American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies

Robert C. Tucker/Stephen F. Cohen Dissertation Prize

The Robert C. Tucker/Stephen F. Cohen prize, sponsored by the JKW Foundation, 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 prize carries a $5000 award intended to help the author turn the dissertation into a publishable manuscript.

The dissertation must be completed and defended during the calendar year prior to the award. The next prize will be awarded at the AAASS National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts, in November 2009, for a dissertation defended in 2008.

2009 Robert C. Tucker/Stephen F. Cohen Dissertation Prize Committee

The winner of the 2009 Tucker/Cohen Dissertation Prize will be chosen by the following scholars:

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. By May 15, 2009 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.

Past Tucker/Cohen Dissertation Prize winners

The 2008 Tucker/Cohen Dissertation Prize was awarded to Benjamin Tromly, who received his PhD in History from the Harvard University in June 2007. His dissertation was titled "Re-Imagining the Soviet Intelligentsia: Student Politics and University Life, 1948-1964."

The prize committee also decided to present an Honorable Mention award to Edward Cohn, who received his PhD in History from the University of Chicago in August 2007. His dissertation was titled "Disciplining the Party: The Expulsion and Censure of Communists in the Post-War Soviet Union, 1945-1961."

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.