A nomination package shall contain the following materials:

Submission Requirements

A nomination package shall contain the following materials:

1. A cover sheet including candidate’s details including contact information postal and email, title of thesis/dissertation, abstract, names of supervisor/advisor/chair, co-supervisors and or thesis committee members (email), conferring institution, when degree will be/has been conferred.
2. A nomination letter written by the student’s supervisor/advisor/chair, co-supervisor or thesis committee member
   1. outlining the characteristics that make the dissertation exceptional (e.g., importance of the topic, theoretical/methodological quality, analytical perspicacity, contributions to the research literature, and so forth)
   2. confirming the date on which the degree will be/has been conferred.
3. The following parts of the actual dissertation:
   1. Title page
   2. Table of contents
   3. One representative chapter that best exemplifies the dissertation’s contribution to research on doctoral education.
   4. List of cited references  
4. A 750-word summary of the study prepared by the student
5. Please submit a full masked dissertation (uploaded as a single PDF). To create a masked dissertation, nominees may need to omit dedications, acknowledgments, copyright information, etc. Nominees do not need to omit their positionality statements if their dissertation contains one. Full masked dissertations will be shared with the committee only for finalists.

Google Form Application: https://forms.gle/6p9YCKrqahHKfTvj7. Applications for all awards are due on December 1, 2025 5:00 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time. Contact Stephanie Lezotte (lezotte@rowan.edu) with questions. The winner will be notified by March and invited to briefly present their work at the SIG 168 business meeting during the AERA annual meeting. Awardee will also receive a certificate/plaque, $500 award, and their name added to the winners noted in the SIG's annual program.

All nomination materials should be submitted in Portable Document Format (PDF). A faculty member may nominate no more than two candidates.