Paper awards are now closed for 2026. Please join us at the business meeting during the conference to learn more about the winning papers, and keep an eye out in Fall 2026 for the upcoming call for awards. More details in the FAQ below.
2025
Best Graduate Student Paper Award: Joyce Kim, “A Moral Dilemma of ‘Selling Out’: Race, Class, and Career Considerations Among Elite College Students,” published in Social Problems [link]
Best Post-PhD Paper Award (tie): Marissa Thompson, “The Effect of Academic Outcomes, Equity, and Student Demographics on Parental Preferences for Schools: Evidence from a Survey Experiment,” published in Social Forces [link]
Best Post-PhD Paper Award (tie): Rowhea Elmesky and Olivia Marcucci, “Beyond Cultural Mismatch Theories: The Role of Antiblackness in School Discipline and Social Control Practices,” published in American Educational Research Journal [link]
2024
Best Graduate Student Paper Award: Kazi Md Mukitul Islam and M. Niaz Asadullah, “Do Not Judge a Book by Its Cover: Gender Stereotypes and the Politcs of Textbook Production in Afghanistan”
Best Post-PhD Paper Award: Nicole A. Perez and Jorge Ballinas, “From Undeserving to Deserving: Undocumented Students’ Resistance to Being Shut Out in the Transition to College,” published in New Directions for Higher Education [link]
2023
Audrey Schwartz Service to SEA Award: Karly Sarita Ford
Best Graduate Student Paper Award: Greer Mellon and Bonnie Siegler, “New Experimental Evidence on Anti-Asian Bias in White Parents’ School Preferences,” published in Sociology of Education [link]
Best Post-PhD Paper Award: Joel Mittelman, “Intersecting the Academic Gender Gap: The Education of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual America,” published in American Sociological Review [link]
Best Post-PhD Paper Award Runner Up: Patrick Denice, “Spatial Mismatch and the Share of Black, Hispanic, and White Students Enrolled in Charter Schools,” published in Sociology of Education [link]
2022
Audrey Schwartz Service to SEA Award: Irina Chukray and Audrey Devine Eller
Best Graduate Student Paper Award: Roger Cadena, “Leftist Propaganda or Racial Reification? Toward a DuBoisian Analysis of Racial Ideologies and the Formal Curriculum,” published in Sociology Compass [link]
Best Post-PhD Paper Award: Chantal Hailey, “Racial Preferences for Schools: Evidence from an Experiment with White, Black, Latinx, and Asian Parents and Students,” published in Sociology of Education [link]
Award Details
We are pleased to offer two best paper awards to recognize the exemplary scholarship conducted by our members. We offer two paper awards: Best Graduate Student Paper Award and Best Post-PhD Paper Award. The purpose of these awards is to celebrate two papers in the genre of sociology of education that we can briefly recognize and discuss at the annual conference. We look forward to recommending these papers (and the runners-up) over our listserv and social media as well as giving the authors a small cash prize. Submissions are due each fall.
Am I eligible to submit for the Graduate Student Outstanding Paper Award?
If you were a graduate student at any time between December 1, 2025 and December 1, 2026, you may submit to this award for the February 2027 conference. If your degree was conferred before December 1, 2025, please submit to the post-PhD paper award. The Graduate Student Outstanding Paper submission may be published or unpublished. Submissions are typically due in the late fall before the conference.
Am I eligible to submit for the Post-PhD Outstanding Paper Award?
If you have a PhD (or will have a PhD by the time of the 2027 conference), you are welcome to submit to this award. For the 2027 conference, Post-PhD Outstanding Paper submissions must have been published (or accepted for publication) in a peer-reviewed journal between 1/1/2025 and 12/1/2026. Submissions are typically due in the late fall before the conference.
How are papers selected?
A committee of SEA board members will evaluate all entries according to the following criteria:
- Content
- Originality
- Structure and Organization
- Importance/Relevance of the work to the mission of the Sociology of EducationvAssociation: to advance the field of sociology of education; to foster intellectualvexchange and social relationships among its members; and to serve the professionalvand scientific needs of people engaged in the field of sociology of education.
How should my submission be formatted?
Submissions should be complete papers (similar to submissions to a journal: abstract, intro, methods/data, results, discussion & conclusion, references). Submissions should be double-spaced and submitted as a PDF. The submitting applicant must indicate their name, title of paper submitted, institution, status (e.g., graduate student or post-PhD), and preferred email address and phone number on the Google form.
I’m sold. How do I submit?
Submissions are no longer being accepted for the February 2026 convening; please join us at the business meeting at the conference in February to learn more about this year’s winners! Submissions for 2027 will be due in late Fall 2026. Keep an eye on our newsletter and website for more information.
Sociology of Education Association 