STUDENT AWARDS
The deadline for all student awards in the 2025-26 cycle has passed. Please be on the lookout for guidelines for the 2026-27 cycle in Fall 2026.
Please note: the deadline for 2026-27 awards: December 15, 2026
Nominations should be sent to the appropriate committee chair (see award-specific guidelines). *Please put the award name in the subject line of the email submission.
1. Political Geography Student Travel Awards: these $225 awards will be given to support student travel to present a paper on a political geography topic at the PGSG preconference and/or the AAG Annual Meeting. Up to ten (10) awards may be awarded annually. Guidelines | click here
2. Alexander B. Murphy Dissertation Enhancement Award: this $1000 award is granted to support dissertation field research of PGSG student members. Up to two awards may be awarded annually. Guidelines | click here
3. Political Geography Graduate Student Paper Awards: this $250 award will go to the best paper on a political geography topic written by MA and PhD students (judged in separate divisions), who are PGSG members. Guidelines | click here
4. Political Geography Undergraduate Student Research Award: this $100 award will go to the best research paper or creative work informed by research on a political geography topic by an undergraduate student, regardless of membership in the AAG or participation at the Annual Meetings. NEW for 2023-24 cycle: Eligibility has been expanded to include creative projects. Guidelines | click here
PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS
The deadline for all non-student achievement awards in the 2025-26 cycle will be announced in Fall 2025. Nominations should be sent to the PGSG President (Kate Coddington; kcoddington at albany.edu). *Please put the award name in the subject line of the email submission.
1. Julian Minghi Distinguished Book Award. This award will be given to the author(s) of the best book published during the previous calendar year in the field of political geography (i.e., at AAG 2025, the award will go to a book published in 2024). Nominations should include the citation information for the book and a single paragraph (max. 500 words) explanation of its subject, along with a link to the publisher’s website. Nominations from individual members and presses are permitted, however each press is limited to only one (1) nomination per year. With the exception of current PGSG Board members, self-nominations are permitted. *Note: Books published before Jan. 1, 2026, should be included in this year’s cycle. If this presents a concern, please contact the PGSG President.
2. Virginie Mamadouh Outstanding Research Award. This award will be given to the author(s) of a journal article or book chapter published in the previous three (3) calendar years that makes an innovative, original contribution to the conceptual and/or methodological embrace of political geography. For journal articles the three-year window begins once the article is assigned to a specific print issue. Nominations should include only the citation information and a PDF of the article or chapter. Supplementary statements from the nominators are discouraged. With the exception of current PGSG Board members, self-nominations are permitted.
3. Stanley D. Brunn Early Career Scholar Award. This award will be given to a scholar who has received their Ph.D. within the past ten years, in honor of contributions that have generated new interest in the subfield and/or opened up new areas of inquiry for political geographic research. Nominations should include a paragraph (max. 500 words) describing the impact of the nominee’s work in political geography and more broadly, along with a link to the nominee’s institutional or personal website. Self-nominations are not permitted.
PROFESSIONAL AND STUDENT ACHIVEMENT AWARDS
1. Richard Morrill Engagement Award. In the spirit of Richard Morrill’s research on migration, race, social stratification and inequality, this $300 award will support travel to attend and participate in the annual PGSG Preconference. The goal of this award is to strengthen public engagement among PGSG members and foster a more diverse and inclusive PGSG community. This award will be given to an individual who has used their political geographic work to affect change (in the discipline of geography, public thought, or public policy). Nominations should include a paragraph (max. 500 words) describing the impact of the nominee’s scholarly or public work, along with a link to the nominee’s institutional or personal website. NEW in 2025-26: Both students and post-graduate professionals are eligible and will be evaluated separately. An award may be made in each category at the discretion of the PGSG Board.
General Information and Rules for Achievement Awards (Minghi, Mamadouh, Brunn, Morrill):
1. All achievement awards will be based on nominations made to the President of the PGSG, following the rules outlined above. All nominations are due to the PGSG President by the annual deadline. The President will then disseminate the appropriate materials of the compliant nominations to the Board members, who will vote at least three (3) weeks prior to the Annual Meeting. The deadline for nominations is set by the President based on the timing of the annual meeting. In a typical year, the deadline is in December/January.
2. For each award category, a maximum of one award will be conferred each year, with the announcement to be made at the PGSG Business Meeting taking place the next Spring. For each award category, if there are no nominees whom the Board views as deserving of merit, no award will be made. Special recognition may be noted in rare circumstances.
