The 2026 Graduate Student Research Contest

It’s been a minute, but the Have You Heard Graduate Student Research Contest is back!

Are you a graduate student whose research on K-12 or higher education is ready for the podcast limelight? Then we have 30 minutes of prime audio real estate with your name on it…

Have You Heard is a biweekly education policy podcast, featuring journalist Jennifer Berkshire and scholar Jack Schneider. Seeking to move beyond the headlines and the talking points, the show presents important education issues and academic research in a humorous, easy-to-listen-to format. It may not be peer-reviewed, but Have You Heard does reach thousands of listeners with each episode, giving graduate students an audience many times larger than even the biggest AERA conference room.

To apply: Send a brief (200-300 word) description of your research. Then, in no more than two sentences, make the case for why you think it belongs in a podcast. Tell us, too, where you’re in school and what program you’re enrolled in. A round of finalists will be invited to submit full versions of their research, and the winner of the Graduate Student Research Contest will appear on an episode this fall.

Deadline: May 1, 2026

Contact: Vafa Alakbarova (our great grad assistant!)

To learn more about the show, check out our website. Or better yet, pick your way through the show’s archives on iTunes, Soundcloud or wherever you get your podcasts. Be sure to check out some of these episodes with previous contest winners:

#164 Plutocratic Philanthropists Are Bad for Schools—and Democracy (Nora Reikosky, 2023 winner)

#146 Another Border: How Immigrant Families Navigate Higher Education (Corinne Kentor, 2022 runner up)

#145 How the Critical Race Theory Narrative Took Hold (Annie Gensterblum, Ariell Bertrand, and Sandy Frost Waldron, 2022 winners)

#119 The Impact of HBCU-Trained Teachers on Black Student Achievement (Lavar Edmonds, 2021 runner up)

#117 College Behind Bars: the Case for Higher Education in Prison (Patrick Conway, 2021 winner)

#96 Mind the Gap: Why It’s Time to Stop Talking about the Achievement Gap (David Stevens 2020 winner)

#95 Contract Talk: New Research on Teachers Unions (Mimi Lyon and Adam Kirk Edgerton, 2020 runners up)

#75 Storefront School: Excavating A Radical Education Experiment in Harlem (Barry Goldenberg, 2019 runner up)

#69 Progressive Charter Schools vs. the Education Marketplace (Elise Castillo, 2019 winner)