The competition “Best young sociologist of 2026”

The Sociological Association of Ukraine

The Institute of Sociology of the NAS of Ukraine

The N. V. Panina Sociological Centre

announce the competition “Best young sociologist of 2026”

The competition is open to persons who hold a full higher education (a bachelor's, master's or specialist's diploma) and who will not have turned 40 by 1 September 2026.

Documents for the competition are to be submitted by 1 November 2026 inclusive.

To enter the competition, three documents must be submitted to the competition committee in electronic form (as attachments to a single message):

1. One scholarly work by the nominee without co-authors, in the form of an article in a journal or a collection of articles. The length is up to 2 author's sheets (up to 80,000 characters). The work must have been published in an officially registered Ukrainian or foreign publication in print or electronic form (confirmed by a full reference to the source of publication). Works are accepted for the competition if at least one month but no more than three years have passed since the date of publication (that is, the date on which the publication was signed off for printing).

The text of the article should be sent to the competition committee together with the other competition documents in Ukrainian or English, with the bibliographic details of the publication indicated.

2. A page with information about the author and their professional achievements (CV), stating: the nominee's full name, postal and e-mail address, telephone number, details of education and work experience, and a list of the nominee's publications.

3. An essay with an original title of the author's own (no longer than 20,000 characters) on the theme “Society and sociology in the age of artificial intelligence: challenges, risks and new opportunities”.

All files must be in MS Word format (.doc or .docx)

Documents should be sent as attached files in a single e-mail message to panina.fund@gmail.com. The subject line should read: Competition “Best young sociologist – 2026”.

Winners of the “Best young sociologist of the year” competition in previous years may take part (works by two-time winners of the competition are not accepted).

The authors of the works accepted for the competition will be invited to take part in the 20th International Sociological Readings in memory of Natalia Panina (Kyiv, 10 December 2026), where the competition committee will announce the winners of the competition, who will receive the following prizes: first prize — UAH 8,000; second prize — UAH 6,000; third prize — UAH 4,000.

The prizes are awarded to coincide with the birthday of N. V. Panina — 10 December.

Within the competition a special I. M. Popova prize will also be awarded for the work of the greatest social and practical significance. The prize amounts to UAH 4,000.

We invite professional sociological journals to recommend that their best authors take part in the competition.

Founders of the competition: the N. V. Panina Sociological Centre — Ye. I. Golovakha, V. I. Paniotto, M. M. Churylov

Members of the competition committee: Babenko S. S., Bakirov V. S., Brik T., Horbachyk A. P., Dembitskyi S. S., Zhulenova O. V. (secretary of the competition committee), Kostenko N. V., Kutuiev P. V., Kutsenko O. D. (chair of the competition committee), Stehnii O. H. (deputy chair of the competition committee), Chernysh N. Y., Shulha R. P., Otrishchenko N.