The Medieval Studies Program in the College of Arts and Sciences has created two new student awards that honor the legacies of distinguished faculty members: the Carol Kaske Prize and the Tom Hill Graduate Essay Award.
The prizes will recognize outstanding undergraduate and graduate student research in Medieval and Renaissance studies, ensuring that the high standards of scholarship and mentorship that both professors exemplified will continue to inspire future generations of students, faculty said.
“Tom and Carol were — and Tom still is — not only extraordinary scholars; they were phenomenal mentors who cared deeply about their students' intellectual and personal growth,” said Andrew Galloway, the James John Professor of Medieval Studies (A&S) and long-time colleague of both professors. “Their regular luncheons with other faculty in early studies were precious occasions for discussions spanning topics from archaeology to Romance linguistics, from legal history to Old English and Old Norse.”
Kaske, who died in 2016, was a scholar of late-Medieval and Renaissance English literature. She taught at Cornell from 1963 to 2003, where she was widely respected for her groundbreaking teaching and scholarship on figures such as Marsilio Ficino, Edmund Spenser and Thomas Malory.
The Carol Kaske Prize will be awarded to an undergraduate student in any major at Cornell who has written the best essay on a medieval or Renaissance topic.
Hill, who taught at Cornell from 1967 until his retirement in 2022, is a scholar of Old English, Icelandic sagas and later medieval literature. Hill was instrumental in shaping the Medieval Studies Program at Cornell, fostering the intellectual community that draws students and faculty into interdisciplinary research and teaching. Hill’s scholarly contributions, including more than 100 articles, notes and commentaries, which he continues to produce, span a wide range of topics, from “Beowulf” to Old Norse literature.
The Tom Hill Graduate Essay Award will be presented to a graduate student who has written the best essay on any topic within the field of Medieval studies. The award is open to graduate students across all departments and disciplines.
Submissions for both prizes are due Jan. 31 and will be judged by a faculty panel in the Medieval Studies Program. The winners will be recognized at the spring Quodlibet Lecture (Kaske Prize), the Medieval Studies Graduate Association Lecture (Hill Award) and the Medieval Studies commencement ceremony.
Andrew Hicks, the director of the Medieval Studies Program and associate professor of music and classics, said these new prizes are a fitting tribute to Kaske and Hill. “During their distinguished careers at Cornell, Kaske and Hill regularly shared their passion for literature and the elucidation of complex texts in reading groups with students — on topics as varied as heroic poetry, riddles, early modern philosophy and sprawling sagas," he said. "Many articles, dissertations, and books were inspired in those groups, which exemplify Carol’s and Tom’s scholarly generosity — and their interdisciplinary spirit.”
“It’s particularly satisfying to one who knows their lifelong commitments to the field that these prizes can support the love of these fields and of current and future generations of students,” Galloway said.
For more information on the awards and the submission process, visit this website.
Elizabeth Lara-Rivera '26 is a communications assistant for the College of Arts and Sciences.
