The Carl Beck Award, established in 1980, is presented on an annual basis to a graduate student for his or her paper in the field of International Studies. Carl Beck was aware that the field of international relations faced difficult new challenges. To respond to those challenges it must be adaptive and innovative, open to new ideas, perspectives and approaches. The Committee therefore looks for original papers that deal with traditional concerns in new and interesting ways or with emergent international conditions and problems.

Please note that this information will be outdated by the end of the 2013 ISA Annual Convention. We will update ISA Leadership information (including officers and committees) on our new website in mid-April. A summary of new ISA Committee members is available for download here (PDF).

Award Details

For a listing of previous awardees, please see the Past Award Recipients page.

Submission/Nomination

• Graduate students are invited to submit their papers for the competition. Moreover, they need to include a letter of support for the nomination of the paper, written by department chairs, program directors, deans, chairs of sessions at ISA annual or regional meetings, or from chairs of sessions at other meetings of international studies associations. Such a letter has to explain why the paper has special merit and deserves consideration for the Carl Beck Award.
• In addition, department chairs, program directors, deans, chairs of sessions at ISA annual or regional meetings, or from chairs of sessions at other meetings of international studies associations are invited and encouraged to submit excellent student papers for the competition. In addition to the paper, they have to send a letter explaining why the paper has special merit and deserves consideration for the Carl Beck Award.
• To be eligible for the award, submitted papers must:
  1. Be in English
  2. Not exceed 10,000 words
  3. Be delieverd at an ISA conference
  4. Not be considered for any other ISA award
  5. Not be published as of October 20th submission deadline
  6. Be authored by graduate students who have not received their PhD as of the date of the paper presentation. To be eligible for consideration for the Carl Beck Award a paper must be the work of a full-time or part-time graduate student enrolled in a formal degree program at an established college or university. There is no restriction on the location of the institution. Jointly-authored papers are not eligible.

• The manuscript and letter should be sent to the Chair of the Carl Beck Award Committee. Submissions should arrive electronically by October 20th of each year.

Prize

• A $500.00 (USD) cash prize is awarded to the recipient.
• The winner will also receive a plaque at the awards presentations at the annual ISA conference.

Award Committee

The three Member Committee is appointed by the ISA President with the concurrency of the Governing Council; Members serve two-year terms.

The Committee Chair is responsible for notifying the recipient of the award and encouraging the recipient to attend the Annual Convention at which the award is to be presented so as to receive the award in person.

Jonathan Kirshner CHAIR | MAR 2011 - MAR 2013 Cornell University jdk5@cornell.edu
Katherine Barbieri MEMBER | APR 2012 - MAR 2014 University of South Carolina katherine.barbieri@sc.edu	James Lebovic MEMBER | APR 2012 - MAR 2014 George Washington University lebovic@gwu.edu