2023 Recipient – Mia Brantley, Ph.D., and Caroline Sanner, Ph.D.

Purpose

This award is presented in memory of Jessie Bernard, former NCFR Board Member and pioneer in the field of feminist family studies. Jessie Bernard declared herself a feminist in 1970 and is known for her celebrated work examining the influence of sexism on women’s experiences in marriage, parenting, and society. She was a board member of the American Sociological Association, the Groves Conference on Marriage and Family, and NCFR. Her work was instrumental in foregrounding gender in Family Science and since then feminist family scholars have challenged sexist, racist, classist, ableist, and heterosexist biases within our field. In honor of her legacy, the purpose of this award is to celebrate rigorous feminist family scholarship that queries and problematizes the numerous biases and systems of privilege and oppression within Family Science and society.

Award

The award recipient receives up to $350 in travel allowance, up to $95 toward the NCFR Annual Conference registration to accept the award, and a plaque. The award is presented at the beginning of a plenary session at the NCFR Annual Conference.

Criteria

Nominees should be graduate students or new professionals (with up to five years of post-doctoral work). Membership in NCFR or in the Feminism and Family Science Section is not required.

The paper may be empirical or theoretical and must contribute to feminist scholarship about families and the use of feminist frameworks and methods. Specifically, proposals will be ranked in six categories: 1) Use of Feminist Frameworks/Methods Challenging Biases within Family Science, 2) Theory Application, 3) Methodological Soundness, 4) Communication and Written Skills, 5) Contribution to Future Feminist and Family Science Scholarship, and 6) Results/Findings & Discussion. Both published and unpublished manuscripts will be considered. If published, the paper must have been in a peer-reviewed academic source during the previous or current calendar year. Unpublished papers should be at near-submission status. To view the detailed reviewer guidelines, scroll to the bottom of this webpage.

Nomination/application process

The applicant should submit a:

• Cover letter (Authors should identify themselves only in their cover letters so that all entries can be reviewed anonymously – all identifying references should be removed from the paper or proposal submissions);
• Abstract of 150 words or less;
• Paper not exceeding 35 manuscript pages (Applicants should be the sole author or first author of the paper.
• Both published and unpublished manuscripts will be considered. If published, the paper must have been in a peer-reviewed academic source during the previous or current calendar year. Unpublished papers should be at near-submission status.
• Please submit your abstract, manuscript, and any accompanying tables and figures in one PDF

Only one submission per category will be accepted from any applicant.

Deadlines

May 15: Application deadline. Submissions should go through the form found at: https://forms.gle/sW4z7Q2kqZmTHmEW6 
July 31: The recipient is notified by this date

Any questions can be sent directly to Erin Lavender-Stott  ([email protected])