The Busa Prize

The Busa Prize is named in honor of Father Roberto Busa and is given to recognise outstanding achievements in the application of information technology to humanistic research. Past recipients of the Busa Prize include:

• Father Roberto Busa (1998, Debrecen, Hungary)
• John Burrows (2001, New York, New York, USA)
• Susan Hockey (2004, Gothenburg, Sweden)
• Wilhelm Ott (2007, Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA)

Terms

The recipient will receive prize money of approximately $1000 (or a round number of about the same value in the currency in which the Prize is to be awarded), and is expected to give a public lecture, on a topic of his or her choice, at one of the annual Digital Humanities conferences.

This lecture will normally be one of the keynote or plenary lectures of the conference. The host association for that conference will take steps to see that the lecture is publicised in official journals (Literary and Linguistic Computing and DHQ).

The recipient wil be a guest of honour of the host association at the conference at which the Prize is awarded and the lecture given. This means that all travel, accommodation and subsistence costs of the Prize recipient will be paid by the association.

Selection

The recipient will be chosen by a selection committee of five members: three members named by the association acting as host of the conference where the lecture will be given, and two by the other association(s). The selection committee chooses its own chair.

The selection committee is responsible for soliciting and receiving nominations, reviewing the nominees' work, selecting the recipient, and writing a citation describing the achievements in recognition of which the Prize is given.

Schedule

The Prize will be awarded triennially, with the first Prize and lecture having been given in 1998 at Debrecen.

The normal schedule for awardig the Prize will be as follows:

In the year of the Prize lecture, the two organizations will choose a selection committee for the next awarding of the Prize; the membership of the selection committee will be announced, and nominations will be solicited, at the joint annual conference.

In the second year after the Prize lecture, the selection committee will make its decision and the recipient will be announced at the joint annual conference.

In the third year after an award lecture, the Prize will be awarded again and the next lecture will be given.

Finances

Each organization is responsible for financing the Prize in the years when the Prize lecture is given at conferences for which it acts as host. The financial responsibilities include at least:

• the prize money (ca. $1000)

• the travel costs, accommodation, subsistence, and conference registration for the recipient of the Prize.

-- Main.JohnUnsworth - 07 Jul 2006