CFP: The Peirce Essay Prize

For the 30th year in a row, the Charles S. Peirce Society is accepting submissions for an essay prize meant to promote the work of a junior scholar. The 2026-2027 Peirce Essay Prize offers a $1,000 cash prize plus up to $1,000 for travel to the Society’s annual meeting to present the winning essay, as well as its publication (subject to editorial revisions) in the Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society. 

Deadline: September 30, 2026

Length: Because the winning essay may be published in the Transactions, the length of the submitted essay should be about the length of an average journal article. The maximum length is 10,000 words, including notes. The presentation of the winning essay at the annual meeting cannot exceed 30 minutes reading time.

Open to: Graduate students and those who are no more than seven years out from the year they earned their last graduate degree, or ten years for those who had extenuating circumstances (e.g. childbirth); please note the extenuating circumstance in the email submission. Past winners of the prize are ineligible. Joint submissions are allowed provided that all authors satisfy the eligibility requirements. The essay may be in any language, provided a 1,000-word summary of it’s argument, written in English, is supplied. The presentation of the paper must be in English and the paper must be translated it into English for publication in the Transactions. Submitted essays must not be under consideration for publication elsewhere.

Advice to Entrants: The winning essay will make a genuine contribution to our understanding of Peirce’s work or its relevance. Therefore, entrants should become familiar with relevant work on or related to Peirce to date and take care to locate their views in relation to that work. Also, scholarly work on Peirce frequently benefits from explicit consideration of the chronological development of his views. 

A.I. Statement: Since the aim is to publish the winning essay in the Transactions, submissions should follow the AI policy of the journal, which includes that all use of AI and related machine-learning technologies must be disclosed at the time of submission. We ask entrants to do the same in the submission of their essay to the Peirce Society for consideration for the essay prize.

Submission Instructions: Submitted essays should be prepared for anonymous evaluation. Authors should be sure to remove any identifying information from their document properties. Submissions should be emailed to [email protected] and should include (a) complete contact information, including mailing address and phone numbers, either in the body of the email or in a cover letter, (b) the submitted essay, (c) a CV or statement showing that the entrant meets the eligibility requirements, and (d) Disclosure of any AI use (see above). Any documents should be submitted as email attachments (MS Word or PDF files only). Please include “Peirce Essay Prize Submission” in the subject line of your email.