AFA is pleased to invite graduate and undergraduate students to submit essays in feministanthropology for the Sylvia Forman Student Paper Prize competition, named for the late Sylvia Helen Forman, one of the founders of AFA whose dedication to both her students and feminist principles contributed to the growth of feminist anthropology.  We encourage essays in all four subfields of anthropology. Essays may be based on research on a wide variety of topics including (but not limited to) feminist analysis of women’s work, education, reproduction, sexuality, religion, and expressive culture, language, family and kin relations, economic development, gender and material culture, gender and biology, women and development, globalization, and intersectionalities of gender, race, sexuality, and class.

Application Deadline: May 1, Annually.

Eligibility Requirements

  1. Candidates must be an undergraduate or graduate student at the time of submission.
  2. Paper manuscripts accepted for publication or published are not eligible. 
  3. Only one submission per student will be accepted.
  4. Candidates cannot receive the same AFA award more than once.

Evaluation Criteria

Essays will be judged on:

  1. Originality of research topic
  2. Use of feminist anthropological theory to analyze a research question
  3. Organization, quality, and clarity of writing
  4. Effective use of both theory and data
  5. Significance to scholarship in feminist anthropology
  6. Timeliness and relevance of topic

Application Process

  1. Submit a cover letter identifying whether the candidate is an undergraduate or graduate student; identifying the author’s institutional affiliation, mailing address, telephone number and e-mail address for notification
  2. Submit a manuscript that is not more than 35 double-spaced pages, including bibliography.

Note: For essays that have been submitted but not yet accepted for publication, contact the Forman Prize Chair (via femanth@gmail.com) well before the submission deadline.

Prior to review of award submissions, AFA membership will be verified.  Thank you for supporting our section!

Please email your submission a single Portable File Document (PDF) with the subject “Sylvia Forman Prize Submission” to: femanth@gmail.com.