SAE Graduate Student Paper Prize
Call for Entries for the 2026 Prize
The Society for the Anthropology of Europe (SAE) will accept entries for our annual Graduate Student Paper Prize by the extended deadline of May 30, 2026.
The winning author will receive a $400 award and will be matched with an established scholar in the field who is willing to help mentor their work towards possible publication. Through SAE’s collaboration with the journal Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale (https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/saas/saas-overview.xml), they will be offered the option for the paper to be peer-reviewed by the journal for possible publication.
Format
The evaluation of entries will be based on originality and contribution to the field of Europeanist Anthropology. The word limit is 7,000 words, including the abstract, main text, and references. Please number the pages and include a title page with the word count and your contact information. Rigorous and accurate citation practice is mandatory.
Since the intent of the competition is to recognize the human skills of emerging anthropologists, you should not use AI writing tools (such as ChatGPT) in the preparation of your essay (unless the essay is meant to explicitly engage such tools in a critical analysis). Any questions about this may be directed to the SAE special projects chair.
Manuscripts must be submitted in English (original or in translation) in a style appropriate for a manuscript in preparation for publication. It is recommended to follow format guidelines for Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale.
Eligibility
At the time of submission, authors must be graduate students (currently enrolled in Masters or PhD programs, or within one year of graduation) in Anthropology programs at universities anywhere in the world. There are no citizenship requirements. BIPOC, women, and LGBTQ+ scholars are encouraged to apply.
Entries must be received by the official deadline in order to be eligible. SAE will accept only one submission per person, and submissions will be considered only if they have not previously appeared in print or online. Academic honesty is essential. Any evidence of plagiarism or intellectual fraud, including the inappropriate use of AI writing tools, will immediately disqualify the submission from consideration.
Submission of entries
Interested graduate students should submit their work via email to Dr. Andrew Brandel, Chair of SAE Special Projects, by May 30, 2026. By sending in your entry, you confirm that the submission is your own, original, unassisted work which has not been published elsewhere, and that all sources are appropriately credited.
The cover page of your essay and the body of your email message should include:
1. Your full name and university affiliation
2. Title and word count of your essay
3. Your full email address and contact information
–Your email subject line should read: “SAE Student Paper Prize Submission 2025”
–Please attach your entry in PDF format and send to: abrandel@uchicago.edu
You should receive confirmation of receipt within three days; if not, kindly resend on the same email thread, which verifies the date of original submission. The review committee will inform candidates about the results of the competition in October.
Check out last year’s winners below!
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ANNOUNCING THE WINNERS OF THE SAE GRADUATE STUDENT PAPER PRIZE FOR 2024
The SAE Student Paper Prize for 2025 goes to Juliet Glazer, who recently earned her joint PhD in Music and Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania, for her essay, “Sensing Chronotopes: Curating Authenticity in Cremona”.
Honorable mention goes to Sharon Jacobs, who also recently earned her PhD in Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, for her paper, “People Who Carry the Label ‘Refugee’: Humanity and the politics of refugee solidarity in Athens, Greece”.
Our 2025 winners were selected Dr. Ismael Vaccaro and Dr. Levent Soysal, supported by Dr. Tracey Heatherington in the role of SAE Chair of Special Projects and Publications. We thank them sincerely for the generous contribution of their time to review all the entries. We also thank Dr. Eliot Bates of CUNY Graduate Center, who has accepted to mentor the prize winner in preparing her paper for submission to a peer review journal.
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PAST AWARDEES
2024 SAE Graduate Student Paper Prize:
Co-Winners
Allison Taylor Stuewe, PhD Candidate, School of Anthropology, University of Arizona, for the paper, “Competing Crises of Reproduction: Iraqi Yezidi Refugee Marriage Decisions in Germany”
and
Lara Şarlak, PhD Candidate, Department of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, for the paper, “When ‘Collecting’ Collides: Infrastructural Languages and the Dehumanisation of Migrant Recyclers”
2023 SAE Graduate Student Paper Prize:
Winner
Elspeth Davies “Living with Cancer Risk in the UK: New Notions of ‘Care’”
Honorable Mentions
Rim J. Irscheid, “The aftermath of German World Music: Affective Dimensions of Collaborative Cultural Productions across Berlin and Beirut”
Andreas Lekkos “Greening the Future: Land, Change, and the State on a Greek Island”
2021 SAE Graduate Student Paper Prize:
Winner
Céline Eschenbrenner, “The Sound of Difference: Mobility, Alterity and Sound at the French-Italian Border”
Runners-up
Emily Curtin, “Belarus in Motion: The Politics of Fitness in Contemporary Minsk”
April L. Reber, “When Middle-Class Talk Goes Underground: Conspiracy Talk, Authoritarian Spectres, and Speech Rights”
2020 SAE Graduate Student Paper Prize:
Winner
Kelly Alexander, “When Food Waste Goes to Work: The New Flavor of the E.U.’s Circular Economy “
Runner-Up
Antonio Montañes Jiménez, “‘Evangelical Gitanos are a Good Catch: Masculinity, Love, and Christianity in Spain”
Finalists
Tatiana Safonova, “Digging National Soil: The State, Private Gardens, and Corpses in a Hungarian Village”
Evy Vourlides, “Living with Regenerative Design: Examples of Economic Diversity from Austerity Greece”
Olivia Spalletta, “Transient care, disability, and belonging in the Danish welfare state”
