Robert A. Maguire Prize in Slavic Studies
A cash prize awarded annually to an undergraduate of high academic distinction and promise in an area of study concerned with Russian or another Slavic culture, including literature, music, art, religion, or cultural history. Established in honor of Professor Robert A. Maguire.
The award is meant to perpetuate Professor Maguire's legacy and to ensure that his name remains a prominent feature in the landscape of Slavic Studies at Columbia.
That Robert Maguire’s legacy should be associated with excellence seems more than appropriate. Robert Maguire's standards were the highest, and he held himself to them above all. Extraordinary language proficiency, scrupulous analysis of both the words on the page and the culture behind each word, inspired interpretation, and luminous writing were the hallmarks of his work. The Maguire Prize identifies these qualities with Robert Maguire and honors the remarkable students who attain them not only with a tangible award but by linking their names with his. Robert Maguire made the Columbia department one of the top Slavic departments in the country. By awarding a prize bearing his name to the top student in that department, we recognize both the student's achievements and Robert Maguire's.
Importantly, the Robert A. Maguire Prize will be available to students not only in Russian literature and not only in Slavic literatures more broadly, but also in the other disciplines that address those cultures. Robert Maguire himself was as accomplished in Polish as he was in Russian, and his commitment to music was as profound as his love of language and literature. Even beyond his own breadth, though, lies Robert Maguire's conviction that no single aspect of a culture exists in isolation; he team-taught courses with historians, he educated himself in Slavic religious culture, and he worked for years on the relationship between word and visual image. It is reasonable to assume that he would want a prize bearing his name to include rather than exclude the fields adjacent to his own.
Donate to the Robert A. Maguire Prize in Slavic Studies
Past recipients:
2023
Amelia Fay
Comparative Literature & Society
Russian Language & Culture
2022
Grace Clifford
Classics
Russian Literature & Culture
2021
Kendra Neumann
Human Rights
Russian Languages & Culture
2020
Greta Schatz
Russian Language & Literature
Linguistics
2019
Kristian Tonnessen
Russian Language & Culture
2018
Veniamin Gushchin
Comparative Literature & Society
2017
Alex Braslavsky
English
Russian Literature & Culture
2016
Max Daniel Lawton
Russian Language & Culture
2015
Paul Chouchana
Russian Language & Literature
2014
Anabel Bacon
Russian Literature & Culture
English
2013
Lia Friedman
Russian Literature & Culture
2012
Laura Mills
Slavic Studies
2011
Tanah Llewellyn Spencer
Slavic Studies
2010
Robyn Jensen
Russian Language & Literature
2009
Sierra Perez- Sparks
Russian Language & Culture
English
2008
John Tilden King
Russian Language & Culture
Linguistics
2007
Paul Stephen Sonne
Russian Language & Literature