Description: The student paper competitions are open to all students who have written and presented a research paper on a topic in political geography. Guidelines are as follows:

1. The competition is open to all students, however a student may not receive a Student Paper Competition award more than once during her/his tenure as a student. See also 8a below.

2. The entries must be research papers and not complete theses or dissertations. Papers must not be longer than 15 pages plus bibliography.

3. Entries must be on a topic in political geography.

4. Paper entries must have been presented at a professional meeting during the period beginning with the first day of the previous AAG Annual Meeting and concluding with the last day of the next AAG Annual Meeting.

5. Hard or digital copies of papers must be submitted to all three members of the PGSG's Student Paper Award Committee by the deadline announced in the PGSG newsletter.

6. Submissions will normally be divided into Masters and Ph.D. student divisions.

7. Submissions will be judged on their written clarity, methodological and theoretical soundness, and their contributions to research in political geography.

8. All monetary prizes are awarded at the discretion of the Student Paper Award Committee. Awards will normally include:

A. A regional student-paper award: for a paper presented at a Regional AAG meeting; award will be $100 for the top paper(MA or Ph.D. level, only one award); a student may not win both student paper awards;

B. Doctoral Student Award ($100 + reimbursement of next year’s AAG Annual Meeting student registration fee),

C. Master's Student Award ($100 + reimbursement of next year’s AAG Annual Meeting student registration fee),

D. up to three Honorable Mention awards (reimbursement of next year’s AAG Annual Meeting student registration fee).

9. The results of the Student Paper Award competitions will be announced to the winner just prior to the annual AAG meeting in Las Vegas and the awardees (including any Honorable Mention awardees) will be invited to attend the annual AAG Awards Luncheon at the expense of the PGSG. The awards will be formally announced at the PGSG business meeting in Las Vegas Payment will take place shortly thereafter. The awardees' names and paper titles will be forwarded to the AAG for publication in the AAG Newsletter.

10. Any questions pertaining to eligibility will be resolved by the Student Paper Award Committee.

Deadline is on March 15, 2011

Submissions should be sent to committee chair Darren Purcell (dpurcell@ou.edu), or other members of the committee ( Helga Leitner - eqj6139@umn.edu>, Katrinka Somdahl-Sands - somdahka@gmail.com.)