3. The PGSG Board reserves the right to determine whether a nominee (or a nominated publication) falls within the scope of political geography.
4. Nominations by board members are permitted (excluding the specific prohibitions on self-nominations noted above). Nominations of board members are permitted. In this case, the board member will be recused from the vote.
5. Awardees need not be PGSG or AAG members, although awardees are strongly encouraged to join both groups if they are not already members.
6. Winners will be notified just prior to the AAG Annual Meeting and invited to join the PGSG Business Meeting for recognition. The awards will be formally announced at the PGSG Business Meeting. The awardees’ names and titles will be forwarded to the AAG.
PAST WINNERS
Stanley D. Brunn Junior Scholar Award
2025 Emily Mitchell-Eaton, Colgate University
2024 Galen Murton, James Madison University
2023 Md Azmeary Ferdoush, University of Eastern Finland
2022 Julie Klinger, University of Delaware
2021 Danielle Purifoy, University of North Carolina
2020 Andrew Curley, University of North Carolina/University of Arizona
2019 Andrew Linke, University of Utah
2018 Kate Coddington, Durham University2017 Sara Koopman, Tampere Peace Research Institute
2016 Josh Inwood, University of Tennessee-Knoxville
2015 Simon Springer, University of Victoria
2014 Natalie Koch, Syracuse University
2013 Fiona McConnell, Newcastle University
2012 Alex Jeffery, Newcastle University
2011 Carl Dahlman, Miami University of Ohio
2010 Alison Mountz, Syracuse University
2009 Dave Janssen, Uppsala University
2008 Nick Megoran, Newcastle University
2007 Anna Secor, University of Kentucky
2006 Jason Dittmer, Georgia Southern University
2005 Deborah Martin, Clark University
Richard Morrill Public Outreach Award
2025 —
2024 Rebecca Theobald, GeoCivics, University of Colorado-Colorado Springs
2023 Srinivas Chokkakula, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi
2022 Evan Centanni, Political Geography Now
2021 Mia Bennett, University of Hong Kong
2020 Austin Kocher, TRAC Reports/Syracuse University
2019 Jeremy Slack, The University of Texas at El Paso
2018 Scott Warren, Arizona State University and Tohono O’odham Community College
2017 Élisabeth Vallet, University of Quebec at Montreal
2016 Brittany Gilmer, Florida International University
2015 Martin Müller, University of Zurich
2014 Sara Koopman, Wilfrid Laurier University
2013 Jeremy Slack, University of Arizona
2012 Frank Jacobs, New York Times Borderlines Blog
2011 Jason Dittmer, University College, London
2010 Joseph Nevins, Vassar College
2009 Steven Graves, California State University, Northridge
2008 Klaus Dodds, Royal Holloway, University of London
2007 Jerry Webster, University of Wyoming
2006 Sarah Elwood, University of Arizona
2005 David Newman, Ben Gurion University
Julian Minghi Distinguished Book Award
2025 Shaina Potts, UCLA, Judicial Territory: Law, Capital, and the Expansion of American Empire (Duke University Press)
2024 Natalie Koch, Syracuse University, Arid Empire: The Entangled Fates of Arizona and Arabia (Verso)
2023 Andrew Grant, Boston College, The Concrete Plateau: Urban Tibetans and the Chinese Civilizing Machine (Cornell University Press)
2022 Orhon Myadar, University of Arizona, Mobility and Displacement: Nomadism, Identity, and Postcolonial Narratives in Mongolia (Routledge)
2021 Sara Smith, University of North Carolina, Intimate Geopolitics: Love, Territory, and the Future on India’s Northern Threshold (Rutgers University Press)
2020 Lindsay Naylor, University of Delaware, Fair Trade Rebels: Coffee Production and Struggles for Autonomy in Chiapas (University of Minnesota Press)2019 James A. Tyner, Kent State University, The Politics of Lists: Bureaucracy and Genocide under the Khmer Rouge (University of West Virginia Press)
2018 Brian King, The Pennsylvania State University, States of Disease: Political Environments and Human Health (University of California Press)
2017 Reece Jones, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Violent Borders: Refugees and the Right to Move (Verso)
