New Directions Graduate Essay Prize: Porn Studies in association with the BAFTSS Screening Sex Special Interest Group
Porn Studies, in association with the BAFTSS Screening Sex Special Interest Group recognises innovative graduate writing through their New Directions Graduate Essay Prize.
Porn Studies is the first dedicated, international, peer-reviewed journal to critically explore those cultural products and services designated as pornographic and their cultural, economic, historical, institutional, legal and social contexts. Porn Studies publishes innovative work examining specifically sexual and explicit media forms, their connections to wider media landscapes and their links to the broader spheres of (sex) work across historical periods and national contexts.
The Screening Sex BAFTSS Special Interest Group aims to call attention to the critical and cultural significance of sex and amplify the diverse and important research being carried out in this multi-disciplinary area. Screening Sex is also an international network of 200+ researchers, academics and industry professionals, with a dedicated book series. Key activities of the SIG include contribution to the annual BAFTSS conference, a Screening Sex symposium, talks/introductions at public screenings and film festivals and the collective promotion of new publications. The SIG also encourages opportunities to collaborate on projects, support ERCs and connect writers with practitioners in order to promote the importance of the screen in examining, challenging and re-framing social and cultural perceptions of sex.
Submissions for the New Directions Graduate Essay Prize can be on any subject relating to modern and contemporary pornographic media. Entries are assessed on:
- timely and original contribution;
- innovative approach and/or methods;
- scholarly rigour in engaging with pornography broadly conceived;
- contextualisation of recent scholarship and/or theory in relevant fields;
- clarity and readability.
All scholars registered for graduate study at any Higher Education institution worldwide are eligible to enter. Scholars may not have completed their postgraduate study before the beginning of the submission window in any given year. Essays are judged in a blind peer review by the convenors of the Screening Sex SIG and the winning entry is also assessed by Porn Studies editors.
Prizes
The author of the prize-winning essay receives:
- £200 prize money
- Publication of their essay in Porn Studies, identified as the New Directions Graduate Essay.
- A year’s online subscription to Porn Studies journal.
Up to three runners-up also receive a year’s online subscription to Porn Studies journal.
Guidelines for Submission
Submissions of between 6,000 and 8,000 words will be accepted until 10 April 2026. Please read the list of requirements before submitting. Entries should be sent to newdirectionsprize@gmail.com by 23:59 (GMT), 10 April 2026.
Photo by Sameer Kolhar on Unsplash
Screening Sex 