The Department would like to congratulate PhD candidate Hannah Graves, who has been awarded the prestigious 2015 HOTCUS Postgraduate Essay Prize for her essay “The Value of an Endorsement: Reassessing Hollywood’s ‘Race Year’ Through the Debate over Pinky (1949)”.

The committee agreed that Hannah’s submission is a significant contribution to debates about American cinema’s engagement with racial issues at midcentury. It is based on an impressive amount of archival research, and very fluently written. She will be awarded £100.

For more information about Hannah's award and HOTCUS, please visit http://www.hotcus.org.uk/Awards.html