The Patricia O'Brien Award will be presented this spring to the students who submit a superior undergraduate anthropology paper. Any undergraduate anthropology major or minor is eligible to enter. This year, the award includes a prize of $1500 for each of the two winners. Papers will be judged based on excellence, demonstrated through problem focus, clarity of argument, and overall contribution to the field. development of ideas, literature covered, writing style, originality, and contribution to the field. Papers will be judged by the department's Awards Committee consisting of faculty members from all the field's subdisciplines. At the committee's discretion, an outside reviewer may be asked to assist in the evaluation of a particular entry. Oral evaluation of the candidates to determine the winner is optional and at the discretion of the committee. For more information on the requirements, please see the description on our departmental website: https://anthro.illinois.edu/resources/department-campus-awards

Papers must be submitted no later than 5:00pm, Friday, April 11, 2025. Papers must be submitted electronically to Joyce Dowell at joyce14@illinois.edu. The papers must be cleanly typed, and the format should be as appropriate for professional journals such as American Anthropologist, American Antiquity, or American Journal of Physical Anthropology. The paper must be anthropological in subject matter and approach. Senior Capstone, Senior honor theses, course research papers, fieldwork analyses, and independent projects are all acceptable entries. The paper must have been written or substantially developed while the student has been at the University of Illinois and not to exceed 35 pages.

The Patricia O'Brien Award Committee will announce the winner via email. The winner will be announced at the Department Awards Spring Banquet on Thursday, May 1rst. If you have any questions regarding the competition, do not hesitate to contact me (jelinek@illinois.edu). We strongly encourage you to submit a paper to the competition and wish you the best of success if you do!