JOHN O. IATRIDES BEST DISSERTATION PRIZE
Next Deadline for Submissions: 20 May 2007Award: $1000
At the MGSA's Executive Board meeting in February 2005, it was resolved that the Best Dissertation Prize should be named in honor of John O. Iatrides, in recognition of his more than two decades of outstanding service as MGSA's Executive Director and his acclaimed contributions to the scholarship on Greece and the Balkans for the period beginning with World War II.
The John O. Iatrides Best Dissertation Prize is awarded on a biennial schedule for the best English-language dissertation on a Greek subject.
The John O. Iatrides Best Dissertation Prize Committee decided to
award the
2007 prize to Dr. Theodora Dragostinova, for her dissertation entitled
"Between Two Motherlands: Struggles for Nationhood among the Greeks in
Bulgaria, 1906-1949."
Dr. Dragostinova's work is eminently deserving of the Iatrides
Dissertation
Prize. This promising junior scholar analyzes the history of the
forgotten
Bulgarian Greeks in the first half of the twentieth century and, in
particular,
the previously neglected Bulgarian perspective of the Balkan refugee
and
minority experience. Dr. Dragostinova has succeeded in making the
results of
her research and critical analysis pertinent to current global
questions and
cultural sensitivities: she has engaged with issues of nationhood and
national
movements, of refugee and minority problems, and of population
management in
general.
Dr. Dragostinova's dissertation is a meticulously researched work that
is
theoretically sound and that displays a discriminating command of
archival and
other long-ignored materials and a solid mastery of the unusual
research
languages required. In an exemplary scholarly fashion, Dr. Dragostinova
has
presented an interdisciplinary, critical analysis that is truly
innovative but
that also remains eminently readable and that holds the promise of
becoming an
exciting scholarly book. The MGSA committee members are delighted to
welcome in
Dr. Dragostinova a promising young scholar to the field: we look
forward to
seeing her work in print, in a study that will open new windows on the
interdisciplinary concerns of Modern Greek Studies and of the MGSA.
All disciplines of the Humanities and Social Sciences compete together. Eligible for competition are dissertations completed at a North American institution, with English as a primary language and the post-Byzantine Greek world -- including Greek diasporas -- as a primary subject. In order to qualify for the competition, applicants must be current members of the Association when they submit their dissertations. A person may submit his/her dissertation only once within three years of completing the Ph.D.
Submissions for the dissertation prize shall be made in the form of an extensive abstract and should include the following information: the year of the dissertation's acceptance, and the names of the dissertation committee members and supervisor. The abstract should be no longer than three typed (double-space) pages. The Graduate Studies Committee will screen abstracts, then select a committee (based on nature of submissions) to read and evaluate complete dissertations.
THE NEXT DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION IS 20 MAY 2009. Abstracts should be addressed to the Modern Greek Studies Association, Graduate Studies Committee, Box 622, Kent, OH 44240.
Past recipients of the Prize are:
