The Dean’s Distinguished Dissertation Award recognizes the scholarly contributions of a dissertation project. The recipient of the 2026 award will be recognized at the Arts & Humanities Division Spring Convocation on Friday, June 5, 2026.

Each department may submit one nominee to be considered for the award. The dossier is to be submitted to the Dean of Students Office at ahd-dos@uchicago.edu no later than TBD.

Eligibility

• A 2026 nominee must have a graduation date in one of the four quarters between Spring quarter 2025 and Winter quarter 2026. 

Selection criteria

• Originality
• Innovation
• Excellence in writing
• Scholarly excellence
• Methodological sophistication
• Significant contribution to the field
• Time-to-degree: Preference for the award will be given to nominees who graduated within 7 years from matriculation.

Award amount and recognition

• The 2026 awardee will receive a cash award of $1500, a certificate, and will be recognized at the Arts & Humanities Division Spring Convocation on Friday, June 5, 2026 at 4:30 p.m.

Dossier must be submitted as one pdf file to ahd-dos@uchicago.edu by TBD and include the following:

1)  A letter of nomination from the department chair that:
     i) provides departmental endorsement;
     ii) comments on academic circumstances relating to the time-to-degree.
2) A letter of support from the dissertation committee chair that:
     i) explains the impact of this thesis work on the field;
     ii) assesses the nominee’s scholarly creativity in the thesis work;
     iii) addresses any technical or methodological difficulties that were surmounted;
     iv) cites external recognition in the field, such as grant awards or scholarly presentations.
3) A second letter of support from a dissertation committee member.
4) A copy of the abstract that was submitted for the dissertation defense.
5) A copy of the thesis.

Selection Process

The committee for the Dean's Distinguished Dissertation Award will review all nominations. The committee includes the Deputy Dean(s) of the Division of the Arts & Humanities and the Dean of Students of the Division of the Arts & Humanities.

Past Award Winners

• 2025 - Laurenz Ramsauer (PHL)
• 2024 - Laura Colaneri (RLL)
• 2023 – Alexander Murphy (EALC)
• 2022 - Katerina Korola (CMS/ARTH)
• 2021 - Samuel Lasman (CMPLT)
• 2020 - Lester (Zhuqing) Hu  (MUSI)