Cedric Smith Prize

We welcome submissions for the Cedric Smith Prize 2023, a prize for the best piece of peace and conflict research (broadly defined) by a graduate student either currently at the pre-degree stage or having passed their PhD no earlier than 1 September 2022. The aim is to encourage progress in conflict research, especially amongst early career researchers, by giving public recognition to exceptional work.

Candidates are invited to submit a single-authored research paper or single (stand-alone) dissertation chapter of no more than 14,000 words (accompanied by a 200- word abstract) by the 31 March 2023. Footnotes, endnotes, and references count towards the 14,000 word limit, while appendices do not. Please note that submissions that exceed the word limit will not be considered for the prize.

The work is judged by a small panel nominated by the Council of the Conflict Research Society. The judges’ decision is final and correspondence cannot be entered into. The judges reserve the right not to make an award if in their opinion, no work of sufficient merit is submitted. The author must have previously attended a CRS conference or must commit to attending the CRS conference in the year that the prize is awarded. In reaching their decision, the assessors will pay attention to:

• The inherent quality of the work, taking account of the circumstances of the study
• The contribution made to the field of peace and conflict research
• The clarity of the exposition of the work
• The potential implications of the research for policy or practise

Please send your submission in PDF format via e-mail to Valerie Sticher (sticherv@ethz.ch).

We look forward to receiving your submissions! Winners will be notified around June 2023, and the prize winners will be announced on the CRS website and social media.

Past prize Winners

2019
Robert Ulrich Nagel, Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace & Security
“Sexual violence and conflict recurrence”, see here.

2018
Philipp Schulz, Ulster University
“Displacement from Gendered Personhood – Sexual Violence and Masculinities in Northern Uganda”, see here.

Margherita Belgioioso, University of Essex
“Going Underground: Resort to Terrorism in Mass Mobilization Dissident Campaigns”, see here.

2017
Heidi Ridley, University College Dublin
“Male Collective Identity in the People’s Liberation Army of Nepal”, see here.

Luke Abbs, University of Kent
“The Hunger Games: Food Prices, Ethnic Cleavages and Nonviolent Unrest in Africa”, see here.

2016
Hannah Smidt, University College London
“What Do the Peacekeepers Do, Where and How? New Data on UN Peace-Building Activities during Election Times”, see here.

2015
Annette Idler, University of Oxford
“Complex Co-operation: Shifting Alliances among Rebels, Paramilitaries and Criminals”

2014
Althea-Maria Rivas, Sussex University
“Revisiting the Security Development Nexus through the Everyday of International Intervention: The story of Behsud District”

2013
Govinda Clayton, University of Kent
“Relative strength and the onset and outcome of civil war mediation”, see here.

2012
Simon Robins, York University
“Addressing the needs of families of the missing: A test of contemporary approaches to transitional justice”, see here.

2011
Suda Perera, University of Kent
“The Congo, Conflict and Chaos: Non-Linearity and Self-Similar Patterning in Conflict Analysis”

2010
Andrea Ruggeri, Essex University
“Political Entrepreneurs and the Diffusion of Violence: The Case of Lebanon 1975-1978”

2009
Steve Pickering, Lancaster University
“Quantifying the geography of conflict”