Announcing the Call for 2026 AIS Awards‏

Dear AIS Members and Friends,

We are pleased to announce the call for submissions for the Association for Israel Studies Awards. Please note that award candidates must be current members of the AIS. If you are not yet a member and would like to register, you can do so at this link.

The awards will be presented during the AIS Annual Conference, which will be held at the Ramat Gan College, Israel from July 27-29, 2026.

Please see below or visit the AIS website for additional information and submission guidelines.

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AIS LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

The AIS Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes a senior scholar in any field of Israel Studies whose lasting and path-breaking contributions have significantly shaped the field. 

The prize awarded is $7,000.  

Candidates may be proposed by AIS members by sending a curriculum vitae of the candidate, by February 27, 2026, to prizes@aisisraelstudies.org. The award committee may also propose potential candidates. Self-nominations are not allowed. The Committee encourages nominations that will reflect a diverse pool, including diversity of gender and gender identity, discipline, ethnicity, and national origin. The nominees must be members of the AIS. The committee will consider contributions of scholarship to Israel Studies, mentorship of others in Israel Studies, service to the field of Israel Studies, and development of Israel Studies institutions.

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THE GAD BARZILAI EARLY CAREER AWARD 

The AIS Gad Barzilai Early Career Award recognizes an exceptional scholar who has made significant contributions to the field of Israel Studies, and whose record of publications and scholarship has demonstrated the potential to shape the field in the future.

Eligibility: Maximum 10 years post receipt of the candidate’s doctorate.

The nomination materials should include: a cover letter, CV, and two letters of recommendation.

The cover letter should include information about the candidate’s publication record, teaching record, mentorship record of others, institutional development (e.g. demonstration of the candidate’s commitment to the growth of the field) and service (the candidate’s record of commitment to the field through service on editorial boards, the AIS Board and/or other areas of academic service in Israel Studies).

A committee of prominent Israel Studies scholars will evaluate the nomination materials and determine the award winner. 

The prize awarded is $5,000.

Nomination letters that address the scholar’s outstanding contribution to Israel Studies should be sent by February 15, 2026. It is the responsibility of the candidates to make sure that all recommendations are received on time. Self-nominations are not allowed. The committee reserves the right to consider additional candidates. 

All nominations should be sent to: prizes@aisisraelstudies.org 

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SHAPIRO AWARD FOR BEST BOOK IN ISRAEL STUDIES 

The Association for Israel Studies (AIS) annually awards the Shapiro Prize for the best book in Israel Studies published during the last calendar year. This award honors the memory of Yonathan Shapiro (1929-1997), one of Israel’s most distinguished and influential sociologists. The award pays tribute to outstanding scholarship in the field of Israel Studies including the pre-1948 Jewish community in Palestine, in all disciplines. 

The Shapiro Award Committee will consider books in either English or Hebrew by AIS registered members for 2026. It is the authors’ responsibility to verify with the AIS’ administrative staff that they are registered members. Eligible books are those published during 2025-2026. Authors can submit the same book only once, either now or next year.

Research monographs (not collections of articles/edited volumes) are eligible for the prize. Books translated from Hebrew into English and vice versa that were published prior to 2025 are not eligible. Books first printed in other languages that appeared in 2025 in English or Hebrew are eligible. Nominations can be made by individual scholars or by publishers.

The prize awarded is $3,000.

Deadline for submissions: February 15, 2026.

Books submitted after this date will not be considered. Authors are responsible to make sure that books are delivered to the committee members in due course. Please be sure to verify that committee members are not accompanied by charges such as taxes or delivery charges.

Please note that some members prefer hard copies and others electronic/PDF versions. See below the details too this effect with the respective addresses of the committee members.

Kimmy Caplan: Hard copies and PDF files. Please send to the following addresses:
Kimmy Caplan, Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry, Bar-Ilan University
Ramat-Gan, 5290002, Israel
kimmy.caplan@biu.ac.il

Ofira Gruweis Kovalksy: PDF files. Please send to the following email address: ofiragruweis1@gmail.com

Rami Zedan: Hard Copies. Please send to the following address:
Dr. Rami Zeedan, 1445 Jayhawk Blvd., 4017e Wescoe
Lawrence, KS 66045, USA

Guy Ziv: PDF files. Please send to the following email address:
ziv@american.edu

Marcela Menachem Zoufala: PDF files. Please send to the following email address: marcela.zoufala@gmail.com

Should you have questions or inquiries please contact Kimmy Caplan at the above noted email address.

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BEN HALPERN AWARD FOR BEST DISSERTATION IN ISRAEL STUDIES

The Association for Israel Studies (AIS) awards the Ben Halpern Prize for the best doctoral dissertation in Israel Studies (broadly defined) approved during the 2025 calendar year. This award honors the memory of Ben Halpern (1912-1990), a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Association for Israel Studies and the author of the influential book, The Idea of the Jewish State. An inspiring teacher at Brandeis University, Ben Halpern left a powerful and distinctive intellectual legacy including a commitment to the rigorous academic study of Israeli society.

Each member of the committee—including the chair—should be sent a copy of the submitted dissertation. Candidates should also send to the committee chair two recommendation letters by scholars familiar with the candidate’s work. The letters should explain how the dissertation has advanced knowledge in the field of Israel Studies (including the Yishuv period). 

