2024 Emerging Scholars Competition

The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Working Group at Peter Lang is pleased to announce that the topic of this year’s Emerging Scholars Competition is Environmental Humanities, continuing our efforts to support research that impacts our global community. For the second year in a row, winning authors will receive contracts for Gold Open Access publication.

2024 Peter Lang Emerging Scholars Competition in Environmental Humanities

Peter Lang is delighted to announce the 2024 Emerging Scholars Competition in Environmental Humanities.

We invite emerging scholars in Environmental Humanities to submit proposals for single-author books to be evaluated by a distinguished editorial board.

We welcome proposals on the following topics from a humanities or social sciences perspective:

• environmental justice 
• climate change 
• sustainability 
• society and the environment  
• environmental education 
• Indigenous knowledge and the environment  
• animal rights  
• plants and animals 
• the wilderness 
• history of the environment 

We have a particular interest in studies of these topics in relation to gender, race, disability, equity, intersectionality and/or the Global South.

Please submit your proposal to [email protected] or via our webform by 31 July 2024. Your proposal should consist of an abstract (including chapter synopses), a sample chapter (5,000 to 10,000 words in length), a CV, and a statement describing how you are an emerging scholar, in separate Microsoft Word documents.

Projects in English, French or German are welcome. Authors should have been awarded a PhD or EdD in the last five years or be due to be awarded one of these degrees in 2024. Proposals under review elsewhere should not be submitted.

*Winner(s) will be offered a publishing contract including Gold Open Access and winning book(s)will be made available for free digital download. Planned manuscripts should be from 60,000 to 100,000 words in length and prepared in accordance with the style guidelines provided.

Decisions will be made by 1 November 2024 and the winners will be notified shortly thereafter.

For more information, please contact Phil Dunshea ([email protected]), Alison Jefferson ([email protected]) or Laurel Plapp ([email protected]).

Proposals may be considered for inclusion in one of the following series, but projects beyond the scope of these series are also welcome:

Anthropocene / Anthropocène / Anthropozän

Ecopolis

Plants and Animals: Interdisciplinary Approaches

Radical Animal Studies and Total Liberation

Studies in Literature, Culture, and the Environment / Studien zu Literatur, Kultur und Umwelt

History

The Peter Lang Emerging Scholars Competition (previously known as the Young Scholars Competition) is an annual competition for early career researchers in selected fields. It has been held every year since 2011, in fields such as Black Studies, Irish Studies, Women’s Writing, Education, French Studies, and more.  

In each competition, book proposals for monographs are invited from emerging scholars to be evaluated by a distinguished editorial board. Winners receive a contract for a fully funded book and the title of winner. Runners-up and other participants may also have opportunities to publish. 

We’re proud to have a community of over 30 winners of the competition over the years, and we’re pleased to feature some of our winning books. Please watch the interviews with three winners of our 2019 French Studies competition – Polly Galis, Mathew Rickard, and Natalie Berkman – to learn what winning the competition has meant to them.