Call for Proposals: 2026 IAWA Kristine Fallon Prize

Date: Nov 26, 2024 - Jan 15, 2025

Location:

International Archive of Women in Architecture Center, Blacksburg , United States

Women, Conflict and Architecture since the late 20th century

The IAWA is pleased to announce a call for proposals for the 2026 Kristine Fallon Prize of $5,000. We invite proposals from professionals and scholars for a project that will result in a publication-ready article, chapter, book, manuscript, dissertation, or exhibition catalog. This cycle’s theme centers on the effects of global conflict on women practicing architecture since the late twentieth century.

Women have historically experienced a plethora of barriers to their participation and success in architectural practice. Throughout the twentieth century until today, women around the globe have faced further challenges from the upheavals and displacements of war, conflict, climate crisis, and regime change. The resulting difficulties, including resource scarcity, forced migrations, and the gender-based violence of oppressive regimes, affect whole populations. They also impose uniquely difficult conditions in which women practice and that threaten to damage or destroy their built work and archives. Such challenges have also displaced communities into hostile environments, to which women have responded through design. The 2026 Kristine Fallon Prize invites research that centers on women working in trying circumstances, negotiating repressive political, economic, environmental, or cultural conditions. 

Projects may address the following:

• How women shape environments affected by conflict, war, or migration
  
• Work by women at risk of being lost due to destruction, repression, or gender-based violence
  
• How women have designed for refugee communities displaced by such events
  
• How female professionals negotiate of gender-based repression, such as limitations on access to the public sphere, mobility and travel, banking and contracts, or professional requirements such as education or licensure
  

The prize is awarded in a two-stage process: 

First, applicants submit 500-word proposals that provide an overview of the selected topic within its context and describe the work to be conducted during the second stage. Proposals will be reviewed by an invited jury who will ultimately select up to five projects to advance. Each of the five selected will receive an award of $500 and advance to the second stage to be developed into a manuscript, due December 1, 2025. 

The manuscripts will be judged by the same invited jury, and the second stage winner will be announced in January 2026 and formally awarded during the 2026 IAWA Center Symposium in March 2026 at Virginia Tech, where the winner will present their project. To complete the record of the prize, a copy of the final published work must also be donated to the IAWA. The IAWA Mission encourages such research in addition to the goal of preserving archival materials related to the work of women who shaped the designed environment, thus preserving for prosperity a record of their achievements.

2026 IAWA Kristine Fallon Prize Schedule

November 2024	Call for Proposals issued
January 15, 2025	Stage 1 Proposals Due
February 2025	Stage 1 Winners Announced
December 1, 2025	Stage 2 Submissions Due
January 2026	2026 IAWA Kristine Fallon Prize Winner Announced
March 2026	2026 IAWA Symposium - Awardee Project Presentation

 

Instructions for Submission:

Submissions should be emailed by January 15, 2025 to: iawacenter@vt.edu
Subject: The 2026 IAWA Kristine Fallon Prize - Stage 1

All submissions should be sent in PDF format and in English

All submitted entries for the Prize will be retained and preserved in the IAWA Collections, designated the IAWA Kristine Fallon Prize collection.

Any inquiries can be directed to Professor Elizabeth Keslacy, Director of Awards, International Archive of Women in Architecture at: iawacenter@vt.edu