PhD Alumna Earns Prestigious ATA/PwC Tax Dissertation Award
This year, the American Taxation Association in cooperation with PricewaterhouseCoopers presented the annual award for the Outstanding Tax Dissertation to Schulich alumna, Preetika Joshi (PhD ’20). This international award is open to PhD students from any country who completed their PhD dissertation in Tax in 2020. The award recipient will be receiving a plaque and a $5,000 award at the annual ATA luncheon.
Joshi recently completed her PhD in International Tax under the supervision of Associate Professor Amin Mawani. After graduating Schulich, she interviewed at various universities in the US, Europe and Canada before joining Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University in Montreal.
“I was looking for a school that had an excellent reputation in research and also had faculty members engaged in tax research,” shared the alumni. “Schulich ticked all the boxes on my list, so it was an easy decision when I got accepted into the program. The funding package that Schulich provides its PhD students is very competitive.” She credits her success in the program to the faculty, dissertation committee, and her fellow PhD students.
In addition to the normal stipends received by all Schulich PhD students, Joshi was awarded the PhD Entrance Fellowship during her first year, followed by Ontario Graduate Scholarships over two years, as well as the prestigious Provost Dissertation Scholarship in her final year. Joshi also received funding from CPA Ontario throughout her doctoral studies.
The main paper from her dissertation was recently published in the Journal of Accounting Research and research from her 3rd year summer paper was published in Contemporary Accounting Research, while she was still in her PhD program. Both these journals are in the Top-5 peer-reviewed academic outlets in Accounting.
“Publishing two papers in top-tier journals before graduation attests to her outstanding abilities and foundation in research and scholarship,” shared Associate Professor Amin Mawani. “Preetika’s strong theoretical grounding and extensive professional tax experience, together with a healthy dose of curiosity, have laid an excellent foundation for her to become a truly outstanding accounting researcher.”