- Applicants must be registered in a graduate program at a recognized university and be CALACS student members.
- The paper must be unpublished and not yet approved for publication.
- Co-authorships will be accepted as long as the students are affiliated with community organizations or are presented together with community researchers. The co-authors cannot be professors or have already obtained a PhD.
- The recipient is expected to attend the awards ceremony.
- The applicant may be registered in a master's or doctoral program inside or outside of Canada. Doctoral students must not have defended their dissertation prior to the submission deadline.
Papers should be submitted electronically through this submission form:
Submission Form:
Submit Essay →You must upload an anonymous copy of the essay and a title page with your name, program and university affiliation as a separate document. Students may be asked to submit a proof of student status after the essay's submission.
The deadline for receipt of papers is February 6, 2026.
- Papers should be no longer than 20 double-spaced pages including bibliography, footnotes, figures and appendices.
- Papers should be submitted using standard margins in 12-point font with appropriate referencing in Word format.
- Papers will be evaluated following a double-blind review process, thus please submit 1) a title page with your name and affiliation and 2) an anonymous copy of the essay.
- Papers may be submitted in English, French, Portuguese, or Spanish.
Questions can be addressed to the chair of the Graduate Essay Prize:
Dr. Jorge D. Vásquez
Graduate Essay Prize Committee:
• Dr. Jorge D. Vásquez (University of Regina)
• Dr. Hannah Burge Luviano (Queens University)
• Dr. Roberta Silveira Pamplona (Mount Royal University)
The evaluation committee will NOT review papers that do not conform to these guidelines: all papers not responding to these criteria will be automatically disqualified.