AIDS and Anthropology Research Group Prizes (Deadline: Sept. 15)

SMA’s AIDS and Anthropology Research Group (AARG) seeks submissions for three prizes:

  1. AARG Clark Taylor Professional Paper Prize, for a paper authored by one or more professionals. Clark Taylor conducted research on sexuality and men who have sex with men. He was one of the first anthropologists to become actively involved in safer sex interventions and involving anthropology in HIV/AIDS programs;
  2. AARG Graduate Student Prize, for a paper authored by one or more graduate students; and
  3. AARG Ray Bucko, SJ, Undergraduate Student Prize, for a paper authored by one or more undergraduate students.

The recipients of the awards will be selected by the Service Award Committee and the Paper Prize Committee, respectively. The awards consist of a $100 honorarium, a plaque signifying the receipt of the award, and a presentation ceremony at the business meeting of the AARG at the annual meeting of the AAA in November. If we have three paper prizes in a single year then each prize recipient will receive $50.00. Submissions for the 2013 competition should be sent to David Turkon (dturkon@ithaca.edu) by September 15, 2013.

Papers are evaluated according to the following criteria:

  1. Potential contributions to the literature/policy/direct impact on HIV/AIDS prevention and/or treatment
  2. Originality of argument and/or data analysis
  3. Relevance of cultural, ethnic, gender and/or sexual orientation issues
  4. Justified use of methods (when applicable)
  5. Theoretical approach (when applicable)
  6. Attention to previous research
  7. Presentation–grammar, style, etc.
  8. Suitability for submission to peer reviewed journals or other professional publications (including newsletters, monographs, etc.)

If a paper submission is a published paper, this cannot have been published more than one year ago. While all papers are judged in terms of the same criteria, judges will exercise reasonable judgment in separately assessing undergraduate student, graduate student and professional level submissions. In other words, undergraduate student submissions will not be judged against graduate student or professional submissions, and so forth. The goal of these criteria is to support the development of the highest quality submissions at all levels, while fairly judging each level of submission in terms of reasonable standards for years of experience in the field. Members of the AARG Steering Committee and previous winners of the awards will not be eligible for consideration.