Awards

Undergraduate Paper Prize Guidelines

Title
Society for Military History prize for the best undergraduate paper presented at the Northern Great Plains History Conference in 2010, short title SMH Undergraduate Paper Prize.
Eligablity
Any undergraduate paper presented in the general (i.e. not Phi Alpha Theta) sessions of the conference. Ideally, the winning paper should show the benefit of primary research as well as secondary research. The usual scholarly expectations of format, source-noting, bibliography, etc. would be expected. Winner must be present to win. Paper should not be/have been presented at another conference.
Tie-Breaking
If the judges rate two papers in a tie, and one deals with a "military history" topic, that paper receives preference.

Graduate Student Paper Prize Guidelines

Title
Northern Great Plains History Conference Prize for Best Graduate Student Paper Presented at the Conference Policy
Prize Details
The annual prize will consist of a $100 monetary award, a plaque and a banquet ticket.
Rules and Conference Policy
The following are rules and policies for the prize/contest.

  1. The paper must be authored by an enrolled (at the time of submission) graduate student in an accredited college or university. The paper should be accompanied by a statement from the student’s advisor or other appropriate departmental official verifying that the student is currently enrolled.

  2. Submissions must be scholarly research papers, using either footnotes or endnotes.

    Each graduate student paper, like other research presentations at the conference, should have a reading time not exceeding twenty minutes in three-paper sessions and twenty-five minutes in two-paper sessions. (If a paper uses endnotes, it takes about two minutes to read aloud a typed, double-spaced page with one-inch margins and a twelve-point font. Hence, it may be helpful to use endnotes in the draft paper as a way to keeping track of the number of pages as related to reading time. ) In any event, a paper author should time his or her work by reading it aloud before sending it to the session chair, commentator, and the judges. Appropriate length will be a consideration in evaluating Graduate Student Paper Prize submissions.

    Contestants should adhere to the other conference policies set forth in the Guidelines for session participants.

  3. Submissions must conform to the conference length guidelines.

  4. Submissions can be hard copies or electronic copies.

  5. Submissions must be postmarked or submitted on-line no later than a month prior to the conference’s start. (Precise date to be established annually by the panel of judges in consultation with the program coordinator of the host institution.)

  6. Funding will be provided by the host institution. However, it may call for voluntary donations on the conference registration form.

  7. The prize shall be announced by the conference host in all of the usual conference publicity including the call for papers.

  8. A panel of three judges (including a chair who must be a member of the NGPHC council) will be named annually the NGPHC council chair in consultation with the council. The judges will be from different areas of expertise such as Americanist, Europeanist, Africanist, Asianist and other fields. The judges will serve on a three-year rotating basis. For the first cycle, they will be selected by lot to serve one, two and three-year terms, with on individual rotating off each year and another rotating on.

  9. Any judge who has a student in the prize completion should resign from the panel and promptly notify the NGPHC council chair, who will name a replacement.

  10. The committee should conclude its assessment at least ten days prior to the start of the conference and its chair should notify both the program coordinator and the NGPHC council chair promptly.

  11. The council chair will notify the prize winner and runner-up and send a thank you letter to all other applicants.

  12. The prize will be presented by the NGPHC chair at the banquet.