Best Article Award in Kurdish Political Studies
This award, sponsored by Kurdish Political Studies Program at the University of Central Florida, recognizes the best article in Kurdish Political Studies by a rising scholar during the previous calendar year. For this award cycle, articles published in 2019 will be considered. All articles published in English language peer-reviewed journals addressing questions and covering issues related to Kurdish politics, broadly defined, will be considered for the award. The award is open to all disciplines under social sciences and humanities. The primary author of the article needs to be an untenured scholar (graduate student, post-doc, independent scholar, assistant professor or equivalent) at the time of the publication. The winner will be awarded $500. The awardees will be announced by November 2020.
An electronic copy of the nominated article should be sent to kurdish@ucf.edu. Self-nominations are welcome.
Deadline for nominations: TBD for 2020
Award Committee:
- TBD
- Güneş Murat Tezcür, Professor, University of Central Florida
- Metin Yüksel, Associate Professor, Hacettepe University
Previous Awards
2019
First Prize Winner
Dehqan, Mustafa and Vural Genç. “Kurds as Spies: Information-Gathering on the 16th-century Ottoman–Safavid Frontier.” Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 71, no. 2 (2018): 197-230.
Honorable Mention
Gülay Türkmen, “Negotiating Symbolic Boundaries in Conflict Resolution: Religion and Ethnicity in Turkey’s Kurdish Conflict,” Qualitative Sociology 41 (2018): 569–591.
2018
First Prize Winner
Sacha Alsancakli, “Matrimonial Alliances and the Transmission of Dynastic Power in Kurdistan: The Case of the Diyādīnids of Bidlīs in the Fifteenth to Seventeenth Centuries,” Eurasian Studies 15 (2017): 222-49.
Honorable Mention
Serra Hakyemez, “Margins of the Archive: Torture, Heroism, and the Ordinary Prison No. 5 in Turkey,” Anthropological Quarterly 90 (2017): 107-38.
2017
First Prize Winner
Kelda Jamison, “Hefty dictionaries in incomprehensible tongues: commensurating code and language community in Turkey,” Anthropological Quarterly 89 (2016): 31-62.
Honorable Mentions
Erlend Paasche, “The role of corruption in reintegration: experiences of Iraqi Kurds upon return from Europe,” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 42 (2016): 1076-93.
Metin Yüksel, “On the borders of the Turkish and Iranian nation-States: The story of Ferzende and Besra,” Middle Eastern Studies 52 (2016): 656-76.
2016
First Prize Winner
Wendelmoet Hamelink and Hanifi Barış, “Dengbêjs on borderlands: Borders and the state as seen through the eyes of Kurdish singer-poets,” Kurdish Studies 2 (2014): 34-60.
Second Prize Winner
Harun Yilmaz, “The Rise of Red Kurdistan,” Iranian Studies 47 (2014): 799-822.
Dr. Najmaldin Karim Fellowship in Kurdish Political Studies
The Kurdish Political Studies Program (KPSP) sponsors the Dr. Najmaldin Karim Fellowship for undergraduate students at UCF. The fellow is provided a research space conducive to educational and professional development and conduct a research project related to Kurdish politics, broadly defined, under the supervision of KPSP faculty in every spring semester. This research has the aim of producing a final paper that is worthy of publication. It aims to enrich the fellow’s academic credentials, providing a unique opportunity to gain in-depth insights about Kurdish politics through independent research. The fellow will receive $500 for the semester. All financial aid rules and regulations apply.
Application Requirements
• A minimum GPA of 3.5
• A one-page letter of interest
• A writing sample (e.g., term paper submitted in a class)
• An unofficial copy of transcript
• A resume with two listed academic references
Students should submit their application to kurdish@ucf.edu. The application deadline for Spring 2020 is October 31, 2019. A committee of UCF faculty will select the fellow. The winner will be announced November 21, 2019 at the KPSP’s Kurdish Forum.
Previous Fellows
Alexi Sadaka – Spring 2020
Jenna Dovydaitis – Spring 2019
Margaret Morgan – Spring 2018
Kellan Ritter – Spring 2017