Public Scholarship Award

The Public Scholarship Award will be presented to an ASHE Member(s) in recognition of a piece of scholarship presented outside of traditional scholarly venues such as journals and books and that has significantly contributed to the study and scholarship of higher education. The Public Scholarship Award is presented for scholarship within a year of publication. The selected scholarship must have an ASHE member as the primary author. The award recipient will present their scholarship during a special session of the conference or during a virtual event during the year, to be coordinated by the Award Committee, ASHE Staff, and award recipient(s).  

Nomination Evaluation Criteria

When reviewing nominations, the awards committee will make decisions based on the following preferred and demonstrated attributes:

1. Significance of the research questions, conceptual/theoretical argument, or pedagogical approach

2. New insight and knowledge that better informs the understanding of higher education

3. Quality and rigor of the methodological approach

4. Contribution/impact of the discovery or innovation

5. Accessibility of the content

6. Clarity of the writing

7. Overall presentation of the work

The Public Scholarship is presented for a work within a year of publication. For 2025, this includes works published between June 1, 2024 and May 31, 2025. 

Awards Timeline

• Early May: Awards Nominations Open

• June 30, 2025, 12:00pm Mountain/Denver Time: Awards Nominations close

• July-September: Committee review of nominations

• Late September: Notification to nominators of committee decisions

• Mid-October: Association-wide announcement of recipients

• November: Awards Ceremony during ASHE 2025 Annual Conference

The award recipient will present their scholarship during a special session of the conference or during a virtual event during the year, to be coordinated by the Award Committee, ASHE Staff, and award recipient(s). 

Due to the number of submissions and the review process, no late submissions will be accepted; as such, nominators are encouraged to submit their nominations well in advance of this deadline. 

Nomination Requirements

To submit a nomination you will need:

• Name, Title, Position, Institution, Email, and Phone Number of Coordinating Nominator

• Name, Title, Position, Institution, Email, and Phone Number of Nominee

• A nomination statement up to 750 words that demonstrates the nominee's match to the award evaluation criteria. This should not be a nomination or support letter, but a summary of the nominee's qualifications for this specific award.

• 2-3 letters of support. For upload into the nomination form, these should be combined into one document, preferably a pdf.

• A PDF version of or instructions in a PDF on how to access the public scholarship.

Due to the increased number of nominations received in recent years, each nominee will be limited to one nomination. In the event multiple nominations are submitted, the committee chair will notify the coordinating nominators requesting they consolidate their nominations.

The coordinating nominator, as well as the award nominee(s) (and subsequently recipient(s)), must be current members of ASHE.

Questions about the award process can be sent to awards@ashe.ws.