Pakistan Prize
The $100 Pakistan Prize is given annually to the best essay written by an Institute of Islamic Studies student regardless of level (undergraduate/graduate) on any aspect of Islam, preferably South Asia-related. The Prize was established at the Institute of Islamic Studies in 1982—before the Urdu Chair was created. In a memo dated March 23, 1982 to the Associate Dean of Fellowships and Exchanges (Faculty of Graduate Studies), IIS Director Prof. Donald Little wrote,
It is my pleasure to inform you that through the auspices of the Embassy of Pakistan in Ottawa, the Government of Pakistan has donated the sum of $1500 to the Institute of Islamic Studies in order to establish an annual prize for an essay written by a student at the Institute.
While I do not have a full record of the winners of the Pakistan Prize from 1982–2012, since my arrival at the Institute, it has been given in honour of many truly formidable papers. Here is a partial list:
| Year | Recipient | Essay Title |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Mikal Samir Nazarani | Narratives of Belonging |
| 2024 | Lavinia Auhoma | Māner Mānush: Unveiling The "Syncretic" Tradition of the Baul-Fakirs of Bengal |
| 2023 | Sajneet Mangat | "Jahangirian" Punishment: Ethics, Execution, and Guru Arjan |
| 2022 | Hassan Syed Zaidi | Self, Language, and Salvation: Khayrābādī’s Autobiographical Writings |
| 2021 | Sumaira Nawaz | The Public Role of Islam: A Case Study of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad’s Newspaper al-Hilāl (1912-1914) |
| 2020 | Bee Khaleeli | "If You Don’t Have a Mother, How Can You Come to Exist?": Kinship, Sexual Commerce, and Gender Deviance in Colonial India |
| 2019 | Shehrbano Niazi | Sufism, Politics, and Class Dynamics in Pakistan |
| 2018 | Jacob Steen Westermann | Sekandar and Foor: Ingenuity and Historical Context in Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh |
| 2017 | Zain Ahmad | Sufi Shrines in South Asia: Women's Agencies and Presence in Religious Spaces in the 21st Century |
| 2016 | Sivan Black-Rotchkin | Animals and Legacy Building in the Jahāngīrnama |
| 2015 | Jessica Stilwell | A Perfect Inheritance: Influence and Synthesis in Muhammad Iqbal’s Discourse on Ideal Humanity |