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Awards & Prizes

Awards and Prizes for Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association (OTSA).

In addition to supporting the Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association, OTSA membership helps support prizes, awards, and scholarships issued to students and scholars on an annual basis.

Call for Submissions 2025 Awards and Prizes
The Ottoman and Turkish Studies (OTSA) is pleased to announce its annual award
and prize competitions for 2025. Five award competitions are listed in this
announcement, the last three of which are administered by the American
Association of Teachers of Turkic Languages (AATT). Please read the instructions for
each carefully, noting the deadlines and details for the submission of materials.
OTSA encourages scholars and students to apply for awards and invites teachers to
encourage their students to apply as well!

  1. OTSA BOOK PRIZE ($1000)
  2. OTSA Article Prize ($300)
  3. OTSA GRADUATE STUDENT PAPER PRIZE ($200): EXTENDED DEADLINE, NOW JULY 18!
  4. VANGELIS KECHRIOTIS MEMORIAL TRAVEL GRANT ($500)
  5. THE MÜTEFERRİQA AWARD FOR DIGITAL OTTOMAN AND TURKISH
    STUDIES ($5,250): EXTENDED DEADLINE, NOW JULY 18!
  6. OTSA BOOK PRIZE ($1000)
    An annual prize awarded to the most outstanding book in the field of Ottoman and
    Turkish studies published in the previous year (copyright date of 2024), sponsored
    by the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association with the generous support of our
    dues-paying membership. Nominations may be made by the author, colleagues,
    publisher, or friends. Translated books, edited volumes, fiction, and textbooks are
    not eligible. Submissions must be in English.

    Conditions for submission:
  1. THE OTSA ARTICLE PRIZE
    By decision of the OTSA board, the OTSA Article prize will now be awarded on an
    annual basis, rather than a biennial basis. This prize is awarded for an outstanding
    article in the field of Ottoman and Turkish Studies. The prize will be awarded to
    articles published in the previous year (Jan. 2024-Dec. 2024). Only ONE submission
    may be made per author.
    If an author appears as a co-author on a second submission, that is allowable only
    if the nomination is made by the co-author or a third party (e.g. Can Sinov may not
    nominate their co-authored paper with Roxelana Osmanova if Sinov has already
    nominated a solo authored paper, the co-authored paper may still be considered if
    nominated by Osmanova, or a third party). Eligible submissions include peerreviewed
    journal articles and peer-reviewed chapters in edited volumes. Pre-print
    digital editions of articles published in 2024 which will appear in journal volumes in
    2025 or later are eligible, with the proviso that the same article cannot then be
    submitted for consideration in a subsequent year. Articles which appeared in preprint
    in 2024 but will be included in a 2025 journal volume may be submitted for
    consideration next year (2026), provided the pre-print was not first submitted for a
    prior award. Submissions must be in English.
    Nominations may be made by the author, colleagues, publisher, or friends.

    Applicants must submit the following in an e-mail:
  1. EXTENDED DEADLINE: OTSA GRADUATE STUDENT PAPER PRIZE ($200)
    An annual prize for the best paper in Turkish or Ottoman studies written by a
    graduate student in Turkish or Ottoman studies during the preceding academic
    year (2024-25 for the award given in 2025). This award is sponsored by the
    Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association with the generous support of our duepaying
    membership. The winning paper will be considered for publication in
    the Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies (JOTSA).

    Applications should include:
  1. VANGELIS KECHRIOTIS MEMORIAL TRAVEL GRANT ($500)
    This grant will be awarded in memory of Professor Vangelis Kechriotis (1969-2015)
    to a doctoral candidate undertaking a research trip for his/her dissertation. The
    grant recipient will be selected by a panel of scholars based on the relevance and
    potential contribution of the proposed work to the fields and concerns important to
    Professor Kechriotis, such as the history of Ottoman non-Muslims, Greek-Ottoman
    and Greek-Turkish relations, or Ottoman Balkan Studies. The selected applicant will
    be expected to acknowledge the Vangelis Kechriotis Memorial Travel Grant in
    his/her dissertation and in any subsequent publications that result from the
    research supported by this grant.
    Applicants for the grant are asked to submit the following: a current CV, a copy of
    the applicant’s dissertation proposal, a description of the specific research trip to be
    undertaken, a working budget, including what other funds have already been
    secured, a letter of recommendation from the applicant’s dissertation advisor,
    addressing the applicant’s qualifications and the significance of the research she/he
    will be undertaking. (Letters should be printed on official stationery and scanned
    before sending by email).
  1. EXTENDED DEADLINE: THE MÜTEFERRİQA AWARD FOR DIGITAL OTTOMAN AND TURKISH STUDIES
    With the generous support of Miletos, OTSA has established a new prize to support
    promising scholarship in the field of Digital Ottoman and Turkish Studies by early
    career researchers. This award is meant to support work by promising advanced
    undergraduates, graduate students, and scholars who have completed their Ph.D.
    within the last three years (no earlier than July 2022). The award will consist of three
    annual payments of $1,750 for a total of $5,250. The award will be given to the
    applicant who can best demonstrate potential for a major scholarly contribution
    using available tools and methods of digital Ottoman and Turkish Studies. This
    award is not meant for the development of new digital tools – the end product
    should be a work of scholarship, either a dissertation, book, journal article, book
    chapter, or other analytical scholarly contribution.
    Applicants should submit the following to Professor Akın Sefer,
    akin.sefer@khas.edu.tr, chair of the award committee: