The CASDW/ACR annual conference will be held on 26-28 May 2026 at Saint Jerome’s University in Waterloo, Ontario. Our conference will immediately precede the annual conference of RhetCanada, and the two conferences are being collaboratively organized to make for a vibrant 2026 conference experience!
The Joan Pavelich CASDW Annual Award for the Best Dissertation in Writing and Discourse Studies recognizes an outstanding PhD dissertation in Writing Studies, Discourse Studies, Rhetoric, or a cognate field for 2024. The award will be given to a student in a Canadian university or to a Canadian student studying outside Canada. To be eligible, dissertations must have been defended between January 1, 2024 and December 31, 2024. An announcement of the winning dissertation will be made at the CASDW Annual Conference. Nominees do not need to be CASDW members, and self-nominations are accepted.
The award includes a prize of $100 and a one-year free CASDW membership for the following year.
The deadline for nominations is March 17, 2025.
The assessment criteria for the award are as follows: (1) the overall quality of the writing and thinking; (2) the significance of the question(s) addressed in the research; (3) the importance of the new knowledge presented in the thesis; and (3) and methodological rigour and/or innovation.
Applicants/nominators should send the following items to each member of the selection committee listed below: a PDF file containing the dissertation (or a link to an online repository), and a cover sheet with the applicant’s full name, citizenship, institution and degree program, and contact information for their primary supervisor.
Kim Mitchell kim.mitchell (at) umanitoba.ca
Katja Thieme katja.thieme (at) ubc.ca
Nazih El-Bezre nazih.el-bezre (at) ubc.ca
Canadian Association for the Study of Discourse and Writing/Association Canadienne de Rédactologie 