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.

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