Please find below the names and contacts of the other committee members:

Lilach Rosenberg (chair) Lilach.Rosenberg@biu.ac.il                                                  
Yael Guilat yguilat@gmail.com                                                                        
Marco DiGiuglio marco.digiulio@fandm.edu
Osnat Akirav osnatak@bezeqint.net
Geoff Levin geoffrey.phillip.levin@emory.edu

A candidate for the award must be a member of the Association for Israel Studies prior to submitting their dissertation for consideration (newly registered or renewed membership for 2026). Dissertations in English or Hebrew will be accepted. Letters of recommendation can be in either language as well. It is up to the candidates to ensure that all letters of recommendation are received on time. 

The prize awarded is $2,000.

Deadline for submissions: February 15, 2026. 

Questions about the submission process should be directed to committee Chair Lilach Rosenberg Lilach.Rosenberg@biu.ac.il.

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KIMMERLING AWARD FOR BEST GRADUATE PAPER

The Kimmerling Prize is awarded by the Association for Israel Studies for the best paper presented by a graduate student at the AIS annual meeting. This award honors the memory of Baruch Kimmerling (1939-2007), a leading public intellectual and sociologist in Israel. He wrote, published and edited more than a dozen books on Israel and the Palestinians, introducing new perspectives for the understanding of Israeli society.

Graduate Students who presented papers at the AIS conference at the University of Haifa, in 2025, are encouraged to submit their revised papers for the competition. Papers should be written in a format of an academic lecture and should include: the topic of the research, its objectives, the methodology used in the research, and a detailed explanation of the potential contribution of the paper to the existing literature in Israel studies.

The paper should also include full citations and a bibliography of relevant academic works. The paper should be no more than 5,000 words in length (not including the bibliography). Candidates for the award must be current members of the Association for Israel Studies (newly registered or renewed membership for 2026). Please include contact information (including email) for confirmation and decision.

The winning paper will be published in Israel Studies Review, pending acceptable revisions. It is the responsibility of the award recipient to contact the ISR editors and coordinate directly with the journal to facilitate the review process. Papers submitted to other international journals or previously published in English are therefore not eligible for the Kimmerling competition.

Papers should be submitted electronically to the chair of the Kimmerling Prize Committee Joel Migdal at migdal@uw.edu

The prize awarded is $1,000.

Deadline for submissions: February 15, 2026. 

AIS Dissertation Completion Fellowship

The Dissertation Completion Fellowship aims to provide support to doctoral students for the final stages of the completion of their dissertations. Based in its commitment to fostering multidisciplinary research about Israel, these fellowships will constitute recognition of the contribution and potential of an emerging scholar. One fellowship, in the amount of $1,500, will be offered annually to an outstanding doctoral student, chosen by a committee of AIS-member scholars. The fellowship will be offered for a single year only. As a dissertation completion grant aimed at providing assistance for the final stages of doctoral work, the grant will not be renewable. Students are expected to complete their dissertations during the completion year.

The grantee will be asked to acknowledge the source of funding in all publications that rely on the funds of the AIS scholarship.

ELIGIBILITY

The AIS dissertation completion fellowship will be available to students at universities in any country who:

  • Have completed all departmental and university requirements (obtain ABD status).
  • Have completed an approved dissertation prospectus.
  • Have completed at least two draft dissertation chapters (or one draft article for students in fields where the dissertation consists of three articles), confirmed by the dissertation advisor.
  • Are current members of the AIS at the time of application.
  • Eligible dissertations will be written in English or Hebrew.

Applications

Applications and should include:

  • A cover letter (up to 1500 words) describing:
    • The purpose, objective and rationale for the research project.
    • The methodology or methodologies employed.
    • Major findings of the dissertation and their importance/ contribution to the field of Israel Studies.
  • A chapter of the dissertation.
  • A bibliography (no more than 2–3 pages).
  • A one-page timeline outlining the schedule for completing and successfully defending the dissertation within the fellowship year.
  • Three letters of recommendation, one of which must be from the student’s doctoral adviser/supervisor.
  • Professional CV and a full list of publications
  • Status Confirmation Form to be completed by department chair or director of graduate studies.

Applications must be written in English (even if the dissertation itself is in a different language). The materials should be sent in mail a single PDF comprising all aspects of the application (with the exception of letters of recommendation) as an attachment to the Chair of the Dissertation Completion Fellowship Committee Dr. Niva Golan-Nadir at: niva.golan@post.runi.ac.il by February 15, 2026. Recommenders can submit their letters of recommendation by emailing them as attachments to the same email address. Incomplete applications will not be considered.

The AIS will notify applicants of the AIS Academic Committee’s decisions in April.

AIS Award Committees 

Lifetime Achievement Award
Yael Aronoff (Chair)
Ilan Peleg
Aviva Halamish
Ilan Troen
Hanna Herzog

Ben Halpern Best Dissertation Award
Lilach Rosenberg (Chair)                              
Yael Guilat                                                                
Marco DiGiuglio
Osnat Akirav
Geoff Levin

Yonathan Shapiro Best Book Award
Kimmy Caplan (Chair)
Guy Ziv
Rami Zedan
Marcela Menachem Zoufala
Ofira Gruweis Kovalsky

Baruch Kimmerling best Graduate Student Paper Award
Joel Migdal (Chair)
Avi Picard
Chen Friedberg
Donna Divine Robinson

Gad Barzilai Early Career Award
Ilai Saltzman (Chair)
Irena Kalhousová 
Nohad Ali
Shelly Zer-Zion
Jonathan Gribetz 

AIS Dissertation Completion Award
Niva Golan-Nadir (Chair) 
Maoz Rosenthal
Chen Sharony
Naama Appel Doron
Joanna Dyduch