2026 Fabian Dorsch ESA Essay Prize Contest
Deadline: 15 January 2026
The European Society for Aesthetics awards an essay prize for PhD students and early career scholars (max. three years from the doctorate) in connection with its yearly conference. Former winners of the prize are not eligible to participate. The prize consists of a stipend of 500€.
The European Society for Aesthetics awards an essay prize for PhD students and early career scholars (max. three years from the doctorate) in connection with its yearly conference. Former winners of the prize are not eligible to participate. The prize consists of a stipend of 500€. The winning essay will be considered for publication in the journal Estetika: The European Journal of Aesthetics.
All submissions to the prize must be in English. The selection of the prize winner is in two stages. First, submissions are made by following the general call of the ESA 2026 conference (Deadline: 15 January 2026). Please tick the corresponding box in the EasyChair submission form to enter the essay prize contest. After the first round of reviews, selected authors are invited to submit a full conference paper (max. 5000 words, including bibliography and footnotes) by 20 April 2026. The recipient of the prize is selected from this group. We aim to announce the winner by 11 May 2026.
For the winning essay, a commentary by a conference keynote speaker or an invited scholar will be provided before the conference. The essay, the invited commentary, and the author’s reply will be presented in a special session at the conference.
