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Winners of the Ananda Coomaraswamy Prize

Congratulations to Dr Emily Pott for her winning essay (open category),'The Zaqqūm Tree.'

Dr Pott tutors at The Prince’s School of Traditional Arts in London. She gained her Bachelor of Arts with a major in Politics from The University of California at Berkeley in 1983. In 1999 and 2000 Emily worked at the Islamic Museum and Library in Al Haram al Sharif, Jerusalem, where she rescued, sorted and catalogued ceramic tiles dating from the 16th to 20th centuries originally used for the exterior decoration of the Dome of the Rock. In 2007 she was awarded her doctorate from the The University of Wales, through the Prince’s School of Traditional Arts, for her thesis, ‘The Dome of the Rock: Recognition of a Symbol.’ Emily hopes soon to find time to return to the workshop to continue her work with glazes and explore traditional forms in ceramics. Dr Pott's winning essay features in Eye of the Heart 3 (May 2009).
To read Dr Pott's essay click here

Congratulations to Mr Graeme Castleman for his winning essay (graduate category), ‘The Primordial in the Symbols and Theology of Baptism.’

Mr Castleman is a doctoral candidate at La Trobe University, Bendigo (Australia). His doctoral thesis explores the question of creatio ex nihilo in the Christian tradition. His essays have appeared in Sophia: The Journal of Traditional Studies ('Cosmogony and Salvation: The Christian Rejection of Uncreated Matter') and in Eye of the Heart ('Golgotha, Athens, Jerusalem: Patristic intimations of the religio perennis'). Mr Castleman's winning essay will feature in Eye of the Heart 4 (November 2009).

Each winner receives their choice of books from the catalogues of Fons Vitae Publishing and World Wisdom Books, up to the value of $400 (US).*

Eye of the Heart and the Philosophy and Religious Studies program would like to thank World Wisdom Books and Fons Vitae for their generous support of the Ananda Coomaraswamy Prize.