HRC PGR poster competition 2026

Win a prize with your research!

The Humanities Research Centre (HRC) runs a poster competition, which gives PGR students (PhD, MRes, MPhil) in the arts and humanities the opportunity to test their skills in communicating their research beyond their own discipline. Plus, you’ll be in with the chance to win a Cash Prize!

Why enter?

Producing a poster (HRC Poster Design Tips) can be a very useful way of sharing your research and finding new ways of explaining your project not only to others, but also to yourself.
It will also give you practical experience in communicating your research in an accessible and eye catching format to different audiences. Think beyond the traditional 'scientific' poster we see at conferences, and instead consider how you can use your creative skills to engage wider audiences, including beyond academia.
The competition is a great way to learn more about our interdisciplinary research community, make contact with people working in cognate areas, whilst discovering more about the huge and exciting range of postgraduate arts and humanities research projects being carried out at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities.

Who is eligible to enter?

Any current PGR (PhD, MRes, MPhil) student from the Departments of Archaeology, English, History, History of Art, Philosophy, Language and Linguistic Science, School of Arts and Creative Technologies, York School of Architecture, Centre for Medieval Studies, and Centre for Women’s Studies, may enter. The only students not eligible are the winners from last year's poster competition.

Judging and exhibition

The competition will be judged by a panel of staff members from the Faculty and representing different disciplines and rolesand we will display the printed posters at a celebratory event in HG/21 on 2 December 1.30pm All participants will receive detailed feedback after the event. We want to make sure this is a constructive, fun event and that everyone takes something away from participating. Lunch and refreshments will be provided. All submitted posters will be exhibited.

Entry requirements

Please submit an A2 size PDF poster to hrc-admin@york.ac.uk by Wednesday 25 November 2026 12pm.

As a Faculty of Arts and Humanities we embrace and celebrate human creativity and we would love you to use your skills to present your ideas as you see fit. Generative AI is not allowed. Also, do make sure you credit the sources of your images, even if they are yours, make sure you credit yourself.

You are not able to submit the exact same poster from one year to the next. However, if you participated last year and received feedback from the panel we very much welcome you to take the feedback on board, adapt your poster accordingly and submit a new version that takes that feedback into consideration.

Don’t forget to include your name in the poster!

If you’d like some inspiration, previous winning entries can be found on the HRC web pages.

The Humanities Research Centre

Heslington Hall, University Road, York, YO10 5DD

Email: hrc-admin@york.ac.uk

Poster design resources

For inspiration, check out our previous HRC poster competition winners.

The Electronic Textuality and Theory Group's blog at Western University gives tips on designing posters for the arts and humanities.

The American Historical Association also gives some tips on why and how to design an effective humanities poster, as well as a post from the winner of their 2015 poster competition on why they found presenting a poster at a conference useful.

Try these tips from blogger Colin Purrington. The blog mainly focuses on academic posters for specialist conferences, but many of their tips are also applicable to posters designed for non-specialist audiences.

View previous winning poster designs

Finalists for our 2025 poster competition

We look forward to receiving your entries!