Call for Nominations: John L. Cotter Award

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS: 2022 JOHN L. COTTER AWARD

The Society for Historical Archaeology Awards Committee is pleased to announce its call for nominations for the 2022 John L. Cotter Award. Established in 1988, the award is named in honor of John Lambert Cotter (1911–1999), a pioneer educator and advocate for the discipline, and recognizes outstanding achievement by an individual at the start of his/her career in historical archaeology. The individual can either be in training as an undergraduate or graduate student or be a professional at the beginning of his/her career. The award can be given for a single achievement that is truly outstanding in its respective category, or for a combination of early career accomplishments that taken together are significant, but the nature and variety of categories are open. An achievement may be the production of an individual item (e.g., a major museum exhibit related to a historical archaeological topic) or a more general category (e.g., building historical archaeology awareness within a local archaeological society or group). The best way to see the range of achievements for which the award has been given is to review the write-ups on each of the awardees that have appeared in Historical Archaeology. These are accessible through the SHA website at https://sha.org/about-us/awards-and-prizes/.

Nomination Requirements: The nominee and the primary nominator or nominators must be current SHA members. The entire nomination packet must be submitted as a complete PDF via e-mail to the Awards Committee chair by no later than October 1, 2021. 

The nomination packet will contain the following items:

  1. A nomination cover sheet for the John L. Cotter Award, which should include: (1) submission date of the nomination and (2) the full name, address, and all contact information for both the nominee and primary nominator(s) (including, for both, a street address, an e-mail address, and office, home, and cell phone numbers).
  2. A formal, dated statement, in letter format and signed by the primary nominator(s), documenting the reasons for the nomination (maximum length five double-spaced pages).
  3. An up-to-date C.V. for the nominee.
  4. A copy or sample of the specific achievement (as applicable; if file-size limitations preclude emailing the materials, please contact the chair of the Awards Committee to arrange for transfer of the materials via Dropbox or some other method).
  5. Supporting materials (as appropriate), including summations or different evidence of the achievement and no more than three (3) letters of support to be included with the nomination packet (letters or materials mailed or e-mailed separately to the chair of the Awards Committee apart from the nomination packet will not be included in the nomination). Support letters should be no more than two pages in length.

Note: Secondary nominators are not required, but if used they can either add their names to the original nomination statement, and they may write one of the three (3) support letters for the nomination. Secondary nominators, unlike the primary nominator(s), do not have to be members of the SHA or even in the field of historical archaeology.

Contact details for SHA Awards Committee Chair Paul Mullins paulmull@iupui.edu 317-698-9759.