Robert C. Tucker/Stephen F. Cohen Dissertation Prize
The Robert C. Tucker/Stephen F. Cohen prize is awarded annually (if there is a distinguished submission) for an outstanding English-language doctoral dissertation defended at an American or Canadian university in the tradition of historical political science and political history of the Soviet Union as practiced by Robert C. Tucker and Stephen F. Cohen.
The dissertation must be completed and defended during the calendar year prior to the award. The prize carries a $5000 award intended to help the author turn the dissertation into a publishable manuscript.
2008 Robert C. Tucker/Stephen F. Cohen Dissertation Prize Committee
The 2008 Tucker/Cohen Dissertation Prize Committee is as follows:
- Lewis Siegelbaum, chair, 2008-2010; siegelba@msu.edu, Fellow in Residence, Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study, Meijboomlaan 1, 2242 PR Wassenaar, The Netherlands
- Alex Rabinowitch, 2006-2009; Indiana U, 2512 Buttonwood Lane, Bloomington, IN 47401
- Elizabeth Wood, 2006-2008; MIT, History Faculty, E51-180, 77 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139
Rules of eligibility
Rules of eligibility for the AAASS Robert C. Tucker/Stephen F. Cohen Dissertation Prize are as follows:
The dissertation must be defended at a university in the United States or Canada by a US citizen, Canadian citizen or permanent resident of the United States. The dissertation's primary subject and analytical purpose must be in the realm of the history of domestic politics, as broadly understood in academic or public life, though it may also include social, cultural, economic, international or other dimensions. The dissertation must focus primarily on Russia (though the topic may also involve other Soviet republics) during one or more periods between January 1918 and December 1991.
A nomination will consist of a detailed letter from the dissertation's main faculty supervisor explaining the ways in which the work is outstanding in both its empirical and interpretive contributions, along with an abstract of 700-1000 words, written by the candidate, specifying the sources and general findings of the research. A faculty supervisor may nominate no more than one dissertation a year. Faculty supervisors should send each committee member listed above their letter and the 700-1000-word abstract. (Candidates may also initiate the nomination, but it must come from their advisers.) The committee will read this material and then request copies of the dissertations that best meet the criteria, as defined in the statement above.
The deadline for the 2008 AAASS Robert C. Tucker/Stephen F. Cohen Dissertation Prize is April 15, 2008.
Past Tucker/Cohen Dissertation Prize winners
No prize was awarded in 2007.
The 2006 Tucker/Cohen Dissertation Prize was awarded to Heather Diane DeHaan, who received her PhD in History from the University of Toronto in June 2005 and is currently Assistant Professor of History at the State University of New York, Binghamton.
