize will be awarded to the PALA student member(s) for the the sections exclusively authored by them. 

The paper should be sent in an email attachment to the PALA webster before 31st December following the conference. Please see the full proceedings guidelines before submitting.

Palgrave Prize submissions will be included in the on-line conference proceedings.​

Please remember: by submitting a paper for publication online by PALA you are not giving up any of your rights over the paper or material it  contains, and you still retain the right to submit it for publication elsewhere.