Douglas A. Feldman LGBTQ Paper Prize

This fund was established by Dr. Douglas A. Feldman beginning in 2014 to support the Diversity mission at SUNY Brockport. The criteria for the annual award are as follows:

1. Students must be enrolled at the undergraduate level in any major at SUNY Brockport.
2. Submit an academic research paper (including revised papers originally written for classes this academic year) with content that focuses on the life, experiences, and other issues related to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, non-binary, intersex life, and other minoritized gender and sexual identities.
3. The paper must be between nine and 20 pages of text. It must be typed, double-spaced, with reference citations and page numbers. Text should be a conventional font, and use 11- 12 point type. Include a title page, with your name, title of your paper, and if it was initially written for a course (including an independent study or thesis practicum), include the course name and number, and the assignment description, if applicable. Also include a bibliography/ works cited page/s (these may count as additional pages beyond the page minimum).
4. Papers should be scholarly.
5. It must be clearly written.
6. The paper cannot be homophobic, or anti-gay.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Acknowledge the AI Policy for this Paper Prize:
If your submission was originally written for a course, abide by the course instructor’s generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) policy as stated in the course syllabus. For your application, include the assignment description/essay prompt AND copy-paste the instructor’s AI Policy to the title page of your submission.

If your submission was originally written for a thesis course, an independent study, or for this competition, abide by the competition’s AI policy as follows:
Include a Disclaimer Statement of 2-4 sentences identifying the AI tool used and its purpose.  Example: “Grammarly was used to assist with proofreading this assignment.” Also, describe how you validated the AI’s output (i.e. how do you know it’s correct). Failure to acknowledge the use of AI could result in your ineligibility to participate in the competition.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Students may submit one paper per academic year, but are only eligible to receive the overall award one time. Runner-up winners may submit again for the overall prize, but may not win the runner-up prize again.
The best paper will be selected based on quality, relevance to the topic, importance of the topic, excellence in research methods and/or theory, and originality of writing.
Papers will be reviewed by a faculty and community committee, and the recipient(s) will be recognized at the SUNY Brockport Diversity Conference, or at the most appropriate venue determined by the selection committee and the Foundation Scholarship Office.
Papers will be accepted annually during each academic year, beginning November 15, but not later than February 15. (e.g. November 15, 2026 – February 15, 2027)
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
$1,000 award for the best paper.
The runner up will receive a $100 award.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

To apply for more Foundation Scholarship Opportunities, fill out the General Application: https://brockport.academicworks.com/