The Society for American City and Regional Planning History (SACRPH) invites submissions for its 2026 biennial awards competition.
SACRPH presents three awards for scholarship on American (United States and Canada) city and regional planning history: the Lewis Mumford Prize for best book ($500), the Catherine Bauer Wurster Prize for best peer-reviewed article ($500), and the John Reps Prize for best doctoral dissertation ($1,000) and master’s thesis ($500). For all of the above, transnational or comparative histories that include the United States or Canada are also eligible.
Additionally, SACRPH offers the Journal of Planning History Prize for best article published in that journal, with no geographical restriction ($500).
SACRPH is also pleased to announce two new prizes for 2026: the Angel David Nieves Prize for digital or public humanities projects on city and regional planning history, including student projects, no geographical restriction ($500) and the Global Book Prize for the best book on city and regional planning history whose focus is outside the United States and Canada (transnational histories that include the United States or Canada are also eligible but may be nominated only for this or Mumford, not both; $500).
For the current awards cycle, books and other publications must have been published between August 1, 2023 and December 31, 2025 (for articles, the OnlineFirst publication date will be used). (NB: this is a longer window of eligibility than in past cycles to allow SACRPH to bring its awards back onto the same biennial cycle as the National Conference on Planning History following the pandemic. Subsequent award cycles will again have a two-year window.)
SACRPH also awards the Laurence Gerckens Prize to an outstanding teacher-scholar who has demonstrated sustained excellence in scholarship, teaching, and leadership in the field of planning history ($500). The deadline for nominations is December 31, 2025.
Awards will be presented at the Twenty-first National Conference on Planning History, to take place in Cincinnati, Ohio, in October 2026. For more information, including nomination instructions and past winners, visit individual awards pages.