Jacques May Thesis Prize

The Health & Medical Geography Specialty Group (HMGSG) of the AAG is accepting submissions for the Jacques May Thesis Prize.

  • Awardees receive an official certificate & a cash award of $250 (doctoral) or $150 (Master’s).
  • Since 1985, the prize has been awarded to master’s & doctoral theses that address themes in health & medical geography, broadly defined.
  • Evaluated by a panel of reviewers, theses will be judged on their contribution to the
    field, their methodological approach, organization, & written composition.

Eligibility: Master’s or doctoral theses officially completed during the 24 months prior to the submission deadline are eligible, provided that they have not been previously considered for the prize. Theses should directly address a topic central to health and medical geography. Membership in the American Association of Geographers is required, but membership in the HMGSG is not.

Submission & Review:

Submissions should be sent to both Sadie Ryan (sryan@ufl.edu) & Arrianna Planey (amplaney@email.unc.edu).

  • Only electronic submissions will be considered.
  • Theses must be in PDF (Adobe Acrobat) format, & completely anonymous to enable
    double-blind reviews (i.e., the thesis must be free of all references to the author in the front matter, notes, references, headers, etc.).
  • Submissions will be reviewed by at least two anonymous referees, who will make their recommendations to the HMGSG board.

Submission Email: The submission’s email subject line & email message must include the following information:

  • the email subject heading should read as “HMGSG-AAG Jacques May submission”; &,
  • the message should include:
    1. full name & current contact information department & university affiliation;
    2. title of thesis;
    3. thesis category (masters or doctoral) & date of completion;
    4. a brief abstract;
    5. thesis advisor’s name; &,
    6. names & email addresses of 3-4 potential reviewers.
      1. Reviewers must not be committee members or faculty at the student’s university or have any past formal association with the author (e.g., research collaboration, co-authorship, etc.).
      2. Key authors in the field (e.g., from the thesis’ bibliography) are appropriate.

Awards Decisions: The HMGSG will announce the winner of the prize at the 2023 HMGSG business meeting at Denver, CO.

  • Winners are expected to present at a special award session at the American Association of Geographers annual meeting in Denver, CO.

Submission Deadline: The submission deadline of dissertation abstracts along with the details mentioned above will be posted soon.

Questions? contact by email both:

  • Sadie Ryan (University of Florida |
    sryan@ufl.edu).
  • Arrianna Planey UNC | amplaney@email.unc.edu)