Robert A. and Beverly H. HackenbergThe Robert A. and Beverly H. Hackenberg Prize honors SfAA members and their community partners who have demonstrated lasting and meaningful collaboration to improve the communities where they live and work.

The prize is named after Malinowski Award winners Robert and Beverly Hackenberg, whose distinguished careers focused on health care, economic, and community development in the U.S. and abroad. Their work always emphasized the importance of collaboration between social scientists and local organizations to meet community needs and create culturally appropriate solutions.

Learn more about Robert and Beverly Hackenberg

The Hackenberg Prize recognizes outstanding collaborative work by SfAA members and their partners in the community or region where the SfAA Annual Meeting is held.

Nominations (including self-nominations) should consist of a letter detailing the work of the nominee(s) and their collaborators and how it addresses community needs. The letter should specify who is involved and its local impacts.

  • Project is located in the general area where the SfAA Annual Meeting is held. “General area” is defined as the state in which the Annual Meeting is held, as well as surrounding states and, where applicable, adjacent international areas.
  • Community participation in a project or activity related to a significant problem or issue.
  • Project should be sustainable, contain a model that might be replicable when tailored to a problem and its local conditions elsewhere, and have an evaluation component.
  • Preferably interdisciplinary.

Prize recipients describe their project in a special session at the SfAA Annual Meeting. The presentation can be a lecture (with discussants), a session with multiple presentations, or a panel. The Hackenberg Prize comes with a commemorative plaque and a $2,000 cash award to support their ongoing efforts.

  • For additional information, please contact Don Stull, Hackenberg Prize Committee Chair, at stull@ku.edu.
  • Send nomination materials to: stull@ku.edu.
  • Submission deadline: October 15

Previous Recipients