Year 12 Humanities Essay Competition Winners

The competition invited Year 12 students from UK state-maintained schools to submit a response to one of twelve essay questions, encompassing various Arts and Humanities subjects available to study at undergraduate level at the University of Cambridge. This year, the competition received 190 entries of fantastic quality. The best 30 essays were shortlisted for consideration by the judging panel, consisting of Fellows, Dr Simon Ravenscroft (2018), Dr Hannah Marshall (2022), Prof Silke Mentchen (2005), and Mr Alistair Mills (2006).

First Prize was awarded to Ciara Potter from Backwell Secondary School in Bristol. Ciara’s excellent essay was entitled: “A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words”: What Is The Place Of Studying Texts In A World That Is Increasingly Dependent On Visual Communication? 

Two entries were deemed deserving of the Second Prize, which was awarded jointly to Anna Hall from Tiffin School, Kingston-upon-Thames, and Astrid Gignoux from St Bartholomew’s School, Berkshire. Anna’s essay debated the methods by which punishment should be determined, whilst Astrid responded to the question, ‘Is translation more like an art or like a science?’.

Third Prize was awarded to Cerys Burch from Carmel College in Merseyside, for her essay ‘A defence of boredom in the modern attention game economy’.

Honourable Mentions were also awarded to Esmee Cadogan (St Dominic’s Sixth Form College, North West London); Philippa Knight (The Blue Coat School, Oldham); Scott McArthur (Ysgol Friars, North Wales); and Vanessa Leung (Barton Peveril Sixth Form College, Hampshire).

All winners and their guests have been invited to a prize-giving celebration at Magdalene in September 2024.

The judging panel provided the following feedback to entrants:

“It was a pleasure to read and consider contributions to the Armstrong Essay Competition. There was an impressive level of thought, preparation and study evident in the works we read. Although we wish our particular congratulations to those who have won prizes or were highly commended, we would like to express our admiration to everyone who submitted contributions. The standard was once again very high, and there were many excellent essays which have not been specifically listed. We hope that everyone who wrote, found this to be an enjoyable and enriching experience.”

You can read Ciara Potter’s First Prize-winning essay below.