FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 23, 2019

Press Contact: John F. Stephens, asamedia@theasa.net

All requests for interviews should be submitted by email to the press contact

For additional information about the ASA Awards Program, click here

The American Studies Association is proud to recognize the continuing high level of scholarship examining our American cultures. We ask all members of the Association to join in congratulating their fellow members to be honored at this year’s award ceremony at our annual meeting in Honolulu, Hawai’i.

For additional information about the annual meeting, click here

The Awards Ceremony will be held on Thursday, November 7, 2019, 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm, in the Hawai'i Convention Center, Ala Hala Wai Foyer, with champagne and non-alcoholic beverages available to toast and cheer this year’s fantastic award winners! We hope to see you there!



THE 2019 CONSTANCE M. ROURKE PRIZE

Chair: Neda Atanasoski, University of California, Santa Cruz

Miriam Petty, Northwestern University

Magdalena Zaborowska, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor



The Constance Rourke Prize has been awarded annually since 1987 for the best article published in American Quarterly. The winner of this year’s prize is SANDHYA SHUKLA,“It’s That Spanish Blood: Langston Hughes Imagines Race in Harlem and the World” (Volume 70, 2018).

The committee also selected two finalists (honorable mentions):

AIMI HAMRAIE,  "Mapping Access: Digital Humanities, Disability Justice, and Sociospatial Practice." (Volume 70, 2018).

CHRISTINE “XINE” YAO, “#staywoke: Digital Engagement and Literacies in Antiracist Pedagogy” (Volume 70, 2018).

THE 2019 RALPH HENRY GABRIEL DISSERTATION PRIZE

Chair: Nitasha Sharma, Northwestern University

Fatima El-Tayeb, University of California, San Diego

Christian Ravela, University of Central Florida



The Ralph Henry Gabriel Dissertation Prize, established in 1974, has been awarded annually since 1987 by the Association for the best dissertation in American Studies.  The committee is pleased to choose AARON EDDENS, “ʻClimate-Smart’ Seeds: Race, Science, and Security in the Global Green Revolution,” American Studies, University of Minnesota.

The committee also selected three finalists (honorable mentions):

RACHEL CORBMAN, “Conferencing on the Edge: A Queer History of Feminist Field Formation, 1969-1989,” Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Stony Brook University

PEDRO REGALADO, “‘Where Angels Fear to Tread’: Latinx Work, and the Making of Postindustrial New York,” American Studies, Yale University

STEVEN THRASHER, “Infectious Blackness: ‘Tiger Mandingo,’ Racial Compromise in Missouri, and Criminalized HIV/AIDS in America,” American Studies, New York University

THE 2019 GENE WISE - WARREN SUSMAN PRIZE

Chair: Cindy I-Fen Cheng, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Habiba Ibrahim, University of Washington, Seattle

Dean Saranillio, New York University



The Gene Wise - Warren Susman Prize is awarded each year for the best paper to be presented by a graduate student at the annual meeting.  The winning paper may deal with any aspect of American history, literature, or culture, but should reflect the breadth, the critical imagination, the intellectual boldness, and the cross-disciplinary perspective so strongly a part of the scholarship of both Gene Wise and Warren Susman. 

The committee is pleased to announce the award for the best graduate student paper submitted for the 2019 meeting will go to JOHNATHAN SMILGES, “The Ex-Gay Masquerade: Queercrip Conversion.”

THE 2019 YASUO SAKAKIBARA PRIZE

Chair: Yu-Fang Cho, Miami University of Ohio

Chien-ting Lin, National Central University, Taiwan

Miglena Todorova, University of Toronto

The Yasuo Sakakibara Prize is awarded for the best paper to be presented by an international scholar at the annual meeting.  The winning paper may deal with any aspect of American history, culture, or society.

The committee is pleased to announce the award for the best paper submitted by an international scholar for the 2019 meeting will go to CHENRUI ZHAO, “Resistance from the ‘Unreal’: Trouble of the Neoliberal Racial Project in Chimamanda Adichie's Americanah.”

The committee also named two finalists (honorable mentions):

CHIN JOU, “Captive Consumers: The Political Economy of Prison Food in the Era of Mass Incarceration”

KA-EUL YOO, “Deformed Ambassadors: The “Red” Threat and Hypervisible U.S. Disease-Controlling Policies in Cold War Asia”

THE 2019 LORA ROMERO FIRST BOOK PUBLICATION PRIZE

Chair: Aliyyah Abdur-Rahman, Brown University

Evren Savci, Yale University

Harrod J. Suarez, Oberlin College

The Lora Romero First Book Publication Prize was established in 2002 and is awarded annually for the best-published first book in American Studies that highlights the intersections of race with gender, class, sexuality and/or nation. 