2016 Philippa Williams (Queen Mary, University of London), Everyday Peace? : Politics, Citizenship and Muslim Lives in India (Wiley-Blackwell)
2015 Emma Norman (Northwest Indian College), Governing Transboundary Waters: Canada, the United States and Indigenous Communities (Routledge)
2014 Adam Moore (UCLA), Peacebuilding in Practice: Local Experience in Two Bosnian Towns (Cornell University Press)
2013 Reece Jones (University of Hawai’i-Manoa), Border Walls: Security and the War on Terror in the United States, India, and Israel (Zed Books)
2012 Gerard Toal (Virginia Tech) and Carl Dahlman (Miami University), Bosnia Remade: Ethnic Cleansing and its Reversal (Oxford)
2011 Matthew Hannah (Aberystwyth University), Dark Territory in the Information Age: Learning from the West German Census Controversies of the 1980s (Ashgate)
2010 Stuart Elden (Durham University), Terror and Territory: The Spatial Extent of Sovereignty (University of Minnesota Press)
2009 Rachel Pain (Durham University) and Susan Smith (Durham University), Fear: Critical Geopolitics and Everyday Life (Ashgate)
2008 Derek Gregory (UBC) and Allan Pred (UC Berkeley), Violent Geographies: Fear, Terror, and Political Violence (Routledge)
2007 —
2006 James Tyner (Kent State University), Iraq, Terror and the Philippines’ Will to War (Rowman & Littlefield)
2005 Lynn Staeheli, Linda Peake, and Eleonore Kofman, Mapping Women, Making Politics: Feminist Perspectives on Political Geography (Routledge)
Virginie Mamadouh Outstanding Research Award
2025 Pallavi Gupta, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa for Geographies of Waiting: Politics, Methods, and Praxis—A Case Study of Indian Railway Stations (Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 2023)
2024 Meredith DeBoom, University of South Carolina for Climate Necropolitics: Ecological Civilization and the Distributive Geographies of Extractive Violence in the Anthropocene (Annals of the American Association of Geographers 2021)
2023 Kara E. Dempsey, UNC-Appalachian State University for Spaces of Violence: A typology of the political geography of violence against migrants seeking asylum in the EU (Political Geography 2020).
2022 Gregory M. Thaler, Cecilia Viana, & Fabiano Toni for From Frontier Governance to Governance Frontier: The Political Geography of Brazil’s Amazon Transition (World Development 2019)
2021 Anna Jackman, Racheal Squire, Johanne Bruun, Pip Thorton for Unearthing feminist territories and terrains (Political Geography 2020)
2020 Kate Coddington, SUNY Albany forThe slow violence of life without cash: borders, state restrictions, and exclusion in the U.K. and Australia(Geographical Review 2019)2019 Oliver Belcher, Durham University for Anatomy of a Village Razing: Counterinsurgency, Violence, and Securing the Intimate in Afghanistan (Political Geography 2018)
2018 Patrick Bigger (Lancaster University) and Benjamin D. Neimark (Lancaster University) for Weaponizing Nature: The Geopolitical Ecology of the US Navy’s Biofuel Program (Political Geography 2017)
2017 James Tyner (Kent State University) and Rachel Will (University of Georgia) for Nature and Post-Conflict Violence: Water Management under the Communist Party of Kampuchea, 1975–1979 (Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 2015)
2016 Ian Shaw (University of Glasgow) and Katie Meehan (University of Oregon), for Force-Full: Power, Politics and Object-Oriented Philosophy (Area 2013)
2015 Sarah Mills (Loughborough University), for ‘An instruction in good citizenship’: scouting and the historical geographies of citizenship education (Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 2013)
Alexander B. Murphy Dissertation Enhancement Award
2025 Suad Jabr, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
2024 Jill Thornton, University of South Carolina
2023 Andrea Cabrera Roa, Clark University
2022 Xiaofeng Liu, University of Hong Kong
2021 Lauren Fritzsche, University of Arizona
2020 Jenny McGibbon, Ohio State University
2019 Emily Kaufman, University of Kentucky; Sanan Moradi, University of Oregon
