Cedric Smith Prize
The Cedric Smith Prize is awarded each year by the Conflict Research Society for the best piece of peace and conflict research (broadly defined) by a PhD candidate or someone having recently passed their PhD defense. The aim is to encourage progress in conflict research, especially amongst younger people, by giving public recognition to exceptional work.
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. 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 practice
The next call for submissions will be announced in early 2024. For questions related to the Cedric Smith Prize, please contact Valerie Sticher (sticherv@ethz.ch).
Past prize Winners
Sigrid Weber, University College London
“Controlling a Moving World: Territorial Control, Displacement and the Spread of Civilian Targeting in Iraq“.
Gabriella Levy, Duke University
“Evaluations of Violence at the Polls: Civilian Victimization and Support for Perpetrators after War“, see here.
Valerie Sticher, Leiden University
“Negotiating Peace with Your Enemy: The Problem of Costly Concessions“, see here.
Sebastian van Baalen, Uppsala University
“Guns and governance: Local elites, civil resistance, and the responsiveness of rebel governance in Côte d’Ivoire”, see here.
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”