The “Best Paper” Award is given to the author(s) of the best paper presented at the ISA Annual Convention by a faculty member (regardless of academic rank) or human rights professional/activist. The Award is accompanied by a one-year paid membership of ISA and Human Rights Section dues (see below). Author(s) of the paper for which the award is given are also invited to submit the paper to the Journal of Human Rights for expedited review and consideration for publication.

Details

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Recipient Criteria

Papers must have been presented on a panel sponsored or co-sponsored by the Human Rights Section.
Recipients must be members of ISA and of the Human Rights Section at the time the award is presented at the ISA Annual Meeting. If the recipient is not a member of ISA and/or the Human Rights Section at the time the award is offered, the recipient may choose to apply the membership benefit of the award prior to presentation at the annual meeting. Recipients who are already members at the time the award is offered will be able to apply the Membership benefit the following year.

Prize

The award is accompanied by a paid one-year membership in ISA plus the Human Rights Section.
The award will be presented at the Annual Business Meeting at the ISA Annual Convention.
Author(s) of the winning paper should submit their manuscript to The Journal of Human Rights for expedited review and consideration for publication. Please follow the online submission guidelines available at http://jhr.uconn.edu/submissions/.

Selection Process

Two at-large members of the executive committee and one additional member (non-executive committee) chosen by the Section Chair will review the nominated papers.

Nomination/Application Instructions

Nominated papers must be uploaded to the ISA Conference Paper archive.
Nominations may be made by panel chairs, discussants, co-panelists and human rights section members. Self-nominations are also invited.
Nominations should be directed via email to the Chair of the Best Paper Award Committee, Mark Berlin no later than June 30th.

Recipients

Congratulations to the 2021 recipients of the HR Best Paper Award, Ella McPherson, Isabel Guenette Thornton, and Matt Mahmoudi for their paper "Open Source Investigations and the Technology-Driven Knowledge Controversy in Human Rights Fact-Finding"! See the previous recipients below.

Past Recipients

Year	Recipient	Title
2021	Ella McPherson, Isabel Guenette Thornton, & Matt Mahmoudi	Open Source Investigations and the Technology-Driven Knowledge Controversy in Human Rights Fact-Finding
2020	Mark Berlin	Does Criminalizing Torture Decrease Torture? Preliminary Evidence from a New Dataset
2019	Benjamin A.T. Graham and Kelebogile Zvobgo	The World Bank as an Enforcer of Human Rights
2018	Suparna Chaudhry	The Assault on Civil Society: Explaining State Crackdown on NGOs
2017	Stefan Borg	Discourses of Secular and Sacred Rights in Post- Revolutionary Tunisia
2016	Robyn Linde	Rhode Island College
2015	Sheena Greitens	Organizing Repression
2013	Matthew Krain & Elisabeth C. Bremer	World Economic Forum
2010	Kathleen Staudt	Explaining the Persistence of Femicide Amid Transnational Activist Networks: Where Did Human Rights Theory Go Wrong?

Committee Members

Mark Berlin| Chair
April 2021-March 2022
Marquette University

Matthew Weinert | Member
April 2021-March 2022
University of Delaware

Ella McPherson | Member
April 2021-March 2022
University of Cambridge

Award Chairs, please review dates to ensure deadlines are met.

Key Dates