Dr Nalize Marais from the Planning Unit of the University of the Free State (UFS) has become the first international student to be nominated for the Politics of Education Association (PEA) award. The PEA is an association based in the United States of America (USA) and Dr Marais recently attended the association’s annual conference in Denver, Colorado, where she was one of three finalists nominated in the PEA Best Dissertation Award category. This award is designed to foster and support graduate student research and publication on political processes and outcomes concerning education in the USA and abroad. The aim is to highlight and reward scholars studying political issues in education, as distinct from the interdisciplinary approaches taken by policy studies.