Committee Chair (2024-26): Roy Y. Chan, rchan@leeuniversity.edu
Committee Members:
Linda DeAngelo, University of Pittsburgh
Antonio Duran, Arizona State University
JoHyun (Jo) Kim, Texas A&M University
Please consider nominating a student for the AERA Division J – Postsecondary Education Outstanding Dissertation Award. The emphasis of this award is on recognizing a doctoral student who, through the dissertation work:
- advances knowledge in higher education, broadly defined;
- makes innovative use of research methods, extending the approaches available to conducting research in our field;
- integrates relevant research and theory into the research;
- suggests particularly insightful implications for improving practice (for EdD dissertations), or generates and/or extends theory in potentially useful ways for researchers, policymakers, and/or practitioners (for PhD dissertations); and
- produces a well-written and well-organized dissertation.
The dissertation must be completed and have degrees conferred between August 2024 and July 2025. All candidates must be current AERA members and plan to attend the AERA 2026 Annual Meeting in Los Angeles, CA. To nominate someone for this award, please submit a letter of recommendation from the dissertation chair (up to 1,000 words) and a dissertation abstract (up to 2,000 words) at rchan@leeuniversity.edu. Self-nominations are welcomed.
Please review 2025-2026 AERA Division J Dissertation of the Year Award Rubric (PDF)
2026 Award Nomination Deadline: November 1, 2025
Please direct any questions to Dr. Roy Y. Chan at rchan@leeuniversity.edu, Chair of the AERA Division J Outstanding Dissertation Award Committee.
Previous award winners:
2025: Dr. Joseph Romero-Reyes, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Cultivating and Activating Assets in the Vertical Transfer Journey of First-Generation and Low-Income Men of Color in Community College; Dr. Ellen Bryer, University of Pennsylvania, Navigating Credentials, Loans, and Value: Pathways To and Through Graduate Education
2024: Ty McNamee, Columbia University, The Cultural Transition Into and Navigation of Higher Education for Rural Students from Poor and Working-class Backgrounds; Honorable Mention: Stephen Hiller, Indiana University Bloomington, College Teaching at the Intersections of Institutional and Disciplinary Cultures and Faculty Identities
2023: Taylor Odle, University of Pennsylvania, Three Essays in Economics, Education Policy, and Inequality; Honorable Mention: Jessica Weise, Auburn University, (Student) Activism as a Queer Worldmaking Disruption to White Supremacy and Heteropatriarchy within and Beyond Higher Education
2022: Heather McCambly, Northwestern University, Change Agents or Same Agents?: Grantmakers and Racial Inequity in U.S. Higher Education
2021: Sacha Sharp, Indiana University Bloomington, Black women graduate students’ ethnic self-evaluation explored through identity expression on social media as an extension of higher education environments. #BlackWomenOnCampus; Honorable Mention: Jacqueline Mac, Indiana University Bloomington, Becoming minority-serving: Understanding how institutional agents transform their institutions to better serve target populations
2020: Kayla Elliott, Florida Atlantic University, The Influence of state performance-based funding on public Historically Black Colleges and Universities: A case study of race and power; Honorable Mention: Damani K. White-Lewis, University of California, Los Angeles, The facade of fit and preponderance of power in faculty search processes: Facilitators and inhibitors of diversity
2019: Jason Chan, University of California Los Angeles, Geographic constructions of racial identity: The experiences of Asian American college students in the Midwest; and B. Noble Jones, University of Georgia, Inside the black box: The garbage can model of decision-making in selective college admissions
2018: Katharine M. Broton, University of Wisconsin-Madison, The evolution of poverty in higher education: Material hardship, academic success, and policy perspectives; Honorable Mention: Jeremy T. Snipes, Indiana University, Ain't I Black too: Counterstories of Black atheists in college
2017: Erich N. Pitcher, Michigan State University, Being and becoming professionally other: Understanding how organizations shape trans* academics' experiences
2016: Amanda R. Tachine, University of Arizona, Monsters and Weapons: Navajo Students’ Stories on their Journeys Toward College, and Amelia Marcetti Topper, Arizona State University, A Multiplicity of Successes: Capabilities, Refuge, and Pathways in Contemporary Community Colleges
2015: Kaiwipunikauikawēkiu Lipe, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Aloha as Fearlessness: Lessons From the Mo‘olelo of Eight Native Hawaiian Female Educational Leaders on Transforming the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Into a Hawaiian Place of Learning
2014: Krispin Barr, North Carolina State University, The Historical Legacy of a Secret Society at Duke University (1913-1971): Cultural Hegemony and the Tenacious Ideals of the "Big Man on Campus"
2013: Lauren Germain, University of Virginia, “I have the power to change this": College women’s agency and sexual assault
2011: Julie Schell, Teachers College, Venturing Toward Better Teaching: S.T.E.M. Professors' Efforts to Improve Their Introductory Undergraduate Pedagogy at Major Research Universities
2009: Tami Lea Moore, Washington State University, Placing Engagement: Critical Readings of Interaction between Regional Communities and Comprehensive Universities
2008: Christopher P. Loss, Peabody College at Vanderbilt University, From democracy to diversity: The politics of American higher education in the Twentieth Century
2007 - Frank Harris III, University of Southern California, The Meanings Men Make of Masculinities and Contextual Influences on Behaviors, Outcomes, and Gendered Environmental Norms: A Grounded Theory Study