The British-Italian Society and the Society for Italian Studies have announced the latest winners of the biennial BIS Prizes.

The winner of the 2021 Postgraduate Prize (£500) is Dr Claudia Dellacasa of Durham University for her thesis, Italo Calvino in Japan, Japan in Italo Calvino: A Cross-Cultural Encounter.

The 2021 Undergraduate Prize (£250) was awarded to Freya Cazalet of Cambridge University for her dissertation, The Sleeping Guards: Depictions of the Resurrection in Trecento Italy.

Despite the challenges of the pandemic, the competition again attracted a large number of entries from students at British and Irish Universities on a wide range of Italian cultural themes. The judges strongly commended the winners for producing highly innovative and impressive pieces of work.

The judges also awarded joint runner-up prizes to two candidates in each category. In both cases, two candidates had scored similar high marks for impressive entries. In the Postgraduate category the runner-up award was shared between Dr Anna Lisa Somma of Birmingham University and Dr Maddalena Moretti of Leeds University.

At Undergraduate level, the runner-up prize was shared between Isabelle Ragnetti of King’s College, London and Ella Powell of Birmingham University.

Our warmest congratulations go to all the prize-winners, who also receive one year’s honorary membership of the Society.
We look forward to welcoming them to an event in 2022!