Deadline: 15 October 2025
The Middle East Studies Association (MESA) invites graduate students to submit original research papers in Middle East studies (post-600 CE) for its 2025 Graduate Student Paper Prize.
- Award: $250 cash prize + certificate at MESA’s Annual Meeting Awards Ceremony
- Optional: Winning author encouraged to submit paper to Review of Middle East Studies (RoMES) for publication consideration.
Eligibility Criteria
- You must have been a graduate student (not yet awarded a doctoral degree) at the time the paper was written.
- Paper must have been written between July 1, 2024, and June 30, 2025.
- Submissions must be in English and unpublished (not under review elsewhere).
Submission Guidelines
- Deadline: August 15, 2025
- Length: Maximum 7,500 words (excluding bibliography and endnotes)
- Format:
- Paper size: 8.5 x 11 inches
- One-sided, double-spaced
- Font: Standard (e.g., Times New Roman or Arial)
- Margins: 1.25 inches
- Color: Black and white
- Citation style: IJMES endnotes style
- Blind Review Requirements:
- No identifying information may appear anywhere on the document (including title page, file name, headers, footnotes, or metadata).
- You may use a pseudonym for the file name.
Submission Materials
- Paper (formatted and anonymized as per the above)
- Online Submission Form (linked on MESA’s official website)
- Faculty Statement verifying:
- You were a graduate student when the paper was written
- The paper was written between July 1, 2024 – June 30, 2025
- This must be submitted via email directly by the faculty member to MESA (for blind review purposes)
For further details, please see the MESA’s website.
