This prize, endowed by Professor Khayyam Z. Paltiel of the Department of Political Science, is intended to provide a fund to assist in the publication of a deserving doctoral dissertation presented to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research at Carleton University in the fields of social philosophy, social theory, or social policy. The prize is awarded biennially to the best doctoral dissertation presented in these fields in the previous two-year period. The prize is not intended to be confined to students in a particular discipline; doctoral dissertations in the appropriate fields may be presented in political science, sociology and anthropology, economics, psychology, and history. Dissertations are nominated for the prize by the doctoral examining boards; adjudication is by a committee chaired by the Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research and including the appropriate faculty deans together with the chairs of the relevant departments.