The Cultural Geography Specialty Group conducts an annual competitive award cycle to support the scholarship and service of members in the geographic and geography-adjacent community that operate in the tradition and promotion of cultural geography. We anticipate the award cycle details to be released annually around December and announcing the awardees around the AAG annual meeting. While we invite any and all applicants, we particularly encourage applicants from underrepresented backgrounds to submit their work for funding consideration.
The following awards and grants are annually available:
Terry G. Jordan-Bychkov Paper Award (Open to MAs and PhDs)
2026 Paper Competition Call for Applicants
Sponsored by the journal Emotion, Space, and Society
Open to Masters-level and PhD-level
The Cultural Geography Specialty Group (CGSG) invites students to apply for the 2026 Terry G. Jordan-Bychkov Paper Award, sponsored by Emotion, Space, and Society. The competition recognizes outstanding work by graduate students pursuing research in cultural geography. The papers are judged on the basis of scholarly merit (quality, rigor, and significance of the argument, findings, and methodical approach), organization, and clarity.
The paper must be given at a professional meeting between March 24, 2025 and March 21, 2026 (in the time of the start of the 2025 AAG Annual Meeting in Detroit to the end of the 2026 AAG Annual Meeting in San Francisco). Although this paper need not be presented at the 2026 AAG Meeting, students are encouraged to submit papers presented at the national or regional AAG meetings.
The competition is open to any graduate student or recent graduate (since the 2025 AAG annual meeting) who presents a cultural geography paper from dissertation and/or thesis work and who is a member of the CGSG. Student membership in the CGSG costs $2 per year. Applicants for the paper competition cannot simultaneously apply for the CGSG Research Grants. Because our judges provide written feedback with the goal of helping applicants revise and prepare their articles for future publication and potential support from the journal Emotion, Space, and Society, we request that these papers be unpublished work.
The award amount is $250. Awards may not be made if no papers are deemed suitable. Entries undergo blind review by a committee of geography faculty members. A complete application must be submitted online no later than 11:59 pm EST on December 31, 2025 (no late submissions will be accepted).
Apply here: 2026 PhD Paper Awards Competition
For any questions, please reach out to CGSG Awards Director, Josh Merced, at joshua.merced@nau.edu.
Master’s Level and Denis E. Cosgrove (Ph.D.) Research Grant Competitions
The Cultural Geography Specialty Group (CGSG) invites proposals for the 2026 Master’s level and Denis E. Cosgrove (PhD) Research Grant Competitions. The competition aims to provide a measure of support for graduate students to conduct high-quality research projects for their master’s thesis or doctoral dissertation. The grant awards are competitive; applications are judged on the following criteria:
- The scholarly merit of the project [established on the basis of its stated connection to cultural geographic themes; the identification of a specific literature (or literatures) to which this project contributes; the outlining of a clear research question and well-developed methodology]
- The organization and clarity of the proposal
- The practical feasibility of this project
- The qualifications of the student to conduct the proposed work (qualifications are assessed on the basis of coursework highlighted in CV, prior conference/workshop presentations, relevant publications)
- Financial need
The applicant must be a student member of the CGSG at the time of application (student dues are $2). If you are not a member, feel free to contact Josh Merced at joshua.merced@nau.edu for instructions on how to join the Specialty Group. The proposed project should be part of their thesis or dissertation research. Applicants for the CGSG Research Grant competition cannot simultaneously apply for the CGSG Paper Competition.
This year’s Research Grants will be made at $250 for the Masters level and $1000 for the PhD level; they may not be made if no proposals are deemed suitable.
Entries undergo review by the Cultural Geography Specialty Group’s Executive Committee. A complete application must be submitted online no later than 11:59 pm EST on December 31, 2025 (no late submissions will be accepted).
Apply here: 2026 Cultural Geography Specialty Group Research Grants Competition
For any questions, please email the Awards Director, Josh Merced, at joshua.merced@nau.edu.
Cultural Geography Specialty Group 