Prizes/The Hesse Grant Award
The Hesse Grant was established in honor of the founder of the Bulletin of the Comediantes and early AHCT supporter Everett Hesse to recognize outstanding scholarship by graduate students working on early modern Hispanic theater and performance studies. This award sponsors a one-year membership to the AHCT along with conference registration for the recipient to present their winning paper at the upcoming AHCT conference. Additionally, the grant includes a $600 travel stipend to help defray the costs of attendance at the AHCT conference.
As part of their annual membership, the grant winner will also receive a copy of the next issue of Comedia Performance, the journal of the association. In keeping with AHCT’s mission of mentorship and collaboration, the evaluation panel provides constructive feedback on all submissions to support students as they develop their projects for conference presentation and potential publication. The winning paper will be considered for publication in Comedia Performance.
Deadline: TBA – 2027
Eligibility and submissions
Eligibility:
- Current graduate students (master’s or PhD level)
- Research focus on early modern Hispanic theater and performance studies
Submission Guidelines:
- Original research essay of approximately 8-10 pages in length (double-spaced, 12-point font)
- Complete bibliography (not included in page count)
- Essays should follow a consistent citation style (MLA preferred, but not required)
- Cover page including contact information, institutional affiliation, and degree program
- Submissions may be in English or Spanish
Submission Process:
- Please submit all materials electronically to hmeadow1@utk.edu with the subject line “AHCT Hesse Grant Submission – [Your Last Name].”
Evaluation Criteria
Submissions will be evaluated based on:
- Originality and significance of research
- Quality of scholarship and methodology
- Clarity of writing and argumentation
- Contribution to the field of early modern Hispanic theater studies
Selection Process
- A panel of AHCT board members and affiliated scholars will review all submissions.
- The winner will be notified by July 1, 2026, with sufficient time to prepare for the September 2026 conference presentation.
AHCT Hesse Grant Submissions Committee:
- Committee Chair: Harrison Meadows, University of Tennessee, Knoxville / AHCT Board Member
- Matthew Ancell, Brigham Young University
- Ronna Feit, Nassau Community College
Please direct any questions about the conference Harrison Meadows.
The Association of Hispanic Classical Theater is committed to fostering excellence in scholarship and supporting the professional development of emerging scholars in our field. We look forward to receiving your innovative research contributions.
Previous Winners
- 2025Marissa Luquette (Rutgers University): “Quando volveras a ¿verme?: Speaking, Hearing, and Queering Female Desire in María Egual’s Coloquio Entre Nise y Laura”
- 2024No award was given
- 2023Katerina Levinson (Oxford University): “Prudence in Allegory and Iconography for Immaculist Devotion in Calderón’s La primer flor del Carmelo“
- 2022The prize went unawarded
- 2021Victoria Rasbridge (University College of London): “Performances of Power: Renegotiating the Queen’s Identity in the Work of Lope de Vega”
- 2020Cayce Elder (Kansas University): “Missing the Mark: Treatment of Gender in Manuel Iborra’s La dama boba“
- 2019Rebeca Rubio (UC Davis): “Escenarios giratorios en horizontes madrileños: escenografías para La dama duende en 1942 y en 1966”
- 2018Eduardo Paredes Ocampo (University of Oxford): ““The Tangible/Intangible Dialectic in La dama duende: A Critical Appreciation of the CNTC’s 2017 Production”
- 2017Giovanni Francisco Salazar Calvo (Michigan State University): “Relación entre medicina y hechicería femeninas en El amor médico de Tirso de Molina: una denuncia paradójica de la mala praxis médica” / “Relationship between Feminine Medicine and Sorcery in Love, the Doctor by Tirso de Molina: A paradoxical Denounce of Medical Mala Praxis”
- 2016Harrison Meadows (University of Colorado Boulder): “The Echo of Callisto’s Lament: Wild Women, Myth, and Gender Performance in Montalbán’s La lindona de Galicia“
- 2015Kristina Sutherland (University of Georgia): “Su dueño, por mujer y por humilde‘: The Power of Women in Valor, agravio y mujer“
- 2014Christopher Oechler (Pennsylvania State University): “Cayetano Luca de Tena, Fuente Ovejuna, and Fascist Theater”
- 2013Christopher Oechler (Pennsylvania State University): “The Performance of Divine Providence on the Early Modern Stage: The Case of Falling Paintings in Two History Plays”
- 2012María Quiroz Taub (University of Missouri): “La violencia de Fresia en Arauco domado de Lope de Vega”
- 2011Melissa Figueroa (Cornell University): “The Dangerous Theater of the Moriscos: Auto de la destruyción de Troya (1575)”
- 2010Terilyn Abbott
- 2009Isabelle Therriault (University of Massachusetts Amherst): “Tras la mirada de la tapada en la comedia de Calderón Mejor está que estava”
- 2008Jonathan William Wade (Vanderbilt University): “The Code of Subversion: Angela de Azevedo’s Literary Revolt”
- 2007Anita Damjanovic
- 2006María José Domínguez-Sullivan (Arizona State University): “Combinaciones de vestimenta y lenguaje en El muerto disimulado de Ángela de Azevedo”
- 2005Reyes Caballo-Márquez
- 2004Esther Fernández (University of California-Davis): “Mirar y desear: La construcción del personaje femenino en El perro del hortelano de Lope de Vega y de Pilar Miró”
- 2003Amy Austin
- 2002Iván Fernández Peláez (Vanderbilt University): “Fallas innombrables: Obediencia y poder en El médico de su honra“
- 2001Elena García Martín (University of Texas at Austin): “”Modern Reception of Cervantes: Aesthetics and Ideology in XXth century Numancia“
- 2000Julie Gagnon-Riopel
- 1999Jerelyn Johnson (Brown University): “Las didascalias en la obra de Lope de Vega: Fuente Ovejuna, El perro del hortelano, El castigo sin venganza, y El caballero de Olmedo“
- 1998Rogelio Miñana Cecilia McGinnis
- 1997Lynn Vidler (New York University): “Staging the Fool: Visual Codes of Stupidity in the Pasos of Lope de Rueda” Adabel Díaz Rivera
- 1996Christopher D. Gascón (University of Texas at Austin): “Mediated Desire in Tirso’s El condenado por desconfiado”
- 1995Mindy E. Badía
- 1994Pithamber Polsani
- 1993Christopher Weimer
