J. Anthony Blair Prize
for a graduate student essay/presentation deemed especially worthy of recognition
All the papers presented by graduate students at OSSA have gone through the same process as the other papers presented; they began as abstracts, not separately identified as proposals from students, and were anonymously refereed by the Programme Committee. This year the conference accepted more than two dozen papers by graduate students for the programme, all of which are eligible for the Blair Prize. The Blair Prize (a plaque, $1,000 Canadian, and a publication in Informal Logic) is awarded to the graduate student whose paper was deemed especially worthy of recognition by the Blair Prize Committee. The announcement of the 2024 winner, and presentation of the award, will be made at the conference banquet, Saturday, May 25. The Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation is grateful to the Blair Prize Committee for 2024 for selecting this year's winner of the award. The chair of the Blair Prize Committee is Dr. Katharina Stevens.
The members of the Blair Prize Committee will be announced after the papers are submitted.
If you are a graduate student (or were one as of September 8, 2023), then you may enter your paper in the competition for the J.A. Blair Prize. To be considered, please (a) self-identify as a student when confirming your attendance at the conference, and (b) send the paper to ossa13@uwindsor.ca by Monday, February 26, 2024. Write “Blair Prize Entry” in the subject line, and make sure your paper is free of self-identifying references.
Past Winners of the Blair Prize
2020: Petar Bodlovic (University of Groningen) On Presumptions, Burdens of Proof, and Explanations
2016: Eugen Octav Popa (University of Amsterdam) Criticism without fundamental principles.
2013: Andrew Pineau (McMaster University) Toward a better understanding of fallacies on Toulmin's argument model.
2011: Paul Simard-Smith (University of Waterloo) and Andrei Moldovan (University of Salamanca) Arguments as abstract objects.
2009: Andrei Moldovan (University of Barcelona) Pragmatic considerations in the interpretation of denying the antecedent.
2007: Linda Carozza (York University) Dissent in the midst of emotional territory. (Co-recipient)
2007: Paula Olmos (Spanish National Distance University) Making it public: Testimony and socially sanctioned common grounds. (Co-recipient)
2005: Lilian Bermejo-Luque (University of Murcia) Toulmin's model of argument and the question of relativism.
2003: Amy Ohler (McMaster University) A dialectical tier within reason.
2001: Jan Albert van Laar (University of Groningen) Ambiguity in dialogue.