ECSR Prize for best PhD thesis

Rules and Guidelines for the submission of entries for the ECSR prize for ECSR Dissertation of the Year

The thesis must have been examined and been deemed to have passed between 1 January and 31 December each year. However, the doctorate need not have been officially conferred during this period.

Each ECSR full member institution can nominate ONLY ONE candidate for the prize. The candidacy must come via the ECSR official contact person or the Head of Department (or equivalent) of each member institution. Only full member institutions can nominate candidates for the prize, and the thesis nominated must have been submitted at that institution or at an affiliated university that grants the PhD.
The prize will be awarded to the best theoretically based empirical study in sociology.

Submissions for the Prize should be made in PDF format to ecsrphdprize@gmail.com by 5 February each year. Given the transformation period, the deadline will be moved to March, 5 in 2024.

The submission must comprise (as separate PDFs in attachment):

  1. an abstract in English of no more than 2000 words, outlining the main arguments of the work. The abstract should outline:
    a. the subject of the thesis;
    b. its main findings and arguments;
    c. its principal conclusions;
  2. the table of contents of the thesis, in English.

These documents will be used to select a short-list of three candidates. The authors of the short-listed theses will be asked to provide an electronic copy of their complete thesis so that the jury can make a decision regarding the assignation of the Prize.

The Jury

The shortlisting will be made by the Executive Board of the ECSR consortium. The selection among the short-listed theses will be made by a jury that comprises a chair (appointed among the members of the ECSR board) plus two external members appointed among the member institutions. Where there is a short-listed thesis in a language in which the members of the jury lack appropriate competence, the ECSR Board will recruit an additional member with appropriate competence.

Prize Announcement

The winner of the prize will be announced at the annual ECSR conference. If it is deemed that no thesis reaches an acceptable standard, the committee may decline to award the prize in any given year. The successful candidate will be awarded a prize of Euro 500. The candidate will receive the prize at the ECSR’s Annual General Conference. Expenses to attend the prize giving will be paid for by the ECSR following the ECSR regulations/restrictions on travel and accommodation costs.

Winner of 2024

1st place: Alicia García-Sierra: Three Novel Mechanisms of Intergenerational Transmission of (Dis)Advantages

2nd place: Adrian Farner Rogne: Assessing theories and mechanisms in sociology: Insights from empirical studies on segregation, education, fertility, and class

3rd place: Bettina Hünteler: Generational Placement Trajectories and Their Associations with Later-Life Well-Being and Wealth Accumulation

Former winners

YearNameThesis title
2024


WINNER:
Alicia García-Sierra

RUNNER UPS:
Adrian Farner Rogne


Bettina Hünteler

Three Novel Mechanisms of Intergenerational Transmission of (Dis)Advantages


Assessing theories and mechanisms in sociology: Insights from empirical studies on segregation, education, fertility, and class

Generational Placement Trajectories and Their Associations with Later-Life Well-Being and Wealth Accumulation
2023WINNER:
Dragana Stojmenovska

RUNNER UPS:
Aleja Rodríguez Sánchez

Solveig Topstad Borgen

Men’s place. The Incomplete Integration of Women in Workplace Authority



Family Behavior and Children’s Wellbeing: Statistical Modeling and Measurement Issues


Segregated School Contexts, Peer Effects, and Inequalities in Education
2022WINNER:
Jesper Fels Birkelund

RUNNER UPS:
Zafer Büyükkeçeci


Kirsten van Houdt

Lives on track – Family Background, educational tracking, and inequality over the life cycle


Social Interaction Effects on Family Life Courses: The Social Contagion of Family Formation in Four Network Domains

Stepfamilies in Adulthood
2021WINNER:
Carlos J. Gil Hernández

RUNNER UPS:
Patrick McDonald

Volker Lang

Cracking Meritocracy from the Starting Gate: Social Inequality in Skill Formation and School Choice



Family and employment: The impact of marriage and children on labour market outcomes

Response Behavior in Factorial Survey Experiments: Challenges and Innovative Solutions
2020WINNER:
Felix Busch

RUNNER UPS:
Jonas Voßemer


Tina Baier

Gender segregated labor markets and social inequality between occupations


The economic and non-economic consequences of job loss, unemployment, and inadequate re-employment in Germany and Europe

What have genes got to do with it?
2019WINNER:
Zachary Van Winkle

RUNNER UPS:
Arjen de Wit

Gundula Zoch


The complexity of family life courses in 20th century Europe and the United States


Philanthropy in the welfare state

Expanding Public Childcare Services for Under-threes

2018*WINNERS:
Anne Christine Holtmann

Ridhi Kashyap

Why are children from disadvantaged families left behind


The dynamics of prenatal sex selection and excess female child mortality in contexts with son preference

2017*

WINNERS:
Mareike Bünning

Lars Leszczensky


Parental leave for fathers: Consequences for men’s work and family life

Tell Me Who Your Friends Are? Disentangling the Interplay of Young Immigrants’ Host Country Identification and Their Friendships with Natives

2016
WINNER:
Antonie Knigge

Sources of sibling similarity. Status attainment in the Netherlands during modernization
2015*WINNERS:
Mathieu Ichou


Valentina Di Stasio

The origins of academic inequalities: a contribution to the study of the academic trajectories of children of immigrants in France and England

Why education matters to employers. A vignette study in Italy, England and the Netherlands
2014WINNER:
Jenny Torssander

Equality in death? How the social positions of individuals and families are linked to mortality
2013WINNER:
Nicoletta Balbo

Family, friends and fertility

* Due to the exceptionally high quality of two PhD theses in this year, the prize was shared by two nominees.