Research Committees

Established by Research Committee on Language and Society of the International Sociological Association in April 2018 it gathers the awards created in June 2011 (the Award for Academic Excellence, dedicated to scholars having a PhD, and the Graduate Student Award).

Purpose

The purpose of this award is to promote scholarship and to recognize academic excellence in the field of language and society.

Recognition

The winner of the Award for Academic Excellence will be recognized with an engraved plaque at the RC25 reception at the ISA World Congress of Sociology and at the interim conferences. Awards will also be announced in the RC25 newsletter.

Eligibility

All articles published in the RC25 journal, Language, Discourse & Society are eligible. Language, Discourse & Society Language, Discourse & Society publishes articles written in the official languages of the ISA: English, French and Spanish. All articles published since the past Interim Conference or ISA World Congress of Sociology and at least three months in advance of the next Interim conference or the World Congress will be considered for the Award.

Members of the Executive Board, Editorial Board and of the Award Committee are not eligible.

Nominations

The Award Committee consists of three scholars and a chair; it will evaluate articles in English, French and Spanish.

The RC25 Executive Board appoints the chair of the Award Committee for a period of four years. She or he is responsible solely for administering the award process. This includes but is not limited to establishing the composition of the Awards Committee, and the call for papers. The full Executive Board must approve all decisions by the chair before they can be implemented. The Committee members must be scholars with demonstrated expertise in the field and appropriate language skills. Members of the RC25 Executive Board and of the editorial board of Language, Discourse & Society are not eligible to sit on the Awards Committee.

The chair does not vote but oversees the process and to the extent possible maintains the anonymity of the authors and of the rankings provided by journal reviewers. Since these are all published articles, it is impossible to maintain complete anonymity in the review process.

The chair of the Award Committee will submit a list of winners and documentation of the award process to the Executive Board for approval and formal announcement.

Costs

No monetary prize is linked to this award. The RC plans to spend a maximum of $200 USD for the engraved plaque.

Timetables

Award will be made at RC25 reception every two years at the ISA World Congress of Sociology and at the Interim Conferences.