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Call for submissions for the BNAC PhD Dissertation Prize 2024

The Britain-Nepal Academic Council (BNAC) is pleased to announce the call for submissions for the PhD Dissertation Prize 2024. There are up to two prizes to be awarded this year, and we will accept applications from eligible applicants up until 16 February 2024. The details of the call, including eligibility criteria, assessment criteria and instructions for preparing your submission, are as follows:

Eligibility

1. Applicants must either be registered for a PhD or have graduated from a PhD programme in any country within the last two years (i.e. have passed their PhD no earlier than 15 November 2021).
2. Applicants who took part in the 2022 and 2023 Prize competitions and did not win the prize may also apply with a new paper, if they meet the above eligibility criterion (point 1).

PhD Paper

1. Applicants should submit a chapter from their PhD thesis, or a paper drawn from their thesis and submitted for review, not exceeding 8,000 words.
2. Published articles may not be submitted.
3. The paper must be single-authored.
4. The paper should be in a field of the social sciences or humanities, or in a technical field dealing with social dimensions such as public health and community forestry, and related to Nepal or the Nepali cultural world, broadly understood.
5. Applicants should submit evidence of their eligibility along with their paper.

 Deadlines

1. Deadline for submission of applications: 23.59 (UK time) on 16 February 2024.
2. Notification of the winner: 22 March 2024.
3. Award of the prize: 13-14 May 2024, at the BNAC Nepal Study Days in Edinburgh.

 Selection

The winner(s) will be selected by the BNAC PhD Dissertation Prize panel comprising Prof. Michael Hutt, Dr. Kumud Rana, Dr. Heidi Riley and Dr Bibha Simkhada, using the following criteria:

• The extent to which the chapter/paper makes an original contribution to the study of Nepal,
• The extent to which the chapter/paper makes an original contribution to relevant disciplinary fields,
• The level of rigour in the research methods used,
• The originality and efficacy of any innovations in the research methods used,
• The richness of the empirical data in the paper/chapter,
• The critical use of the empirical data, and
• The clarity of the paper’s structure, narrative and argument(s).

The prize

1. The winning candidates (up to two) will each receive a cash prize of £250.
2. A runner up candidate will also be named, provided there are sufficient submissions of quality.
3. We will encourage the winning authors to publish their work in a journal such as HIMALAYA or The European Bulletin of Himalayan Research (EBHR).
4. The prize winner(s) is/are highly encouraged (not obliged) to attend the Nepal Study Days 2024, which will be held in Edinburgh on 13-14 May 2024, and to present their paper(s) there.

Please send your submission to: m.hutt@soas.ac.uk with ‘BNAC Dissertation Prize 2023 submission’ in the subject line, within the stipulated deadline.