Postgraduate Essay Prize

The Association for Psychosocial Studies is offering a prize for the best original essay in the field of Psychosocial Studies by a current or recent Masters or Doctoral student.[1]

The Prize

The author of the winning essay will receive a prize of £250, plus a year’s membership of the APS and conference fees paid for the next APS conference following receipt of the award.

The winning essay will be published on the APS website. The winner will also be invited to present a paper at the next APS annual conference.

Guidelines for Essays

Essays must be between 4,000 and 5,000 words, including all footnotes and references.

Essays may focus on any aspect of Psychosocial Studies, which the APS outlines as proceeding from the following position:

“Psychological issues and subjective experiences cannot be abstracted from societal, cultural and historical contexts, nor can they be deterministically reduced to the social. Similarly, social and cultural worlds have psychological dimensions and are shaped by psychic processes and intersubjective relations.

Psychosocial Studies is characterised by a) its explicit inter or trans-disciplinarity, b) its development of non-positivistic theory, method and praxis and c) its orientation towards progressive social and personal change. Psychosocial research draws inspiration from a range of sources including sociology, psychoanalysis, critical psychology, critical theory, post-structuralism, process philosophy, feminism, post-colonial theory, queer theory and affect theory. Various “dialects” are in the process of emergence.”

Entries representing any of these various psychosocial inter or trans-disciplinary dialects are welcomed.  Membership of the APS is not a requirement for entry. Entries must be written in English.

Entering the Competition

To enter, send the following items to the APS Administrator at adm.apsychosocialstudies@gmail.com

The closing date for receipt of entries is 31 October 2016.  Late entries will not be considered. Entries will be judged by a panel of the APS composed of the Chair of the Judging Panel, the Chair of the APS, and one further member of the APS Executive Committee. Results will be announced on at the APS Annual General Meeting on 2 December 2016.

[1] (‘Current’ means studying during the calendar year 2016; ‘recent’ means award conferred during 2015 or 2016.)

Asta Binkauskaite
Author: Asta Binkauskaite

Asta holds an MA in Art Psychotherapy and a Postgraduate Diploma in Group Analytic studies, as well as a BA and an MA in Fine Arts. She is currently studying for a PhD in Psychosocial Studies at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) and has an interest in visual methodologies.