The Lisa Gilad Prize was established in memory of Lisa Gilad, social anthropologist, refugee status decision-maker, author of ethnographies of migration, and devoted member of the scholarly network that established the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration. Lisa Gilad died in a tragic accident in 1996, aged 38.
This prize honours an early career author and member of the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration who has published a particularly meritorious contribution to refugee studies as a peer-reviewed article on forced migration in a scholarly journal.
Details of the Prize
- At each general meeting of the IASFM, a prize shall be awarded to a peer-reviewed article on forced migration published in a scholarly journal in the period since the last prize. The prize will be awarded to the author of the article adjudged to make the most intellectually creative and socially important contribution to research on forced migration.
- Eligibility for the prize will be based on the author’s stage of career at the date on which the article was published and membership status in IASFM . On that date, the author must be within 5 years of their highest degree (with medical and childcare leaves not counted as part of the timeframe). The author must also be a current member in good standing of IASFM.
- At least 4 months before the general meeting, the chair of the Lisa Gilad prize committee must launch a public call for papers, which will be advertised for at least 4 weeks on the IASFM website, listserv and social media platforms. To be eligible for the prize, the paper must be peer reviewed and published in a scholarly journal by the closing date of the call. Papers published in languages other than English must be accompanied by an English translation, as English is the working language of the IASFM.
- Each eligible IASFM member may only submit one paper per competition.
- Co-authored papers will be accepted if all authors fulfil the eligibility criteria. If the prize is awarded to a co-authored paper, the prize money will be divided equally amongst all co-authors.
- No one can be awarded the Lisa Gilad Prize more than once.
- The prize committee must be composed of at least 3 members, whose disciplinary and thematic expertise is complementary.
- The winner of the prize will be announced at the general meeting and listed on the IASFM website. They will receive a cash prize of US $350.
- The terms or conditions of the Prize may be varied by motion of the President of the IASFM, approved by a majority vote of the members in attendance at a biennial meeting of the Association.
Winners
January 2025: Jasmin Lilian Diab – “Missiles and Misfits: Reimagining Home and Security for Queer Internally Displaced Persons From South Lebanon”
August 2022: Kudakwashe Vanyoro – ‘This place is a bus stop’: Temporalities of Zimbabwean migrant men waiting at a Zimbabwe-South Africa border transit shelter
July 2021: Benjamin Thomas White – “Humans and animals in a refugee camp: Baquba, Iraq, 1918–20.”
July 2018: Nevena Nancheva – “Bulgaria’s Response to Refugee Migration: Institutionalizing the Boundary of Exclusion“
July 2016: Anna Lise Purkey – “A Dignified Approach: Legal Empowerment and Justice for Human Rights Violations in Protracted Refugee Situations”
January 2013: Dr. Fiddian-Qasmiyeh – “The Pragmatics of Performance: Putting ‘Faith’ in Aid in the Sahrawi Refugee Camps”
July 2011: Laurie Berg, Jenni Millbank (2009) – “Constructing the Personal Narratives of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Asylum Claimants”
January 2008: Binoy Kampmark – “‘Spying for Hitler’ and ‘Working for Bin Laden’: Comparative Australian Discourses on Refugees” and Alice Szczepanikova – “Gender Relations in a Refugee Camp: A Case of Chechens Seeking Asylum in the Czech Republic”
January 2005: Jennifer Hyndman – “Preventive, Palliative or Punitive? Safe Spaces in Bosnia Herzegovina, Somalia and Sri Lanka” and Loren Landau – “Beyond the Losers: Transforming Governmental Practice in Refugee Affected Tanzania”
January 2003: Oliver Bakewell – “Repatriation and Self-Settled Refugees in Zambia: Bringing Solutions to the Wrong Problems”