Background

This award honors the name of distinguished sociologist Karl F. Schuessler, whose long-time involvement with this department as student, professor, mentor, director of the Institute that now bears his name, and chair did much to establish our reputation as a community of productive and consequential researchers. The prize is designed to sustain this emphasis on research among current graduate students by celebrating excellence in a piece of written work.

Eligibility

This competition is open to any student enrolled in the graduate program in Sociology at Indiana University. Submissions are not limited to any particular substantive topic, methodology, or theoretical orientation. Schuessler Award recipients are expected to give an oral presentation of their prize-winning research at an appropriate workshop or other departmental forum. Papers that do not win the Award on their first try may be resubmitted (with or without revision) in following years.

Award

Recipients will receive a cash award (the amount will vary). If two recipients are chosen, both will receive the full monetary amount available. It is not required that the Schuessler Award be given in every academic year.

Materials to submit

Students should submit a published paper or unpublished manuscript that conforms to the following conditions:

1. the work must be of sufficient scope and length to allow the committee to assess its contribution to sociological knowledge (journal-article length)
2. submissions may be published papers, manuscripts under review or being readied for submission, talks delivered at department workshops or professional meetings, or papers prepared for a course
3. full-length and unrevised Master's theses and dissertations are not eligible, but papers based on research conducted for a thesis or dissertation may be submitted
4. papers coauthored with faculty members (at IU or elsewhere) are not eligible
5. papers with solo authorship and those coauthored with other graduate students are eligible, but if the collaborator is at another university, the first author must be enrolled at Indiana University

Criteria for selection

Excellence of the research manuscript in terms of its contribution to sociological knowledge.

Application deadline

The deadline to apply is March 25. Submit the paper electronically to the graduate secretary as a single PDF file. Selection of the recipient (s) will be made by the Schuessler Award Committee. All decisions of the committee are final. Recipients will be announced at the spring awards ceremony in April. If you have questions, please contact the chair of the selection committee or the director of graduate studies.

Contact the graduate secretary