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Gaus Prize: Call for Papers

This prize is now closed. Thank you for your interest, and check back in 2024 for the next cycle!

Prize Overview:

Gerald Gaus valued new approaches to PPE and the asking of new (or too long ignored) questions. This prize calls for papers that embrace this spirit. We welcome essays on pretty much any topic as long as they work to make vivid the advantages of combining the tools of philosophy and social science to understand social and political institutions. This may, but need not, be on the primary themes of Gaus’ work: complexity, dynamics, and the justification of shared rules in a diverse society.

The winner of the prize will receive a funding award and the opportunity to present their essay at an afternoon session of this year’s Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Society Annual Meeting, to be held November 2-4, 2023. The session will be built around the winning essay, with contributions from two more senior scholars.

Submission Guidelines:

  • Submissions must be anonymized PDFs. If your submission has any identifying information, you will be asked to resubmit.
  • Essays must be 4000-7500 words (15-25 pages).
  • Essays must have a working title.
  • Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but submitted papers must be unpublished at the time of submission.
  • Only one submission per person.
  • You must be a currently active graduate student to submit.

Judges:

Chair: Ryan Muldoon (University at Buffalo)
Prize Committee: Hélène Landemore (Yale), Alexandra Oprea (UNC Chapel Hill), John Thrasher (Chapman), Kevin Vallier (Bowling Green), and Chad Van Shoelandt (Tulane)