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ICNC Awards for Research Monographs on Civil Resistance
View the 2014 Research Monograph Awardees and their Topics
Click here to view and download our 2015 Published Monographs.
2015 Call for Applications
The International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC) announces its second Research Monographs Awards series. The goal of the award is to advance research and study in the field of civil resistance. In particular the award is intended to support work that enhances the strategic practice of civil resistance, improves understanding of civil resistance by members of the international community, and develops robust conceptual frameworks for understanding the nature, dynamics, power and impact of civil resistance movements.
In 2015, up to two awards, each worth $5,000, will be offered to scholars, educators, or practitioners who have substantial knowledge of the literature of the field of civil resistance on an open, merit, and competitive basis to write monographs on under-researched or under-published topics relevant to the field of civil resistance studies. The authors will be expected to deliver their draft monographs within 6 months after the awards are announced and the work is commissioned (once the appropriate documents are signed by all parties).
The monographs that receive positive reviews will be available through one of the on-demand publishing services and digitally through the ICNC website. The authors might also be invited to present their monographs during an ICNC educational event in the United States or in another country where appropriate.
Eligibility
Educators, scholars, and practitioners who have substantial knowledge of the literature of the field of civil resistance are encouraged to apply. We will particularly welcome applications from promising young researchers-activists who view the opportunity to write a monograph as an important part of their initial, ongoing or planned research in field of civil resistance that combines both scholarship and practice on strategic nonviolent conflict.
In addition to furthering research and resources in the field of civil resistance, these awards have been developed in order to expand the ICNC network of collaboration. Therefore, scholars and educators who have benefited directly from ICNC support in the past or are ICNC academic advisors and current collaborators are not eligible to apply for this award.
How to Apply
Interested applicants are asked to fill out the online application form and submit requested information, including two writing samples, a research proposal and CV to be considered.
Application Deadline
The deadline for proposal submissions is March 30, 2015. Depending on the number of proposals it may take up to six weeks to review them, contact selected applicants and announce the awardees.
Monograph Submission
Once the first complete monograph draft is delivered ICNC staff or/and advisors will take time to evaluate thoroughly submitted work. The awardee will be asked to address ICNC suggestions and comments in the second monograph draft. ICNC might ask for a third monograph revision in some cases.
Format of the Research Monograph
Authors are expected to follow a recommended universal format while writing their monographs. The length of the study should be between 15,000-17,000 words (double space, 12 font size, New Roman, between 60-70 pages). The study must use Chicago-Turabian style throughout.
Authors must keep in mind that the primary audience for their work will be scholars but will also include civil society practitioners, media professionals, policy experts and decision-makers. Therefore language and arguments presented must avoid complex or an overly scholarly style of writing.
In its introduction the monograph should specify the central issue or thesis that it intends to address and state clearly the main questions that it plans to answer. The monograph should also explain the added-value of the research given the existing literature that is available on the specific topic.
Analytical frames and concepts must ideally be supported by empirical examples, observations and narratives derived from the life of movements, and by historical or contemporary accounts provided by dissidents, organizers and activists and cases of civil resistance.
Where appropriate, recommendations regarding the monograph findings for academia, organizers and activists, civil society organizations, media, and policy communities should be stated in the monograph’s concluding part.
Research topics currently of interest to ICNC
A sample of research topics that applicants are encouraged to consider include (but is not limited to):
Formation of civil resistance movements
Coalitions and their purposes
The conceptual, ideational, and psychological basis of movement mobilization
Sustaining civil resistance movements and building movement resilience
Short- and long-term impacts of civil resistance on society, politics, institutions
Impacts of civil resistance on identities, culture, and individual and collective behavior and aspirations
Civil resistance and political transition processes
Civil resistance and negotiations
Different phases of civil resistance movements
Different leadership, organizing, and decision-making processes within civil resistance movements
Civil resistance in violent environments or in fragile states
Civil resistance and prevention of major atrocities
Civil resistance and violent non-state actors (e.g. organized criminal syndicates, paramilitary groups or radical flanks)
Civil resistance against structural violence
Civil resistance against corruption
Civil resistance against abusive exploitation of natural resources
Civil resistance and alternative self-organized economic, political, educational, or judicial systems
Civil resistance and international human rights norms
Civil resistance and violent repression
Civil resistance, new technologies and media
Civil resistance and the maintenance of nonviolent discipline
The impact of civil resistance on defections by the supporters of a movement’s opponent
Civil resistance movements that have not succeeded: lessons learned
Unknown or little-understood cases of civil resistance struggles in the past or recent history, particularly if they can shed more light on some of the above-listed themes
The impact of external third party (i.e. states, multilateral institutions, INGOs, international journalists, diaspora groups) action on civil resistance movements