Current Committee Charge: The committee solicits nominations and selects recipients for the Student Paper Award. The award is presented to recognize the best student paper presented at the SAA annual meeting.
Committee Composition: Committee composition is one chair and five members.
Committee Chair and End of Term: Mary Ann Levine [2014]
Committee Chair Contact Information: Mary Ann Levine; Department of Anthropology, Franklin and Marshall College; Lancaster PA 17604; ph: (717) 291-4193; fax: (717) 358-4500; e-mail: maryann.levine@fandm.edu
Committee Members and Ends of Terms: Heather Lapham [2012], Christopher Andres [2013], Erik Bartelink [2012], Sarah McClure [2013], Mark Hill [2013]
Board Liaison: Melinda Zeder
Award Description: This award recognizes an outstanding student conference paper based on original research.
Who Is Eligible to Submit Nominations or Apply for the Award: All student members of SAA in good standing whose paper abstract has been accepted by the SAA for the upcoming annual meeting are eligible to participate. All co-authors must be students, and the first author must be a member of the SAA. All co-authors receive the award.
Nomination/Submission Materials Required: The paper abstract must be accepted by SAA for the upcoming annual meeting. All co-authors must be students, and the first author must be a member of the SAA. The paper must be double-spaced, with 1-inch margins and 12-pt font. Please do not submit raw data unless they are to be presented as part of the paper itself. An average 15-minute paper is approximately 8 pages long (double-spaced, not including references cited). Any paper longer than this will be docked points.
The student must submit electronic copies of 1) a separate title page with name and full contact information; 2) the conference paper containing slide call outs and references; and 3) pdfs of all PowerPoint slides, with numbered captions, to be used in the oral presentation. Please DO NOT put your name anywhere besides the cover sheet so that your paper may be reviewed anonymously by the committee. Please send submissions to the committee chair.
The student must have a faculty or supervisory sponsor review the paper before the student submits it to the Student Paper Award Committee. The faculty/supervisory sponsor must send an email to the submission address at the time of paper submission saying that he/she has read and approved the paper being submitted.
Nomination/Submission Deadline: January 12, 2012
Other Special Requirements: None
Selection or Evaluation Criteria: Committee members evaluate papers anonymously, scoring them on the 1) quality of the arguments presented, 2) quality of supporting data, 3) contribution to broader methodological or theoretical issues in archaeology, 4) contribution to understanding a specific region or topic, 5) quality of writing, paper structure and length, and 6) quality, appropriateness and number of graphics for a 15-minute oral presentation.
Committee Deliberation Process (e.g. dates, venue): The committee meets electronically after the submission deadline has passed.
Nature of Award (e.g. monetary, medal, symposium): The award winner or winners receives acknowledgement from the SAA president and more than $1000 worth of books and other prizes. All co-authors will receive the award.
Helpful Links
Student Paper Award Committee scoring matrix
How to win the Student Paper Award and Impress a Conference Audience:
http://www.saa.org/Portals/0/SAA/Publications/thesaaarchrec/Nov2009.pdf
Creating good PowerPoint presentations:
http://desktoppub.about.com/od/microsoft/bb/powerpointrules.htm
http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/resources/technology/business-software/presenting-with-powerpoint-10-dos-and-donts.aspx#Powerpointtips
http://www.ezinearticles.com/?Creating-a-Professional-Microsoft-PowerPoint-Presentation&id=166464
Awardees
2011
Melanie Beasley, Jack Meyer, Eric J. Bartelink, and Randy Miller
“Human Bone Diagenesis in a Prehistoric Burial Mound from the Central California Delta: Bioarchaeological and Geoarchaeological Approaches”
Through their well-written and argued paper titled “Human Bone Diagenesis in a Prehistoric Burial Mound from the Central California Delta: Bioarchaeological and Geoarchaeological Approaches,” Melanie Beasley, Jack Meyer, Eric J. Bartelink, and Randy Miller contribute to both site-specific and potentially discipline-wide archaeological investigations. Using real world examples, they demonstrate the utility of geoarchaeology for selecting viable samples of human bone for stable isotope analysis. As they state explicitly, their methods are useful not just for understanding cultural and geological histories of individual sites; they also enable archaeologists to make the most of limited funding and field time, and to select only the most information-rich human bones for invasive analyses.
2010
John M. Marston, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California at Los Angeles
“Identifying Agricultural Risk Management Using Paleoethnobotanical Remains”
2009
Michael Mathiowetz, University of California at Riverside
“The Son of God Who is in the Sun: Political Authority and the Personified Sun God in Ancient West and Northwest Mexico”
2009*
David Anderson, Tulane University
“Xtobo and the Emergent Preclassic of Northwest Yucatan, Mexico”
*notable second place winner
2007
Scott Ortman, Arizona State University
"Population Biology of the Four Corners to Rio Grande Migration"
2006
Metin I. Eren, Southern Methodist University, and Mary E. Prendergast, Harvard University
"The Reduction Rumble! A Comparison of Reduction Values, Means, and Ranges"
2005
Elizabeth Horton (with Christina Rieth), Washington State University
"Style, Function and Ceramic Manufacture: A Case Study from Central New York"
2004
Briana L. Popiner and David R. Braun, Rutgers University
"Strengthening the Inferential Link between Cutmark Frequency Data and Oldowan Hominid
Behavior: Results from Modern Butchery Experiments"
2003
Devin Alan White, University of Colorado at Boulder
"Hyperspectral Remote Sensing in Southern Arizona"
2002
Christopher Morehart, Florida State University
"A Paleoethnobotanical Perspective in Ancient Maya Cave Utilization"
2000
Nathan S. Lowrey (with Thomas C. Pleger), American University
"Landscapes of Contention: Socioeconomic Intensification and the Rise of Communalism among the Late Woodland and Effigy Mound Cultures"