CUAA Best Graduate Student Paper Prize 2025

The Critical Urban Anthropology Association (CUAA) is pleased to announce the 2025 Graduate Student Paper Prize competition. We are seeking papers that address CUAA’s concern with the interaction among urban, national, and transnational processes. This concern includes, but is not limited to, topics such as urban life, space and place, poverty and homelessness, infrastructure, urban governance, social movements, security and surveillance, refugees and immigration. We are especially interested in papers that draw on primary ethnographic research. The prize includes a cash award of $300, and the winner will be announced at the 2025 AAA meeting in New Orleans. The recipient of the award will be encouraged to revise their paper for submission to City & Society where it will undergo the standard peer review process.

Any author who is currently enrolled in a graduate program or who graduated in the 2025 calendar year is eligible for the competition if their submission was composed while they were enrolled in school. International entries are strongly encouraged, but papers must be submitted in English. Please note that submissions cannot be under review for publication in a journal or edited volume.

Papers should be formatted as follows: 5,000-7,000 words including bibliography, or no more than a total 30 pages double-spaced, including bibliography and images; images should be embedded in the text as .gif or .jpg files; citations/references should be consistent with Chicago style. The submission itself should be a Word document.

Submissions must be received by Friday, September 26th, 2025. They should be emailed to: Claire Panetta (cdpanett@sewanee.edu) and Marta-Laura Haynes (mhaynes@jjay.cuny.edu). Please use the same contact information for queries about the award.

CUAA looks forward to your contribution.