01/27/2025

CSCA ... Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Caucus Call for Award Nominations

Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Caucus

Call for Award Nominations

The Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Caucus of the Central States Communication Association is looking for scholars (or their peers!) to nominate their best work for this year’s caucus awards. Nominations for awards will be accepted through Friday, February 21, 2025.  Self-nominations are welcome. Anyone may nominate scholarship or scholars for the awards, but all scholarship receiving an award must be a SOGI Caucus member as an author/editor/creator and the winner of the Chesebro Award must be a member of the SOGI Caucus.

Making nominations is easy! Simply click here and enter some brief information about the scholarship you believe is deserving of an award.

Nominations are open for three different awards:

The Innovator Award honors one or more outstanding books from the past five years (copyright 2020-2024). The committee may honor a single/joint-authored book, or--at their discretion--may also honor an edited collection and/or a special issue of a journal. No more than three awards (one single/joint-authored, one edited collection, one special journal issue) will be made in a given year. Any book or special journal issue nominated should address some form of gender or sexuality-oriented scholarship. That can include sexual orientation or gender identity, but it can also include feminism, queer theory, gender studies, or topics regarding general human sexuality. The winning author(s) of the book or editor(s) of the edited collection or special issue will receive a certificate. For any nominated work, at least one author or editor must be a member of the SOGI Caucus of CSCA.

The Outstanding Scholarship Award honors up to three published articles, book chapters, or peer-reviewed artistic works from the past year (date listed on published work or date presented/exhibited will determine the eligibility date). At least one author/creator for each work nominated must be a member of the SOGI Caucus of CSCA. Only articles, book chapters, or artistic works with a 2024 publication date (as listed on the work) or debut presentation date are eligible.

The James W. Chesebro Award for Scholarly Distinction honors a scholar in the field who has made a notable contribution to the study of sexuality, especially in consideration of sexual orientation or gender identity. Typical recipients of this award will be at the mid-career level or higher. The winner of this award will receive a special keepsake. The recipient of this award must be a member of the CSCA SOGI Caucus.

The winners will be honored during the SOGI Caucus business meeting at this year’s CSCA convention in Cincinnati, Ohio. If you have questions about the nomination process, please contact this year’s awards chair, Stephanie Young, at slyoung@usi.edu.