The Journal of Southern Religion offers a prize to a graduate student who submits the best article published during the calendar year. Named in honor of southern religious historian and JSR advisory board member Dr. Sam Hill, the Hill Award includes a selection of books from major presses and a one-year honorary membership on the journal's editorial board.  The award is generously sponsored by Harvard University Press, the University of Kentucky Press, and the University of North Carolina Press.

Sam Hill Award Winner

2001 Matthew Day, Brown University, for "Flannery O'Connor and the Southern Code of Manners"

2002 Randall J. Stephens, University of Florida, for "'There is Magic in Print': The Holiness-Pentecostal Press and the Origins of Southern Pentecostalism"

2007-2009 John Hayes, Wake Forest, "Hard, Hard Religion: The Invisible Institution of the New South"