On November 13, 2020, the National Institute partnered with the American Anthropological Association to sponsor their novel “Three Minute Thesis Competition,” which the AAA presented in connection with their 2020 virtual event series, “Raising Our Voices.”
In the competition, graduate students in Anthropology distilled their dissertations or theses into engaging, intelligible, and brief on-demand video presentations lasting no more than three minutes each. Judges for the event included distinguished journalists and science writers from NPR, Science, Scientific American, and Vox, as well as the National Institute’s own Jonathan Piel, Chairman of the Grants Committee.
The National Institute provided financial support for the project, which included cash awards for the winning presenters as well as honoraria for the third party judges.
The competition attracted 16 separate video submissions. The grand prize was awarded to Sarah Carson for “The New Girls' Club: Gendered Leadership, Political Party Culture, and the Women Changing the Face of U.S. Politics.” First runner up went to Kayleigh Meighan for “Where does the newborn baby sleep? Prevalence and predictors of postpartum co-sleeping practices after midwife-led births in the United States.” The second runner up was a tie between Jueun Lee for “What is your Personal Color? Skilled Vision for Color and Beauty Meets Makeover Culture in South Korea,” and Lindsay Fournier for “Where Did All The Children's Health Programs Go? An Evaluation of a County Health Department.”
Edward Liebow, Executive Director of the American Anthropological Association, declared the innovative experiment a complete success.
As part of its expanded grant-making activities, the National Institute looks forward to working with academic associations such as the AAA to sponsor innovative programs such as the Three Minute Thesis Competition in order to support worthwhile social science research and to make it more accessible to the general public.
The winning videos can be watched below and also found at the links shown above.
Grand Prize — Sarah Carson, University of Pennsylvania
First Runner Up — Kayleigh Meighan, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Second Runner Up (tie) — Jueun Lee, Seoul National University
Second Runner Up (tie) — Lindsay Fournier, University of North Texas