John Cooper Memorial Prize
By Enquiries
studies in religion the University of sydney
In Descending Date Order
2019 Postgraduate Prize
Jewell Homad Johnson — Kandinsky and the Immaterial Frame Methodology
2018 Undergraduate Prize
Alana Bowden — The Limits of Ritual and the Sacred in Secular Arts Practice at the Dark Mofo Festival
2017 Undergraduate Prize
Judith Howard — What is the role attributed to Ancient Egypt by Western Esoteric traditions? Discuss with reference to Freemasonry.
Adam Smith — What is the role attributed to ancient Egypt by Western Esoteric traditions? Discuss with reference to The Theosophical Society.
2017 Honours Prize
Tara Smith — Theosophy on the Air Waves: 2GB Radio from the 1920s to the 1930s (Religion Funding Application Mock Research Task)
2016 Undergraduate Prize
Jackson Clement — Could Clement of Alexandria be Considered a Gnostic?
2016 BA (Hons) Prize
Giselle Bader— Mind-Body Dualism in the "Apocryphon of Jon"
2015 Undergraduate Prize
Giselle Bader — The Role of Magic and Religion in the Domestic Sphere of Ancient Egyptian Life
2015 Postgraduate Prize
Alan M. Boag — Concealed and Revealed: Madame Blavatsky’s “Lost Word” Key and Esoteric Eschatology in the Teachings of J. Krishnamurti
2014 Undergraduate Prize
Sophie Morstyn — Sex and Religion in Wicca and Raelianism
2014 Postgraduate Prize
Mario Baghos —Eternal Cities: Rome, Constantinople, and their antecedents as symbolic images and centres of the world
2013 Undergraduate Prize
James Thorpe— Christians and Amulets in Early Medieval Byzantium
2013 Postgraduate Prize
Dominique Beth Wilson —Shaman, Sage, Priest, Prophet and Magician – Exploring the Architecture of the Religious Wise Man
2012 Undergraduate Prize
Vivien Cinque —Choose one Hindu pilgrimage site that was active during the Classical period and discuss its significance (or lack thereof) to cosmology and/or the divine
2012 Postgraduate Prize
Johanna Petsche — Music For Remembering: The Gurdjieff-De Hartmann Music and its Esoteric Significance
2011 Undergraduate Prize
Michael Deegan — Sethian Gnosticism: Issues in its History and Teachings
2011 Postgraduate Prize (M.A. Thesis)
Yahya R. Haidar — Thinking Without Religion – Religion, Essence and Existence
2010 Undergraduate Prize
Sally James — Gender is Everywhere: Body, Gender and the Environment in Australian Indigenous Religious Traditions
2010 Senior Prize
A. M. Boag — From Being God to Being Human: Biblical Influences in the Teachings of J. Krishnamurti
2010 Postgraduate Prize
Alex Norman — Spiritual Tourism – Secular Examination of the Self in the Mirror of Religious Practice
2009 Undergraduate Prize
Samuel Meenahan — How can desire be understood to disable and enable relations with the Sacred?
2008 Undergraduate Prize
George Ionnides — The Goddess in the Hindu Tradition
Elli Grien — Religion and the Body
Carly Barton — What is the relationship of Western sex magic and Hindu Tantric traditions?
2008 Honors Prize
Paul Terracini — Religion in Akbar’s India 1556-1605
2007 Undergraduate Prize
Venetia Robertson — What is Gnosticism?
Stephanie Majcher — Wayang: The Development and Cultural Adaptation of Islamic Ritual
2007 Postgraduate Prize
Glenys Eddy (PhD thesis) — Western Buddhist Experience: The Journey from Encounter to Commitment in Two Forms of Western Buddhism
2006 Undergraduate Prize
Sabrina Khan— Doing the Beautiful: Expressions of a Mystical Quest
Suzanne Langford — Examine the Pseudo-History of Feminist Witchcraft
2006 Postgraduate Prize
Annabel Carr — Grounding the Angels: An Attempt to Harmonise Science and Spiritism in the Celestial Conferences of John Dee
2005 Postgraduate Prize
David Kim — The Community Rules of Thomas: A Social Reading of the “Fifth Gospel”
Julian Droogan — Esoteric Hermeneutics
2004 Undergraduate Prize
Frances di Lauro — "The Noblest Conception of That Age": Conceiving Dante’s Purgatorio (1308-1312) in the Twentieth Century
Dominique Wilson — The Creation and Function of Mythic Histories in Esoteric Movements, and their Relationship to Popular Culture
2004 Postgraduate Prize
David Pecotic (PhD Thesis) — Body and Correspondence in G.I. Gurdjieff’s Beezlebub’s Tales to His Grandson: A Case Study in the Construction of Categories in the Study of Esotericism
2003 Undergraduate Prize
Shannon Hughes — Seyyed Hossein Nasr and the Perennial Philosophy
2003 Postgraduate Prize
Christopher Hartney — The Divine Path to Eternal Life
2002 Undergraduate Prize
Sarah Penicker —The Syncretics of Mistletoe: A Study of Love and Tree Worship in Germanic Myth and Religion
2002 Postgraduate Prize
Julian Droogan (Honours thesis) — A Lotus Floating on the Sea of Dissolution, The Symbolism of Pre-urban Earthworks from First Millennium BCE North India
2001 Undergraduate Prize
Ian Drummond —Landscapes of Power and Transformation: the Question of Religious Syncretism in Tibetan Buddhism
Sarah Penicker — ‘The Golden Apple’ (concerning the spiritual significance of plants to the ancient Celts)
2001 Postgraduate Prize
David Pecotic, PhD candidate —Gurdjieff and the Fourth Way: Giving Voice to Further Alterity in the Study of Western Esotericism
2000 Undergraduate Prize
Frances Di Lauro — Essay on philosophical and religious Daoism
2000 Postgraduate Prize
Paris Mawby — The Kingdom is Within: Religious Themes and Postmodernity in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner