The IMISCOE Network is calling for nominations for its 2025 Maria Ioannis Baganha Dissertation Award. Named in honour of Maria Ioannis Baganha, a prominent scholar and one of the founders of IMISCOE, the Network has awarded this prize annually since 2010 to stimulate and recognize excellent PhD research in the field of migration studies.
Eligibility and requirements
The 2025 competition is open to all PhD recipients whose official defence date occurred within the 24-month period preceding the launch of this Call on October 7, 2024. The competition is open to all interested candidates whether they are based at an IMISCOE Member Institute or not. Dissertations from all academic disciplines and methodological approaches are welcome. Both monographs and article-based theses are accepted for the award. In the latter case, at least one substantive article (which is not the introduction nor the conclusion) should be single-authored, and details should be provided regarding the candidate’s contribution to the co-authored articles/chapters which were part of the thesis. Applicants who have applied in earlier years cannot apply again.
Nominations must demonstrate a significant contribution to the field of international migration research in one or more of these criteria
- Research quality
- Originality
- Theoretical contribution
- Methodological/empirical contribution
Applicants must submit the following:
- A completed application form (available here)
- A summary of the dissertation (in max. 2.000 words) and up to 5 keywords
- A single PDF file of the dissertation including all appendices, references, notes etc.
- A CV (max. 2 pages)
- A letter of recommendation from a member of the thesis committee who was not the candidate’s supervisor or co-supervisor nor was affiliated to the same institution where the PhD was obtained at the time of the thesis defence. Examiners' reports are not considered as letters of recommendation.
- Only for articles-based theses: a letter detailing the candidate's contribution to the co-authored articles/chapters which were part of the thesis.
Applications must be in English, but the manuscript can be written in any language that IMISCOE Member Institutes deem acceptable for PhD dissertation submissions.
Jury
The multi-disciplinary jury comprises experienced members of the IMISCOE Research Network who are recognised experts in their field. All members of the jury must declare the absence of any potential conflict of interest. Jury members cannot take part in the evaluation of their own PhD candidates, or candidates from their own institute or candidates with whom they share direct collaborative links (e.g., a joint publication).
Two-stage review procedure
The evaluation of the applications will be done in two stages. In the first stage, the jury will draw up a short list of candidates from the pool of applications based mainly on the assessment of the summaries provided by the applicants. Each shortlisted dissertation will be reviewed in the second stage by a member of the jury and one external evaluator. The winner will be notified in June 2025.
Prize
The award includes a cash prize (paid only to a university institutional account) and the opportunity to have the dissertation published in Open Access in the IMISCOE-Springer Research Series, free of charge but subject to the manuscript’s review by the book series’ Editorial Committee. If the winning thesis is article-based, one of the articles can be published free of charge in the journal Comparative Migration Studies upon the manuscript review by the journal’s Editorial Board.
Presentation
The award is scheduled to be presented at the 22nd IMISCOE Annual Conference, to be held in Paris and Online on 1-4 July 2025. The winner is expected to attend the Award Ceremony and present their work.
Deadline
Applications should be submitted by email to the IMISCOE Network Office: