Established in 1996 by the Graham Foundation, the Carter Manny Award supports the completion of outstanding doctoral dissertations on architecture and its role in the arts, culture, and society. The only pre-doctoral award dedicated exclusively to architectural scholarship, the Carter Manny Award recognizes emerging scholars whose work promises to challenge and reshape contemporary discourse and impact the field at large. Eligible dissertation projects must focus on architecture, though scholarly investigations may be grounded in a range of academic disciplines and fields of inquiry that align with the mission of the Graham Foundation. These include: architectural history and theory; design; engineering; landscape architecture; urban planning; urban studies; the visual arts; and other related fields. The award assists students enrolled in graduate programs in architecture, art history, the fine arts, humanities, and the social sciences working on architecture topics.

Each year the Graham Foundation offers two Carter Manny Awards: one Research Award for a student at the research stage of the doctoral dissertation and one Writing Award for a student at writing stage of the doctoral dissertation. The Research Award is acknowledged with up to $15,000 and the Writing Award is acknowledged with up to $20,000.

The Carter Manny Award applications are reviewed by a diverse panel of recognized scholars in the fields of inquiry represented by the award.

The Graham Foundation offers this prestigious annual award in honor of Carter H. Manny (1918–2017) and his long and distinguished service to the Graham Foundation. Manny served the Foundation since its inception in 1956, first as a trustee, then as the director from 1971, and after his retirement in 1993, as director emeritus.