2018 Sophia Borgias, University of Arizona
2017 Kuan-chi Wang, University of Oregon
2016 Carly Nichols, University of Arizona
2015 Keegan Williams, Wilfrid Laurier University
2014 Galen Murton, University of Colorado
2013 Craig Jones, University of British Columbia
2012 Nicholas Crane, Ohio State University
2011 —
2010 Richelle Bernazzoli, University of Illinois
2009 Joomi Lee, University of Texas-Austin; Afton Clarke-Sather, University of Colorado
2008 Sara Koopman, University of British Columbia
2007 Sara Smith, University of Arizona
2006 Reece Jones, University of Wisconsin-Madison
2005 Marco Antonsich, University of Colorado-Boulder
2004 Mark Pendras, Rutgers University
2003 Gabriel Popescu, Florida State University
2002 Brennan Kraxberger, University of Iowa
PhD Student Paper Award
2025 Amrita Kumar-Ratta, University of Toronto; Fedor Popov, University of Colorado-Boulder
2024 Benjamin Weinger, UCLA
2023 Meagan Harden, University of Hawaii at Manoa
2022 Allen Xiao, University of Wisconsin-Madison
2021 —
2020 Jonghee Lee Caldararo, University of Kentucky; Hilary Faxon Cornell University
2019 Lewis J. Dowle University of St. Andrews
2018 Shona Loong, Oxford University; honorable mention: Ashley Fent (UCLA)
2017 Sara Hughes, UCLA
2016 Casey Lynch, University of Arizona
2015 Emma Mullaney, Penn State University
2014 Ian Rowen, University of Colorado-Boulder
2013 Jill Williams, Clark University
2012 Kean Fan Lim, UBC; Natalie Koch, University of Colorado-Boulder
2011 Nancy Hiemstra, Syracuse University
2010 Kyle Walker, University of Minnesota; Sandra Zupan, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; Joomi Lee, University of Texas
2009 Keith Lindner, Syracuse University
2008 Kara E. Dempsey, UW-Madison; Erinn Nicely, University of Illinois
2007 Tristan Sturm, UCLA
2006 Adam Moore, University of Wisconsin-Madison
2005 Reece Jones, University of Wisconsin-Madison
2004 Marco Antonsich, University of Colorado-Boulder
2003 Daniel Trudeau, University of Colorado-Boulder
2002 Jacquie Housel, SUNY-Buffalo; Gabriel Popescu, Florida State University
MA/MS Student Paper Award
2024 —
2023 Amani Ponnaganti, University of Wisconsin-Madison
2022 —
2021 Grace Chun, University of Hawai’i
2020 —
2019 —
2018 —
2017 Jessie Bolin, University of New Hampshire
2016 Amber Boll, University of Kentucky
2015 Kelsey Carlson, Syracuse University
2014 —
2013 Malene Jacobsen, University of Kentucky
2012 Kyle Loewen, Rutgers University
2011 Michael Husebo, Georgia State University
2010 Chelsea Hanchett, Penn State
2009 —
2008 —
2007 Ted Holland University of Colorado-Boulder; honorable mention: Sara Koopman, UBC
BA/BS Student Paper Award
2025 —
2024 Sam Stoltz, Colorado State University
2023 David Lee, James Madison University
2022 —
2021 Aubrey Cunningham, James Madison University
2020 Sara Kaminski, James Madison University
2019 —
2018 Elias Platte Bermeo, UCLA; honorable mention: Amelia Arden Green, Mount Holyoke College
2017 —
2016 Elora Ward, Sonoma State; honorable mention: John Preysner, University of Chicago
2015 Shivon Yim, York University; honorable mention: Brittney Ortega, U-Hawai’i-Manoa
2014 Azzah Ahmed, Syracuse University; honorable mentions: Zack Avre, Macalester and Rachael Gowland, U of Oregon
2013 Kiersten Strachan, University of Oklahoma
2012 Joseph Lee, Johns Hopkins University
2011 George Rahi, UBC
2010 —
2009 Amerita Ravuvu, University of Hawai’i at Manoa
Past PGSG Presidents
2023-25 Meredith DeBoom, University of South Carolina
2021-23 Kara E. Dempsey, UNC-Appalachian State University
2019-21 Afton Clarke-Sather, University of Minnesota Duluth
2017-19 Kenneth Madsen, The Ohio State University at Newark
2015-17 Natalie Koch, Syracuse University
2013-15 Reece Jones, University of Hawai’i
2011-13 Mat Coleman, The Ohio State University
2009-11 Jason Dittmer, University College, London
2007-09 Fiona Davidson, University of Arkansas
2005-07 Shannon O’Lear, University of Kansas
2003-05 Phil Steinberg, Florida State University
2001-03 Meghan Cope, SUNY-Buffalo
1999-01 Colin Flint, Pennsylvania State University