Dissertation Prize
Awarded yearly to the most successful use of DH in a dissertation

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The Center for Digital Humanities is pleased to announce that we are accepting nominations for the Digital Humanities Dissertation Prize, which recognizes exceptional doctoral work with a digital humanities component by recipients of Princeton PhDs. Applicants may self-nominate, as long as they secure a letter of recommendation from a Princeton faculty member.
Prize details
Nominees for this year's Prize must have defended their dissertation (FPO) between January 1, 2024 and December 31, 2024. The deadline for nominations is June 1, 2025. The prize carries an award of $2,000.
International students intending to apply for the Prize should contact the CDH first, due to the complexities of processing honoraria after student visas have expired.
To apply
For consideration, please submit the following materials to cdh-info@princeton.edu :
- Dissertation abstract
- Completed dissertation
- Letter of recommendation from a faculty member (typically a dissertation adviser), which can arrive after the deadline and need not be specific to the CDH Dissertation Prize
Please send the first two items as PDF attachments. Letters of recommendation should be sent separately to the same address (cdh-info@princeton.edu) and may be attached as PDFs or written in the text of an email. Please use the subject line “Submission for CDH Dissertation Prize.”
Please email cdh-info@princeton.edu with any questions.
Previous winners
Year | Name | Department | Dissertation |
---|---|---|---|
2023 |
East Asian Studies |
Aural Texts and the Association of Sound and Meaning in Early China |
|
2022 |
Lucas McMahon |
History |
Information Transmission and the Byzantine State: Geography, Logistics, and Geopolitics, 600-1200 |
2021 |
Lizabel Mónica |
Spanish & Portuguese |
Literatura por otros medios: tecnología digital y campo literario en la Cuba contemporánea |
2021 |
English |
Doorstep Moments: Close Encounters with Minor Characters in the Victorian Novel |
|
2019 |
History |
Ocean Fever: Water, Trade, and the Shaping of the Terraqueous Pacific Northwest |
|
2018 |
Philip Gleissner |
Slavic |
Through Thick and Thin: The Social Life of Journals Under Late Socialism |
Related news
Gian Duri Rominger *23 Wins DH Dissertation Prize
4 September 2024
Rominger is now assistant professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literature at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he also teaches in the Data Science minor.

Lucas McMahon Wins CDH Dissertation Prize
27 July 2023
Lucas McMahon *22 (History) was awarded the prize for his dissertation, Information Transmission and the Byzantine State: Geography, Logistics, and Geopolitics, 600–1200.

Presenting This Year’s Winners of the CDH Dissertation Prize
29 July 2022
Congratulations to recent Ph.D. alums Lizabel Mónica *22 (Spanish and Portuguese) and Kristen Starkowski *21 (English)!

Dissertation Prize Winner Sean Fraga Shares Advice, Experiences
12 November 2020
Fraga's work shows how historians can use DH to gain big-picture insights from archival materials.
2018 Dissertation Prize Honoree Reflects on Research, Community
13 April 2020
Editor's Note: The deadline for the 2019 CDH Dissertation Prize has been extended to May 4, 2020.