Committee Chair: Susan Twombly, Professor Emerita, University of Kansas, stwombly@ku.edu
Committee Members:
Anna Ortiz, California State University, Long Beach
Frankie Santos Laanan, University of Utah
Jerlando Jackson, Michigan State University
Call for Award Nominations – AERA Division J 2025-2026 Outstanding Publication Award
Division J of the American Educational Research Association seeks nominations for the Outstanding Publication Award. The purpose of this award is to bestow recognition on a colleague for a specific publication (book, book chapter, or journal article) judged as making a substantial contribution to the literature and/or practice of higher education. Publications may have more than one author, although edited texts are discouraged, and must have been published in the last 18 months. Self-nominations are welcomed.
A substantial contribution is defined as scholarship that extensively revises our knowledge and understanding of a particular problem in the study of postsecondary education or looks at it in a new way – a publication that moves the field forward in new ways. It may also be an interdisciplinary effort that identifies a problem new to the community of scholars in postsecondary education. When nominating a publication, including a self-nomination, please be sure to address the ways in which the publication makes a substantial contribution as defined above.
Each nomination packet should contain one letter of nomination; that letter may be written and signed by more than one person. Nominations received by November 14, 2025, 11:59pm CT will be considered.
Please send nomination letters and electronic copies of publications to Susan Twombly, Awards Committee Chair, at stwombly@ku.edu. The Division J Awards Committee is always considering new members. For more information, please contact Susan Twombly.
The Division will only bestow this award when a nomination reflects the exemplary level of accomplishment the award is intended to recognize; as such, an award may not be given every year.
Previous award winners:
2025: Dr. Lauren Schudde, University of Texas Austin and Dr. Huriya Jabbar, University of Southern California, Power, Privilege, and Community College Transfer.
Honorable Mention: Dr. Jessica C. Harris, University of California at Los Angeles, Hear Our Stories: Campus Sexual Violence, Intersectionality, and How to Build a Better University.
2024: Dr. Mayra Puente, University of California, Santa Barbara and Dr. Verónica N. Vélez, Western Washington University, Platicando y Mapeando: a Chicana/Latina feminist GIS methodology in educational research
2023: Dr. Mary Blair-Loy, University of California, San Diego and Dr. Erin A. Cech, University of Michigan, Misconceiving Merit: Paradoxes of Excellence and Devotion in Academic Science and Engineering
2022: Dr. Eddie R. Cole, University of California, Los Angeles, The Campus Color Line: College Presidents and the Struggle for Black Freedom
2021: Dr. Xueli Wang, University of Wisconsin–Madison, On My Own: The Challenge and Promise of Building Equitable STEM Transfer Pathways
2020: Leslie Gonzales, Dana Kanhai, & Kayon Hall, Michigan State University, Reimagining Organizational Theory for the Critical Study of Higher Education in M. Paulson (Ed), Higher Education Handbook of Theory and Research (2018)
2019: Nolan L. Cabrera, University of Arizona, White Guys on Campus: Racism, White Immunity, and the Myth of 'Post-Racial' Higher Education
2018: Jillian M. Duquaine-Watson, Mothering by Degrees: Single Mothers and the Pursuit of Postsecondary Education
2017: Z Nicolazzo, Trans* in College: Transgender Students' Strategies for Navigating Campus Life and the Institutional Policies of Inclusion.
2016: Ana Martínez Alemán, Brian Pusser, & Estela Bensimon, Critical Approaches to the Study of Higher Education
2015: Roger L. Geiger, History of American Higher Education: Learning and Culture From the Founding to World War II
2014: Elizabeth Armstrong & Laura Hamilton, Paying for the Party: How College Maintains Inequality
2013: Kelly Ward & Lisa Wolf-Wendel, Academic motherhood: How faculty manage work and family
2012: Robert A. Rhoads & Katalin Szelenyi, Global Citizenship and the University: Advancing Social Life and Relations in an Interdependent World
2010: Ann Mullen, University of Toronto, Degrees of Inequality: Culture, Class, and Gender in American Higher Education
2010: Bruce Kimball, The Ohio State University, The Inception of Modern Professional Education: C.C. Langdell, 1826-1906
2009: Saran Donohoe, Reflections on Race: Affirmative Action Policies Influencing Higher Education in France and the United States
2008: Marybeth Gasman, Envisioning Black Colleges: A History of the United Negro College fund; Honorable Mention: Attewell & Lavin, Passing the Torch; Honorable Mention: Bess & Dee, Understanding College and University Organization
2007: Bailey & Morest, Defending the Community College Equity Agenda; Moses & Marin, Moving Beyond Grazt and Grutter: The Next Generation of Research
2005: Elizabeth Allan, Constructing Women's Status: Policy Discourses of University Women's Commissions, and Brian Pusser, Beyond Baldridge: Extending the Political Model of Higher Education Organization and Governance