The CESS Public Outreach Award is presented to an individual, a group of individuals, or an organization in recognition of extraordinary work that makes knowledge of Central Eurasia accessible to a broad audience. The award is accompanied by a $500 monetary prize. The award is granted every two years, beginning in 2015; the next award will be given in 2021.
Nominations for the 2019 Public Outreach Award are now closed. The deadline was July 15, 2019.
An interdisciplinary panel of scholars of Central Eurasia—appointed by the CESS Executive Board—will consider the nominations for the Public Outreach Award on grounds of the accessibility and impact of the contribution in service (broadly defined) to the field of Central Eurasian Studies.
The 2019 awards committee members were: Martha Merrill (Chair), Laura Adams, Barbara Junisbai and Maya Satlykgylyjova.
Guidelines
Guidelines for the 2019 competition were as follows. These may be updated ahead of the next competition:
- Monographs, edited volumes, audio-visual material, news/blog sites, films, documentaries, and similar resources that are extraordinarily useful in educating non-specialists about Central Eurasia are eligible for consideration. Single articles, news stories, blog posts, or travel guides are not eligible. Materials must have been produced, published, or disseminated in the two years preceding the award deadline.
- Nominations may be made by the producer of the material or someone who has used the material and found it useful. In all cases, nominations should include a description of how the material constitutes “public outreach” and, when relevant, hard or soft copies of the nominated material.
- Individuals and organizations need not be members of CESS to be nominated, but must become members by the nomination deadline to be considered.
- Nominees are only eligible for one competition cycle.
The selection committee will announce the given award at the following CESS Annual Meeting, if the committee determines that the nomination pool meets the standards that it has set. If the pool does not meet standards, the award will not be given in that cycle, and nominations will again be taken in two years’ time.
How to apply
The nomination period for the 2019 award has now passed. Nominations may be made electronically or in hard copy. Details about how to apply in the 2021 competition will be added nearer the time.
Most recent Public Outreach Award
2019 Winner: Mongolia Focus Blog
2019 Honorable Mentions: Marina Abrams for the project Introducing Central Asia through Children’s Literature and Rahimjon Abdugafurov for the documentary film Bukharan Jews: Memories of a Disappearing Past.