Vera Anstey Essay 2024-25

'She was very good at games and very good in the social life of the School. What she saw in that fool Anstey I never could make out. She could buy and sell him & live by the profit in two seconds.'

~ Lilian Knowles, Professor of Economic History, to Director Professor William Beveridge, recommending Vera’s hire at LSE, in 1921.

TOPIC: 'SAARC should be Revived to make South Asia a Global Powerhouse'

DEADLINE: 31 March 2025, 1700 hrs

ELIGIBILITY

The competition is open to ALL registered, full-time LSE Masters students in any course/department (including MRes, One-year Executive Masters & Joint-Masters). You do not have to be studying South Asia-related courses/modules to enter this essay competition.

Please ensure that your essay is on the topic mentioned above; please do not submit your coursework essay for this competition.

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR ESSAY

Essays should be an original piece of writing, and not something that you have submitted as coursework or published elsewhere on any other platform.
Essays should be between 800-1,200 words (max), and should be written in English.

Send your essay to Deputy Director Dr Nilanjan Sarkar at southasiacentre@lse.ac.uk with a covering sheet mentioning your name, course and LSE Student ID number.

Please do not mention your name anywhere in the essay.

PRIZE

Waterstones Book Vouchers worth £250.
Publication of winning essay in the ‘South Asia @ LSE’ blog.

WINNING ESSAYS

2023-24: Zaid Ahmed Abro (LSE Masters in International Social and Public Policy), 'Polling Agents: An Unlikely Agent for Development in South Asia' (for the topic 'Politics is a Barrier to Social Change in South Asia').
2022-23: Shaurya Dev (LSE Masters in International Relations), 'What could "Decolonisation" mean for Contemporary South Asia?'.
2021-22: Elias Khoury (LSE Masters in Public Policy & Administration), 'South Asia: A Frontier for Sustainability on a Dying Planet' (for the topic 'How can South Asia Contribute to Global Development?').
2020-21: Ritika Arora-Kukreja (LSE MRes/PhD in International Development), 'The Threat of Consent' (for the topic 'What is the Biggest Challenge facing South Asia in the Next 10 Years?').