Light
The Metropole/Urban History Association Graduate Student Blogging Contest, now in its ninth year, exists to support graduate students in exploring short form, publicly-oriented writing in history as a way to teach beyond the classroom, develop marketable skills, and promote the enduring value of the humanities.
This year’s theme is Light
We are looking for blog posts that approach urban history from any of a number of facets, including but not limited to: urban lighting infrastructure; light pollution; the concept of a “city of lights”; electric/neon/LED signage and urban identity; metaphorical invocations of light in the form of “lightbulb moments” in urban history; urban cultural practices around lanterns, candles, bonfires; cities at latitudes that experience prolonged periods without darkness; cities serving as points of light for various issues and events; and more.
We encourage contributors to take full advantage of the blog format in terms of writing that is rigorous yet approachable to a general audience and in terms of enhancing the immediacy of your topic by including images, using hyperlinks in addition to footnotes, and potentially including audiovisual materials (original, copyright free, or with permission).
All submissions that meet the criteria below will be accepted. Metropole editors will work with entrants to refine their submissions and prepare them for publication. Entries will be reviewed by a panel of esteemed historians and the winner will receive a certificate and $150 prize!
The deadline for entries is Friday, July 18th, 2025. Entries must be emailed to [email protected]. Posts will run on the blog in August and September, and the winner will be announced in October.
We look forward to what will undoubtedly be an illuminating round of entries!
Contest Guidelines
- Contest entrants must be enrolled in a graduate program.
- Contest entrants must be members of the UHA. A one-year membership for graduate students costs $25 and includes free online access to the Journal of Urban History.
- Contest submissions must be original posts not published elsewhere on the web.
- Contest submissions must be related to the theme of “Light.” Essays can be about original research, historiography (but not book reviews), or methodology.
- We encourage entrants to read Lessons Learned From Three Years of the Blogging Contest, a digest of qualities that have made past blog posts stand out.
- Posts must be received at [email protected] by Friday, July 11th, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. EST to be eligible.
- Posts should be at least 700 words, and not exceed 2000 words.
- Links of footnotes must be used to properly attribute others’ scholarship, reporting, images, and media. The Metropole follows the Chicago Manual of Style for citation formatting.
Featured image (at top): Sunset on the Potomac. Sunset on water, Theodor Horydczak, between 1920 and 1950, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.
