ARCC Dissertation Award

Nominations Due: October 31, 2025

The ARCC Dissertation Award recognizes excellence in dissertation research by a doctoral student from an ARCC member school. The award is intended to honor significant new research in architecture and environmental design and to recognize the achievement of an emerging scholar.

ARCC defines ‘architectural research’ broadly and inclusively across a range of domains in support of advancing knowledge of the built environment.

Dissertations filed during the previous academic year are eligible. Each ARCC member institution is invited to nominate one student dissertation.

Information included in the Nomination submission for the ARCC Dissertation Award:

  • Nominee contact information: name, title, phone, email
  • Abstract: 500 words max. _ Outlining the interest in the award with a summary description of the purpose, scope, and goals of the dissertation.
  • Confirmation of good standing of ARCC institution membership: to be verified by the ARCC Treasurer prior to consideration.
  • Nomination Letter: original letter on official letterhead from Dean or Department Head of the nominee’s institution that explains the importance of the dissertation to the field.
  • A PDF Copy of the Full Dissertation Manuscript.

The ARCC Board of Directors will render final decisions on the conferral of this award based on 1) the quality of the research, 2) the potential impact of the research in the field, and 3) the strength of the writing and presentation of the research. Award finalists who do not receive the ARCC Dissertation Award will receive an Honorable Mention.

The recipient of the Dissertation Award receives up to $1500 reimbursement to present their research at the next ARCC Conference. The author will also be invited to publish an article extracted from the dissertation topic in the indexed ARCC research journal, ENQ.

Send electronic submission to ConfTool  by October 31 2025 in electronic form using “.pdf” file format.

Former Recipients:

Farzad Hashemi, Pennsylvania State University,
Elena Vazquez, Penn State University
Tzu-Chieh Kurt Hong, Georgia Institute of Technology
AnnaMarie Bliss, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Nastaran Shishegar, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Girmay Kifle Berhie, Texas Tech University