Awards

 Inaugural Top Graduate Student Paper Award in Young People, Media and Conflict Zones

 

 

In concert with its mission, the Foundation invites submissions for the Best Graduate Student Paper at the intersections of the Study of Young People, Media and Conflict Zones

 

 

Submission Deadline

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Email paper submissions by April 1, 2025 to foundationpaper@gmail.com

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Overview

 

The Foundation seeks papers submissions that carve out new pathways into the subject of young people, media, and conflict zones. Submissions should critically interpret how children or youth use, play with, produce, interpret and/or are influenced by media in conflict zones as those areas might also intersect with leisure, violence or socialization

 

Papers should amplify voices or perspectives of children and youth and connect how their respective media uses and practices impinge on the constructions of their culture, civic and national identity, intergroup attitudes, political opinions, and/or peace and conflict related self-efficacy levels, behaviors and practices.

 

Papers may conceptualize children/childhood or youth from a developmental, legal, social constructivist, instrumental-biological, and/or subaltern perspective. They may either be modern or historical in focus. Media analyses of non-formal education, arts, music, dance, and leisure practices and spaces are encouraged.

 

As Warshel (2018, 2019 and 2021) has discussed, children and youth are disproportionately represented and impacted in conflict zones. Efforts to establish peace, equality, justice, and security should consider best approaches for aiding and empowering children and youth. A critical turn in studying young people and media in conflict zones will help provide an understanding about how children and youth interpret, respond to, play with, or use media to shelter themselves from and/or mediate conflict. Papers that inform about such phenomena, processes or interventions are sought.

 

Geographic Foci

Papers that examine the media uses and associated daily lives–past and/or present–of those experiencing the greatest magnitude and intensity of conflicts are highly encouraged, most prominently, across Africa and Asia. Papers exploring these topics might pertain to, among others, Indian, Central African, Bosnian, Cambodian, Colombian, Ukrainian, Palestinian, Congolese, Liberian, Libyan, Nepalese, Nigerian, Pakistani, Afghan, Rwandan, Syrian, Sri Lankan, Sudanese, Ethiopian, or Zimbabwean children, tweens or youth

 

Conceptualization of Childhood, Childhood and Youth

Papers may conceptualize children/childhood or youth from a developmental, legal, social constructivist, instrumental-biological, and/or subaltern perspective. They may either be modern or historical in focus.

 

Conceptualization of Communication and Media

Communication may be conceptualized as artifact, intervention, or contents. Media analyses of non-formal education, arts, music, dance, and leisure practices and spaces, in particular, are encouraged, as partially outlined in Warshel (2018).  

 

Intersectional Foci

Papers that explore media uses and practices as they relate to the lives of those among such conflict zones populations who have been (forcibly-) migrated, are borderlands populations, disabled in or by conflict, LGBTQ, or have been born due to the uses of rape as a weapon of war, and/or whom, through them, have become child mothers, are particularly encouraged, concerns that are, in part, outlined in Warshel (2019).    

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References

Warshel, Y. (2021). How might media aid and empower young people to manage armed political conflict?. Parenting for a Digital

        Future.

Warshel, Y. (2019). Problematizing the variable of conflict to address children, media, and conflict. Journal of Global Ethics, 15(3),

         361–381. https://doi.org/10.1080/17449626.2019.1696384

Warshel, Y. (2018). Conducting Ethical Research with Children Inside and/or Displaced byConflict Zones.  NEOS, 10 (2): 8-10.       

 

 

Eligibility

 

• The competition is open to any currently enrolled graduate students from any discipline and from anywhere around the world.

• Papers may be authored by one or multiple individuals, however, those authored with faculty will not be considered.

• Papers may not have been published.

 

 

Submission Guidelines

 

• Submissions should be emailed to foundationpaper@gmail.com

• "Top Conflict Zone Child Paper Submission" followed by the author/s last name should be listed in the email subject heading.

• A one-page (up to 250-word) abstract must accompany each submission.

• Submissions must be in 12-point, standard font (e.g., Arial or Times New Roman), double spaced, with 1″ margins, no longer than 30 pages (7,500 words), exclusive of the title page, abstract and bibliography.

• All pages, except for the title page, must be numbered.

• The full written paper and abstract must be received by the award deadline as one single document.

• For best consideration, papers should be written in English (while the prize encourages papers written in other languages, regrettably, we cannot guarantee papers in other languages will be able to be read).

• The paper should be submitted by email in .doc, .docx or pdf format

• No late entries will be accepted, and submissions will not be returned.

• Authors will not receive comments on their papers or further information about the selection process.

 

Papers that do not adhere to these guidelines will be disqualified.

 

 

Award Selection Criteria

 

• The selection committee consists of scholars from multiple disciplines; with no bias in discipline/s

• The paper will be judged for originality, quality and rigor.

• Both Empirical (qualitative and/or qualitative) and theoretical papers will be accepted

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The Committee reserves the right to make no award in the event of no qualifying or worthy entries.

 

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Award Winner(s)

 

The author of the winning paper will be presented with:

 

• a certificate acknowledging their receipt of the Top Graduate Student Paper Prize in Young People, Media and Conflict Zones,

• a $300 cash prize, and

• be featured on the Foundation’s webpage and social media accounts.

 

The winner will have the opportunity and be expected to:

 

• write a Guest Blog Post for the Foundation,

• present their paper (via Zoom or in person, as mutually agreeable) during Fall 2025, and

• have the opportunity to connect with the Foundation’s Founding Director, Dr. Yael Warshel, and receive relevant mentorship in order to connect with scholars in this burgeoning subdiscipline.

 

 

The winner will be asked to provide proof of graduate student status demonstrating they were a graduate student at the time the paper was submitted, in order to be provided the award and associated opportunities.

 

 

 

For any questions, contact Dr. Yael Warshel, Founding Director of the Foundation at ywarshel at gmail.com