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Ruth C. Schaffer Award
Purpose
The Ruth C. Schaffer Award, established in 2005, recognizes high achievement by undergraduate or graduate students who have written a research paper accepted
for presentation at the American Sociological Association meetings occurring in the year during which the award is made.
Background
The award is named in honor of Ruth C. Schaffer, who was hired by the University in 1971 and taught in our department
from 1972 through 1991, when she retired and was appointed Professor Emerita. A student of Rupert B. Vance and Floyd
Hunter, she conducted community research throughout her career. She carefully traced networks of power and showed how
cliques used resources to gain their objectives, even though doing so sometimes violated ideals of equality and social
justice. As a member of the Minority Affairs Committee, she tirelessly urged the University to build a more diverse
faculty, staff and student body. Known for the long hours she spent with students, insistent that they learn to do good
research and write well, she was much beloved by them. In 1982, she received the College-Level Teaching Award from the
Former Students Association. She died unexpectedly in 2003.
Eligibility
All graduate or undergraduate students in the Department of Sociology who have written a paper or co-written a paper with
another undergraduate or graduate student are eligible to submit a paper for consideration for this award, so long as the
following criteria are met:
1. The paper has been accepted for presentation at the upcoming meetings of the American Sociological Association on a
regular or section session panel, but not including presentation at a round-table or poster session.
2. The students are currently registered and in good standing with the University at the time of the award.
3. If the paper is co-authored with other students, only those co-authors who are currently registered and in good
standing with the University are eligible to share in the monetary award.
4. If the paper is co-authored, none of the co-authors are members of the faculty of the department or of any other
department in an institution of higher learning.
Award Selection
All papers submitted will be read by members of the Student Awards Committee as appointed by the Department Head. The
committee will consist of no fewer than three tenured or tenure-track faculty in the department.
1. A committee member may not discuss or evaluate papers submitted by a graduate student if they also sit on that
student’s dissertation or thesis committee. Should this problem arise, the Department Head may appoint additional
members of the committee to ensure that each paper is read by at least three faculty members who are not the student’s
advisors.
2. If in the committee’s judgment, no paper among the papers submitted meets the standard of excellence, the committee
may chose to give no award.
Award
The author of the paper selected by the committee will receive an award of $500 to be paid as a credit against tuition
and fees owed to the University during the next semester in which they are registered. Co-authors eligible to share in
the award will split the award equally.
Past Recipients
2005-2006 - D'Lane Compton
2004-2005 - Karen S. Glover
College of Liberal Arts Dissertation Research Awards
The College of Liberal Arts usually awards four to six $2500 grants in each academic
year in support of doctoral dissertation research. A minimum of two awards will be given in the
humanities and a minimum of two awards in the social sciences. Each department in the College
will be able to nominate a maximum of two students. In cases of departments with both social
science and humanities components, one student may be nominated in each area, or two in a single
area. The department must specify the category in which each nominee is being nominated. To be
elgible, the student must have a dissertation on file with OGS.
Other Awards
Undergraduate Scholarships
Two undergraduate scholarships, of $500 each, to “top performing” Sociology majors of junior standing or higher.
The Department determines this by highest overall GPA. Named after Bardin Nelson and Robert Skrabanek, these scholarships
are announced sometime in April.
Graduate Funding
1. Travel funds in a sliding scale are awarded on a first-come first-serve basis, but
sizeable sums are invariably dedicated to ASA participation in late August.
2. Summer research grants (of $500 to $1000), with priority given to
dissertations near completion for which students have also previously submitted one or more proposals for external
funding. In addition, unusual graduate student achievement also qualifies for grants, as determined first by the
Department Chair and EC.
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