Beth Holmgren Graduate Student Essay Prize

The Beth Holmgren Graduate Student Essay Prize, established in 1990 and named in honor of Professor Holmgren in 2021, is awarded for an outstanding essay by a graduate student in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. The winner of the competition receives $300, free roundtrip domestic airfare to and accommodations at the ASEEES Annual Convention and an honorary ASEEES membership for the following year. The prize is presented during the awards presentation at the Annual Convention.


Rules of Eligibility

Rules of eligibility for the Holmgren Graduate Student Essay Prize competition are as follows:

  • Rules of eligibility for the Holmgren Graduate Student Essay Prize competition are as follows:
  • ASEEES Regional Affiliates and Institutional Members are invited to hold their own competitions for best essay among their graduate students, and submit the winning paper to the Holmgren Graduate Student Prize Committee.
  • Institutional Members not holding internal competitions are still invited to submit a (single) nomination from their Institution. (For example, a student attending a university among our list of Institutional Members might approach their advisor regarding putting forth their essay. The advisor may submit this essay, provided it meets all other eligibiity requirements. We recommend that the advisor checks with their colleagues to ensure that only one essay per Institutional Member is submitted.)
  • Essay author must be a graduate student and must have written the essay in English while in a graduate program.
  • Essays can be any of several formats:
    • Expanded versions of conference papers
    • Graduate level seminar papers
    • Master’s Thesis Chapters
    • Dissertation Chapters

Nominating Instructions

Essays should be submitted to the ASEEES by the Chairs of the Regional Affiliates or the primary or secondary representatives of the Institutional Members. Graduate students whose institution is not an institutional member of ASEEES or is not holding a competition this year, are advised to check the rules for their regional competition. Students cannot self-nominate their papers without going through the proper nominating procedures.

Submitter must clearly indicate the format of the essay submitted and provide an abstract.

Essays should have a minimum word count of 7,500 and a maximum word count of 14,000 (25 to 50 pages approximately) inclusive of footnotes and bibliography. Submissions must be double-spaced and include footnotes or endnotes.

Submitter should complete this nomination form, and email the essay in electronic format to all members of the prize committee.  Email any questions to Margaret Manges.

Deadline for submissions: June 15

2024 Holmgren Graduate Student Essay Prize Committee

The winner of the 2024 Holmgren Graduate Student Essay Prize will be chosen by the following scholars:

Maria Popova
McGill University (Canada), 2022-2024
maria.popova@mcgill.ca

Adeeb Khalid
Carleton College, 2023-2025
akhalid@carleton.edu

Roman Utkin
Wesleyan University, 2024-2026
riutkin@gmail.com

Past Winners

The following scholars received the Beth Holmgren Graduate Student Essay Prize (formerly known as the Graduate Student Essay Prize) in the past:

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