I am very pleased to share with you that my essay '"Now That the World Has Become an Endless Hotel": European Narratives of Displacement in the Middle East During the Second World War' won this year's Harvard Bowdoin Prize for a Graduate Essay in the English Language. Read the announcement here: https://prizes.fas.harvard.edu/bowdoin-prizes
English-language press:
From The Cyprus Mail, January 25th 2018
Argyro Nicolaou, a Cypriot writer and filmmaker, has been awarded one of Harvard University’s prestigious Bowdoin Prizes for her essay “‘Now That the World Has Become an Endless Hotel’: European Narratives of Displacement in the Middle East During the Second World War”.
The award-winning essay brings to light the often-forgotten first-person narratives of Europeans displaced to the Middle East during the Second World War.
It uses historical and literary sources to highlight a dark part of Europe’s history that undermines current stereotypes of refugees and migrants that dominate contemporary European politics.
From Gold News, January 25th 2018
Argyro Nicolaou, a Cypriot writer and filmmaker, has been awarded one of Harvard University’s prestigious Bowdoin Prizes for her essay “‘Now That the World Has Become an Endless Hotel’: European Narratives of Displacement in the Middle East During the Second World War”.
The Bowdoin Prizes, some of Harvard’s oldest and most prestigious student awards, are designed to recognize essays of originality and high literary merit, written in a way that engages both specialists and non-specialists.
“It is a great honor to have received this very special prize, and to have my name join a list of writers that I have long studied and admired,” Nicolaou said.
Established in 1791, the Bowdoin Prizes have been awarded to many notable Harvard students, among them the philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson, the former Harvard presidents Charles Eliot and Nathan Pusey, and the novelist John Updike.