2026 Adnan Al Mhamied Student Essay Prize

Undergraduate, MA and PhD students at McGill University, Laval University, UQAM and Concordia who are undertaking research related to refugees and forced migration are invited to apply for the 2026 Dr. Adnan Al Mhamied Essay Prize.

The prize is offered by the Groupe de recherche sur les conditions modernes des réfugiés (GRCMR), in cooperation with the McGill Refugee Research Group (MRRG). The prizes are generously supported by the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture (FRQSC).

GRCMR/MRRG will offer one prize at the undergraduate level: 1st place ($500). We will offer three prizes at the graduate level: 1st place ($1000), 2nd place ($750), and 3rd place ($500).

The prize is named in memory of Dr. Adnan Al Mhamied (PhD, Social Work, McGill), one of MRRG’s first graduate student members.

Eligibility

·      At the time of submission, participants must be enrolled in a graduate or undergraduate program at McGill, UQAM, Laval or Concordia. Students may submit essays completed for a course, their dissertation/thesis or other projects. Papers from any discipline are welcome, but must focus on refugees or forced migration.

·      Submissions must be single authored, or co-authored only with other students at McGill, UQAM, Laval or Concordia. (If a co-authored paper is awarded a prize, it will be divided equally between the co-authors.)

·      Papers may be submitted in English or French.

·      Students may submit only one paper. Papers submitted in previous years are not eligible.

Application process

·      Papers must be submitted by email (Word or PDF file) by 5:00 PM EST, 31 May 2026 to mrrg.isid@mcgill.ca. In the submission email, please include your name, the program in which you are currently enrolled, and the title of your paper. Do not include any identifying details in the essay file.

·      Papers must not exceed 30 double-spaced pages (plus citations). Please use 12-point font and standard margins.  Submissions must include an abstract of no more than 200 words. Submissions that do not meet these guidelines will not be reviewed.

·      The papers will be reviewed by a committee comprised of faculty members affiliated with the GRCMR. Results will be announced in the fall of 2026.

Questions? Please contact Professor Megan Bradley (megan.bradley@mcgill.ca).   

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Winners from 2025:

“Living on the doorstep: The Golshahr Ghetto - An autoethnography of social-spatial exclusion among the Hazara refugees in Iran” (Atefeh Kazemi, PhD student in Anthropology)

“Making Gender-Based Violence Count: Data, expertise, and the creation of ‘object-ive’ knowledge in refugee contexts” (Sarah Nandi, PhD candidate in Political Science)

“Vulnerability assessment tools and the quantification of refugee life in Uganda” (Roda Siad, PhD candidate in Communication Studies)

Winners from 2024

“(in)Visible Borders: An autoethnographic analysis of identity and displacement after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan” (Rabia Salihi, PhD student, Department of Political Science)

Winners from 2023

1st prize: “‘Those Troublesome Third Genders’: Hijra politics of refusal, refugeehood, and the sex worker movement of 1970-1990 in Kolkata, India”, by Sarah Nandi (PhD candidate, Department of Political Science)

2nd prize: “Chronicles of Disappearance: Palestinian Encampment in the Bekaa Valley”, by Cynthia Kraichati (PhD Candidate, Department of Anthropology)

And

“Against the Charge of Charity: Revisiting the Colonial Underpinnings of Humanitarianism”, by Merve Erdilmen (PhD Candidate, Department of Political Science)

3rd prize: “Drawing Back: Narrative Resistance to Anti-Refugee Rhetoric in Kate Evans’s Threads: From the Refugee Crisis”, by Martin Breul (PhD Candidate, Department of English)