Award Details

Award Description

The Paul Goldberg Award provides support for thesis research, with emphasis on fieldwork and/or laboratory analyses, for graduate students in the earth sciences and archaeology. 

Who Is Eligible to Submit Nominations or Apply for the Award

Recipients of the Goldberg Award will be

• actively pursuing a M.A. or M.S. degree in Earth sciences or archaeology,
• applying Earth science methods to archaeological research, and
• members of the Society for American Archaeology.

Nomination/Submission Materials Required

Complete applications for the P. Goldberg Award consist of

• a research proposal no more than three pages in length (excluding references) that describes the research, its merit, and its importance to the discipline of Geoarchaeology,
• a curriculum vitae, and
• a letter of support from the thesis committee chair that includes certification that the student is conducting the proposed research and the expected date of completion of the degree.

Applicants should send their proposals and CVs as a single PDF to the committee chair. File names must include the applicant’s surname and SAA member number. The Goldberg Award must be part of the proposal title. Applicants should instruct their advisors to send recommendation letters directly to the Awards Committee chair.

Other Special Requirements

Prior to any award recommendation being finalized and publicly announced, anyone recommended for an award, scholarship, or grant will be required to certify the following:

Nature of Award (e.g. monetary, medal, symposium)

For 2025, the awardee receives $500. As the fund grows, the award amount may increase as the annual interest increases. In addition, the SAA recognizes the awardee with a plaque presented during the business meeting held at the Annual Meeting, a citation in The SAA Archaeological Record, and acknowledgment on the Goldberg Fellowship page of the SAA website.

Current Committee Charge

The committee solicits proposals and selects recipients for the Douglas C. Kellogg Fellowship for Geoarchaeological Research and the Paul Goldberg Award. These awards are presented in support of research, with emphasis on the field and/or laboratory parts of this research, for graduate students in the Earth sciences and archaeology at the Doctoral level and the Master’s level, respectively.

Committee Composition

Committee composition is one chair and at least four members.

Term Length

Three years. 

Award Cycle

N/A

Committee Chair and End of Term

Jessie Halligan [2026]

Committee Chair Contact Information

jessi.halligan@gmail.com

Committee Members and Ends of Terms

Names and term end dates for the chair and all members can be found on the committee page in the SAA Directory. 

Selection or Evaluation Criteria

Important questions the committee considers include

• Does the applicant seek to do interesting and novel research?
• Are the methods and theory sound and applicable to the research questions?
• Is the proposal well-written and coherent?
• Is the proposal feasible for the stated timeframe?

Committee Deliberation Process (e.g. dates, venue)

The committee chair redacts the proposals for identity information in order to limit implicit sociocultural bias, favoritism, and/or nepotism in application assessment. The committee members then read and rank all eligible proposals. After each committee member reads and ranks the applications, the chair tallies the rankings. A simple majority is sufficient to declare an awardee; if there is a tie, the chair provides the deciding vote.