Outstanding Dissertation Award
Committee
Award Details
The Immigration and Ethnic History Society (IEHS) invites submissions for the Outstanding Dissertation Award. The $1,500 award is presented annually at the IEHS banquet during the OAH to recognize an outstanding dissertation in the field of immigration and ethnic history of the United States and/or North America.
Eligibility
To be considered, a dissertation must focus on some aspect of North American immigration and/or ethnicity, be filed between October 1, 2025 and September 30, 2026, and be written in English.
Awardees who do not have sufficient funds to attend the IEHS banquet to receive their award will have an opportunity to request limited financial assistance from the Immigration and Ethnic History Society.
Please submit a copy of the dissertation to this email address: outstandingdissertation@iehs.org. In addition, applicants will arrange for their major advisor to submit a supporting letter. Copies of the dissertation and supporting letter will be shared with each committee member.
Submission deadline: December 1, 2026.
Inquiries, dissertations, and letters should be submitted to outstandingdissertation@iehs.org. This email address will reach all committee members.
Previous Recipients
Sarah Meiners – 2026
“Asylum Archipelago: Migration in the Borders of Empire in the Caribbean and the Pacific,” (Cornell University).
Honorable Mention
Lauren Catterson, “Bad Behaviour at the Border: Abuse, Misconduct, and the Early Twentieth-Century U.S. Immigration Service,” (University of Toronto).
Jian Gao – 2025
“Crossing Borders, Creating Networks: Chinese Mexicans’ Journeys of Longing and Belonging, 1900s-1950s,” (University of Texas, Austin).
Honorable Mention
Mark Tseng-Putterman, “Beyond Belonging: Asian American Internationalism and Cold War Empire,” (Brown University).
Hongdeng Gao – 2024
“From Medical Schools to Free Clinics: Health Activism and Education in New York’s Chinatown, 1950-1980,” (Columbia University).
Michael Salgarolo – 2023
“Transimperial Histories and Racial Formations in Filipino Louisiana, 1860-1949,” (New York University, 2022).
Ivón Padilla-Rodríguez – 2022
“Undocumented Youth: The Labor, Education, and Rights of Migrant Latinx Children in Twentieth-Century America,” (Columbia University).
Dr. Brianna Nofil – 2021
“Detention Power: Jails, Camps, and the Origins of Immigrant Incarceration, 1900-2002,” (Columbia University).
Honorable Mention
Dr. Kathleen Reed, “Graffiti at Ellis Island: Personal Testimony, Mark-Making and Experiences of Immigration Detention, 1900-1924,” (Columbia University).
Matthew Guariglia – 2020
University of Connecticut, “The American Problem: Race, Empire, and Policing in New York City, 1840–1930.”
Brendan A. Shanahan – 2019
“Making Modern American Citizenship: Citizens, Aliens, and Rights, 1865-1965”
Honorable Mention
Evan Taparata,”No Asylum for Mankind: The Creation of Refugee Law and Policy in the United States, 1776-1951.″
Bernadette Jeanne Perez – 2018
Before the Sun Rises: Contesting Power and Cultivating Nations in the Colorado Beet Fields (University of Minnesota, 2017)
Sarah R. Coleman – 2017
Redefining American: The Shifting Politics of Immigration at the End of the Twentieth Century (Princeton University, 2016)
Megan Asaka – 2016
“The Unsettled City: Migration, Race, and the Making of Seattle’s Urban Landscape” (Yale University, 2014)
Jared Toney – 2015
“Locating Diaspora: Afro-caribbean Migration and the Transnational Dialectics of Race and Community in North America, 1910-1929” (University of Toronto, 2014)
Elizabeth Craft (honorable mention) “Becoming American Onstage: Broadway Narratives of Immigrant Experiences in the United States” (Harvard University, 2014)
Julian Lim – 2014
“The Future Immense:’ Race and Immigration in the Multiracial U.S. – Mexico Borderlands” (Cornell University, 2013)