The AJHA Margaret A. Blanchard Doctoral Dissertation Prize, given for the first time in 1997, is awarded annually for the best doctoral dissertation dealing with mass communication history.

An honorarium of $500 accompanies the prize, and a $200 honorarium is awarded to each honorable mention.

Eligible works should be historical dissertations (either qualitative or quantitative), written in English, which have been completed between January 1, 2016, and December 31, 2016. For the purposes of this award, a "completed" work is defined as one which has not only been submitted and defended but also revised and filed in final form at the applicable doctoral-degree-granting university by December 31, 2016.

To be considered, please submit the following materials in a single e-mail to the address below:

1. A cover letter from the applicant containing complete (home and work) contact information (postal addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses). The letter should express a willingness, should the dissertation be selected for a prize, both to attend the awarding ceremony and to deliver a public presentation based on the dissertation at the 2017 American Journalism Historians Association Annual Convention 12-14 October 2017 in Little Rock, AR.
   
   
2. A letter of nomination from the dissertation chair/director or the chair of the university department in which the dissertation was written.
   
   
3. A single PDF containing the following (with no identifying information):
   • A 200-word abstract.
   • The dissertation table of contents.
   • A single chapter from the dissertation, preferably not exceeding 50 manuscript pages (not including notes, charts or photographs). The chapter should, if possible, highlight the work’s strengths as a piece of primary-sourced original research.
4. In a separate PDF but in the same e-mail, a blind copy of the complete dissertation.

To be considered, all identifying information—including author, school, and dissertation committee members’ names—must be deleted from items 3 and 4 above.

Nominations, along with all the supporting materials, should be sent to AJHAdissertationprize@gmail.com

Questions should be directed to Dr. Jane Marcellus, chair of the Blanchard Prize Committee.

Deadline for entries is Feb. 1, 2017 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time.