The Award

The 2027 Rachel Tanur Memorial Prize is now open for applications. Applications are due February 9, 2027 at 11:59 pm EST.

Eligibility

The Rachel Tanur Memorial Prize for Visual Sociology is open worldwide to undergraduate and graduate students in any of the social science disciplines. Students must be enrolled in a degree-bearing program (pursuing a BA, MA, or PhD degree) at the time of application and must be open to incorporating visual media into their scholarship. Please note that we will not accept submissions that include AI-generated photos.

Application Process

Applicants must submit two short social science-informed commentaries (up to 500 words each) in English. One commentary must be based on one of the photos by Rachel Tanur and one must be based on an original photo taken by the applicant. Each commentary is expected to give a sociological analysis of the selected visual material, based on theoretical and applied social science methods.

A panel of judges appointed by ISA's Research Committee on Visual Sociology will choose the winners. Both the commentaries and the photo will be made publicly accessible. Entering the competition and posting material online implies permission for that material to be used on the website as a living memorial to Rachel Tanur. Some of Rachel’s work is collected in the 2008 volume Visualizing Social Science: Photographs by Rachel Tanur (New York: SSRC Books). An online gallery of her photography can be viewed here.

Prize Information

The first prize is $5,000 USD, two years of honorary Board Membership to the International Sociological Association (ISA) Visual Sociology Research Committee, and publication of the winning essay as a “picture talk feature” with an associated DOI in the journal Visual Studies. The second prize is $2,500 USD and the third prize is $1,500 USD. All prize winners will be awarded student membership to the ISA and the Visual Sociology Research Committee. The prize is awarded biennially.

The Visual Sociology Research Committee will host a prize ceremony at the International Sociological Association’s XXI World Congress of Sociology, to be held July 4-10, 2027 in Gwangju, South Korea. The winner of the first place prize will be invited to attend the ISA World Congress and the ceremony, with travel expenses paid by the Rachel Tanur Memorial Prize.