Cromwell Dissertation Prize

Criteria

Best dissertation in American legal history completed in the past year.

Amount

$5,000

Deadline

June 7, 2019

The William Nelson Cromwell Foundation Dissertation Prize is awarded annually to the best dissertation in any area of American legal history, including constitutional and comparative studies, although topics dealing with the colonial and early national periods will receive some preference.

The author of the winning dissertation receives $5,000. Anyone who received a Ph.D. in 2018 will be eligible for this year’s prize, which is awarded after a review of the recommendation of the Cromwell Prize Advisory Committee of the American Society for Legal History.

To be considered for this year’s prize, please EITHER send a hard copy of the dissertation and author curriculum vitae to all committee members listed below OR simply e-mail an electronic copy of the dissertation and author curriculum vitae to John Gordan (johngordan3@gmail.com) and H. Robert Baker (robertbaker@gsu.edu) with the subject heading: CROMWELL DISSERTATION PRIZE SUBMISSION no later than June 7, 2019.

Committee Members

  • John D. Gordan, III
    Secretary of the Cromwell Foundation
    1133 Park Avenue
    New York, NY, 10128

  • H. Robert Baker (Chair)
    Department of History
    Georgia State University
    20th floor, 25 Park Place
    Atlanta, GA 30302

  • Mary Sarah Bilder
    Boston College Law School
    885 Centre Street
    Newton, MA 02459

  • Lisa Ford
    Room 344, Morven Brown
    School of Humanities & Languages
    The University of New South Wales
    Sydney, NSW 2052
    Australia

  • Sarah Seo
    130 Byington Road
    Iowa City, IA 52242

  • Laura Weinrib
    University of Chicago Law School
    1111 E. 60th St., Room 410
    Chicago, IL 60637

Past Recipients

2018

Allison Powers (Columbia University)

“Settlement Colonialism: Compensatory Justice in United States Expansion, 1903-1941” —a dissertation submitted for a Ph.D. at Columbia University.

2017

Maeve Herbert Glass

“These United States: A History of the Fracturing of America” —a dissertation submitted for a Ph.D. at Princeton University.

2016

Suzanne Kahn

“Divorce and the Politics of the American Social Welfare Regime, 1969-2001” —a dissertation submitted for a Ph.D. at Columbia University.

2015

Sarah Levine-Gronningsater

“Delivering Freedom: Gradual Emancipation, Black Legal Culture, and the Origins of Sectional Crisis in New York, 1759-1870" —a dissertation submitted for a Ph.D. at University of Chicago.

2014

Elisa Martia Alvarez Minoff

“Free to Move? The Law and Politics of Internal Migration in Twentieth-Century America” —a dissertation submitted for a Ph.D. at Harvard University.

2013

Hidetaka Hirota

“Nativism, Citizenship, and the Deportation of Paupers in Massachusetts, 1837-1883” —a dissertation submitted for a Ph.D. at Boston College.

2012

Laura M. Weinrib

“The Liberal Compromise: Civil Liberties, Labor, and the Limits of State Power, 1917– 1940” —a dissertation submitted for a Ph.D. at Princeton University.

2011

Cynthia Nicoletti

“The Great Question of the War: The Legal Status of Secession in the Aftermath of the American Civil War, 1865-1869” —a dissertation submitted for a Ph.D. at the University of Virginia.

2010

Anna Leah Fidelis T. Castañeda

"Creating Exceptional Empire: American Liberal Constitutionalism and the Construction of the Constitutional Order of the Philippine Islands, 1898-1935" —a dissertation submitted for the SJD degree at Harvard University.

2009

Jed Shugerman

“The People's Courts: The Rise of Judicial Elections and Judicial Power in America” —a dissertation submitted for a Ph.D. at Yale University.

2008

Diana Williams

“They Call It Marriage: the Louisiana Interracial Family and the Making of American Legitimacy" —a dissertation submitted for a Ph.D. at Harvard University.

2007

Christopher Beauchamp

“The Telephone Patents: Intellectual Property, Business and the Law in the United States and Britain, 1876-1900” —a dissertation submitted for a Ph.D. at Cambridge University.

Related Awards

  • Cromwell Article Prize
    The William Nelson Cromwell Foundation Article Prize is awarded annually to the best article in American legal history published by an early career scholar. Articles published in the field of American legal history, broadly conceived, will be considered. There is a preference for articles in the colonial and early National periods. View Award
  • Mary L. Dudziak Digital Legal History Prize
    The Dudziak Prize, named in honor of Mary L. Dudziak, a leading scholar of twentieth century U.S. legal history and international relations as well as a digital history pioneer, is awarded annually to an outstanding digital legal history project. These projects may take the form of either traditionally published peer reviewed scholarship or born-digital projects of equivalent depth and scope. View Award
  • Surrency Prize
    The Surrency Prize, named in honor of Erwin C. Surrency, a founding member and first president of the Society and for many years the editor of its former publication, the American Journal of Legal History, is awarded annually for the best article published in the Society’s journal, the Law and History Review, in the previous year. View Award