The American Studies Association has awarded the 2019 Lora Romero First Book Publication Prize to CHRISTOPHER TAYLOR, The Empire of Neglect: The West Indies in the Wake of British Liberalism (Duke University Press).

The committee also named two finalists (honorable mentions):

DARIUS BOST, Evidence of Being: The Black Gay Renaissance and the Politics of Violence (University of Chicago Press)

SARAH DOWLING, Translingual Poetics: Writing Personhood under Settler Colonialism (University of Iowa Press)



THE 2019 JOHN HOPE FRANKLIN PUBLICATION PRIZE

Chair: Kimberly Juanita Brown, Mt. Holyoke College

Sarika Chandra, Wayne State University

Wendy Kozol, Oberlin College



The John Hope Franklin Publication Prize was established in 1986 and has been awarded annually for the best book published in American Studies.

The American Studies Association has awarded the 2019 John Hope Franklin Prize for the best published book in American Studies to IMANI PERRY, May We Forever Stand: A History of the Black National Anthem (University of North Carolina Press).

THE 2019 MARY C. TURPIE PRIZE

Chair: Lisa Lowe, Yale University

Phillip Deloria, Harvard University

Kevin Murphy, University of Minnesota

Annually, the American Studies Association gives the Mary C. Turpie Prize, established in 1993, to a person who has demonstrated outstanding abilities and achievement in American Studies teaching, advising, and program development at the local or regional level. The 2019 prize winner is PATRICK MCGREEVY, in recognition his outstanding teaching, mentoring, and program building in American Studies at the American University of Beirut, and as director of the Center for American Studies and Research (CASAR).

THE 2019 ANGELA Y. DAVIS PRIZE COMMITTEE

Chair:  Jodi Melamed, Marquette University

Kara Keeling, University of Chicago

A. Naomi Paik, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

The Angela Y. Davis Award for Public Scholarship recognizes scholars who have applied or used their scholarship for the “public good.” This includes work that explicitly aims to educate the lay public, influence policies, or in other ways seeks to address inequalities in imaginative, practical, and applicable forms. The 2019 prizewinner is HAUNANI-KAY TRASK, professor emerita, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa.



COMMITTEE PRIZES



Three prizes each awarded by a standing committee of the association will be formally presented at the brunch Generational Gifts: A Convivial Celebration of Mentoring, Scholarship, and the Future of American Studies, to be held 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM, November 9th, Hawai'i Convention Center, Mtg Rm 323 A/B.



THE 2019 CRITICAL ETHNIC STUDIES ESSAY PRIZE

The Critical Ethnic Studies Essay Prize is awarded by the Committee on Ethnic Studies for the best paper to be presented at the annual meeting in critical ethnic studies in comparative, transnational and global contexts. The 2019 prizewinner is JOSEN DIAZ for her paper, “The Roots of the Balete Tree: Tropical Science, Colonial Forestry, and the Racial Logics of U.S. Conservation.”



THE 2019 GLORIA E. ANZALDÚA PRIZE



The ASA’s Committee on Gender and Sexuality Studies awards the Gloria E. Anzaldúa Prize to an independent scholar and/or contingent or community college faculty member who demonstrates an affinity with Anzaldúa’s oeuvre, vision, or political commitments and who addresses connections among some or all of the following categories:  race, ethnicity, citizenship, class, gender, sexuality, and dis/ability.  The 2019 prizewinner is SARAH J. TREMBATH (Writer, Editor, and Professorial Lecturer at American University)

THE 2019 RICHARD A. YARBOROUGH MENTORING AWARD

The ASA Minority Scholars Committee awards the Richard A. Yarborough Mentoring Award to honor a scholar who, like Richard Yarborough, demonstrates dedication to and excellence in mentoring underrepresented faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and/or college, university or high school students. The 2019 prize will be awarded to RICHARD T. RODRÍGUEZ (University of California, Riverside).

THE 2019 SHELLEY FISHER FISHKIN AWARD

The International Committee announces the introduction of the Shelley Fisher Fishkin Prize for International Scholarship in Transnational American Studies for original research in Transnational American Studies (including original interdisciplinary research in Transnational American Studies).  The inaugural award will be presented at the International Partnership Luncheon to be held 12:00 noon to 1:45 PM, Thursday, November 7, Hawai'i Convention Center, Mtg Rm 323A.

The 2109 prizewinner is DAVID MARSHALL STRUTHERS, External Lecturer in the Copenhagen Business School as well as in the Department of English, Germanic, and Romance Studies at the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) for the excerpts from his recent book, The World in a City: Multiethnic Radicalism in Early Twentieth-Century Los Angeles (University of Illinois Press, 2019).  

NOTE: The Bode-Pearson Prize for Outstanding Contributions to American Studies will not be awarded this year.