Jean Martin Award

This is a biennial Award. The 2019 winner, Brydan Lenne (top left photo in right position) is pictured with one of her supervisors Katherine Carroll. The top right photo shows Adam Possamai (2013 JMA Chair) handing Xiaoying Qi, the 2013 winner, the JMA trophy. The current round is open to theses for which a PhD has been/is formally awarded between the period March 1st 2021 to 28 February 2023.

The Jean Martin Award is only a part of the legacy of the late Jean Martin (B & W photo above). Anyone who was fortunate enough to know Jean, and those of her colleagues who were aware of her contribution to Australian sociology, would see this award as only a small reminder of the effect she had on other’s personal and professional lives. At the same time, though, younger sociologists increasingly pose the question: who was Jean Martin?

This question was a topic of discussion over dinner after an executive meeting at the 2011 TASA conference in Newcastle. Among newer members of the association there seems to be a widening gap between acknowledgement of the importance of the Jean Martin Award and knowledge of the person who was the reason for its creation. In a sentence, I agreed to put a few personal thoughts together to attempt to narrow that gap because Jean Martin was not only my PhD supervisor and a friend, but also a greater influence on my life than I could have seen at that time.

A part of that influence stemmed from Jean’s interest in the sociology of migration. Her own work in this area, notably her most well known books: Refugee Settlers (1965), Community and Identity (1972) and The Migrant Presence (1978)-led to my own interest in ethnic relations and, ultimately, to my completion of her unfinished longitudinal study of Australia’s first Vietnamese refugees. After her death and with the assistance of her husband, Allan Martin, and Judith Ly, this study appeared as The First Wave (1985).

As important as her intellectual influence was, Jean Martin’s legacy goes beyond the academic domain. Over the seven years I knew her, both as Foundation Professor of Sociology at La Trobe University (1966-1974) and as a Senior Research Fellow at The Australian National University (1974-1979), her caring, generosity and helpfulness were her obvious and abiding qualities. Jean Martin represents for me, and others, an exemplar of what it is to be a person and a professional sociologist.

– Frank Lewins Book Review: The Martin Presence:
Jean Martin and the Making of the Social Sciences in Australia

The Award

The Jean Martin Award recognises excellence in scholarship in the field of Sociology and aims to assist with establishing the career of a recent PhD graduate.

This Award, which was given for the first time in 1980, is granted to the best PhD thesis in social science disciplines from an Australian tertiary institution submitted to the Award Committee. Theses may be on theoretical as well as empirical topics. Excellence in scholarship in the field of sociology, and the balanced treatment of sociological theory and research are the main criteria for deciding the Award. Work done in one of Jean Martin’s major areas of interest and which assesses implications for social policy are other criteria the judges will also take into account. Jean Martin’s research interests are defined as: migration, community and family studies, the concept of ‘ethnicity’, ethnic politics, social class, theories of culture and of social change.

Prize

The recipient will receive:

• $500 from the Jean Martin Memorial Fund
• A TASA JMA trophy and certificate
• Complimentary registration to attend the annual TASA conference at which the Award is presented (including Conference dinner)
• Invitation to contribute a synopsis of the thesis to be published in Nexus/TASA Blog
• Invitation to be part of the next judging panel for the Award.
  

2023 Submission and Nomination details

Supervisors, Heads of Sociology departments/schools and interdisciplinary Social science departments and other departments with a major commitment to Sociological analysis within Australian tertiary institutions are invited to submit candidates for the Award.

Individuals may also submit their thesis on their own behalf. In either case, theses must have been formally awarded in the period March 1st 2021 to 28 February 2023. All candidates must be members of TASA at the time of nomination and include a $25 processing fee, payable to TASA (either by credit card or electronic transfer) with details available during the nomination process.

Self nominations are acceptable.

Accordion Widget

Past Winners

Past Winners

2021: Catriona Stevens
Unlikely settlers in exceptional times: The impact of social class and selective migration policies on the recent migration of trade skilled workers on their families from China to Perth, Western Australia

2019: Brydan Lenne

Brydan Lenne (L) pictured with one of her supervisors Katherine Carroll. 

2017: Janine Pickering

Janine Pickering during the acceptance speech at the 2017 conference dinner in Perth.

2015: Benjamin Gook

The late Bill Martin (left) presenting the 2015 Jean Martin Award to Ben Gook.

2013: Xiaoying Sheila Qi
 

It is a great honour to be awarded the Jean Martin Award and I want to thank the panel of judges and the panel’s convener, Associate Professor Adam Possamai, for the hard work they have put in to reaching their decision.

Although I never met her, I know from discussion with some of her contemporaries, and also from what I have read and seen of her achievements, that Jean Martin was a great Australian sociologist and a wonderful person. I am delighted, through this award, to be associated with her name and the continuing memorialization of her contribution to sociology.
Xiaoying Sheila Qi

2011: Katherine Carroll

Katherine Carroll, from the University of Technology – Sydney, was the 2011 recipient of the prestigious Jean Martin Award for the best PhD thesis in a social science discipline from an Australian University from the Australian Sociological Association (TASA).

The thesis title is: “Unpredictable Predictables: Complexity Theory and the Construction of Order In Intensive Care”. Unfortunately, Katherine was overseas when the presentation of the Award was made during the annual conference dinner. Close friend Karen Willis, from the University of Tasmania, accepted the Award on Katherine’s behalf.

2009: Peter Nugus

 

From the University of New South Wales, Peter Nugus was the 2009 recipient of the prestigious Jean Martin Award for the best PhD thesis in a social science discipline from an Australian University from the Australian Sociological Association (TASA).

The thesis title is: “The Organisational World of Emergency Clinicians”. The announcement and presentation of the Award was made during the annual TASA conference dinner, held at the Australian National University in Canberra, December 2009.

2007: Belinda Hewitt

From the University of Queensland, was the 2007 recipient of the prestigious Jean Martin Award for the best PhD thesis in a social science discipline from an Australian university from The Australian Sociological Association (TASA).

The thesis title is: “Marriage Breakdown in Australia: social correlates, gender and initiator status”. The announcement and presentation of the Award was made during the annual TASA conference dinner, held at the University of Auckland, December, 2007.

 

2005: Sarah Maddison

From the  University of Sydney , was the 2005 recipient of the prestigious Jean Martin Award for the best PhD thesis in a social science discipline from an Australian university from The Australian Sociological Association (TASA).

The thesis title is: “Collective Identity And Australian Feminist Activism: Conceptualising A Third Wave”. The announcement and presentation of the Award was made during the annual TASA conference dinner, held at the University of Tasmania , December, 2005.

 

2002: The late Millsom Henry-Waring

A Lecturer in Sociology at the Department of Political Science at the University of Melbourne was awarded the prestigious Jean Martin Award for the best PhD thesis in a social science discipline from an Australian university from The Australian Sociological Association (TASA).

The thesis title is: ‘Moving Beyond Otherness: (Re)vealing, (Re)centring and (Re)inscribing the Polyvocal Subjectivities of African Caribbean Women across the United Kingdom’ and was awarded in 2002 from Monash University. The announcement and presentation of the Award was made during the annual TASA conference dinner, held at the University of New England, December 4-6.

The late Bill Martin (left) presenting the 2015 Jean Martin Award to Ben Gook.