22 March 2011

Call for Submissions: The 2011 Ruth Benedict Prize Competition

The Association for Queer Anthropology (AQA) is proud to announce the 2011 Ruth Benedict Book Prize Competition for outstanding anthropological scholarship on a lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender topic.

The Ruth Benedict Book Prize is presented each year at the American Anthropological Association’s annual meeting to acknowledge excellence in a scholarly book written from an anthropological perspective about a topic that engages issues and theoretical perspectives relevant to LGBTQ studies. The Prize is awarded in each of two separate categories, one for a single-authored monograph and another for an edited volume.

Submissions may be on any topic related to lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people, or other gender/sexual formations and categories from any world culture area. Topics may include the study of normativity, queer theory, and the social/historical construction of sexual and gender identities, discourses and categories. Authors may represent any scholarly discipline, but the material submitted must engage anthropological theories and methods. Submissions may be self-nominated or may be sent by a press or another person.

Books submitted for the competition must have a publication date of 2010 or 2011 and may not have been submitted previously. Page proofs of books scheduled for 2011 publication are acceptable but please include a letter from the publisher confirming the anticipated publication date of 2011.

To nominate a work, please submit one copy of the book or edited volume to each of the four committee members listed below, with the author or editor’s name, mailing address, email address, and telephone number printed clearly on a separate cover letter indicating that it is a submission for the Ruth Benedict Book Prize. Three voting committee members are former winners of the Ruth Benedict Book Prize. A fourth, non-voting, member is a graduate student representative from AQA. All submissions must be received by July 15, 2011.

Send any inquiries to the Ruth Benedict Book Prize Committee Chair, Mary L. Gray (QcentraL@indiana.edu)

2011 Ruth Benedict Book Prize Committee Members:

Ellen Lewin
Gender, Women’s & Sexuality Studies
University of Iowa
210 Jefferson Bldg.,
Iowa City, IA 52242

Tanya Erzen
School of Social Science
Institute for Advanced Study
Einstein Drive
Princeton, NJ 08540

Mary L. Gray
Dept. of Communication and Culture
Indiana University
800 E. 3rd Street
Bloomington, IN 47405

Richard Martin
635 W 42nd Street
Apt 44D
New York, NY 10036

19 February 2011

Call for Submissions: The Kenneth W. Payne Prize for outstanding anthropological scholarship by a student on a lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgendered topic

Deadline for submission: June 20, 2011

The Kenneth W. Payne Student Prize is presented each year by the Association for Queer Anthropology (AQA) to a graduate or undergraduate student in acknowledgment of outstanding anthropological work on 1) a lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered topic, or 2) a critical interrogation of sexualities and genders more broadly defined. The Prize includes a cash award in the amount of $400. Submissions are encouraged from graduate or undergraduate students in any of the four fields of anthropology. To be eligible for consideration, work should have been completed since June 2010 and while the applicant was still enrolled as a student. Research papers as well as visual media (e.g. documentary film) are eligible for submission for this competition. Papers should be no longer than 40 pages, double-spaced, and typed in 11 or 12 point font; published papers or works accepted for publication will not be accepted for review. Visual media should run no longer than 60 minutes; media projects already under contract for commercial distribution will not be accepted for review.

THE DEADLINE FOR RECEIPT OF SUBMISSIONS IS JUNE 20, 2011. Submit an electronic copy of the print submission as a Word (*.doc) or RTF (rich text format or *.rtf) attachment to on or before the indicated deadline. Visual media projects should be available for download from an accessible website; send an email to wlm@american.edu that identifies the visual media project and explains its accessibility. In either case, include with your email message a statement indicating your intent to enter the 2011 Kenneth W. Payne Prize competition. Also include your name, address, department and university, telephone number, and email address in the body of the email as well; in addition, indicate the stage of your graduate or undergraduate work at the time the submission was developed. You will receive a confirmation email that your submission has been received within a week of its receipt. Please only send duplicate copies or emails if you have not received a response after two weeks.

Submissions will be judged according to the following criteria: use of relevant L/G/B/T/Q and/or feminist anthropological theory and literature, potential for contribution to and advancement of L/G/B/T/Q studies and our understanding of sexualities worldwide, attention to difference (such as gender, class, race, ethnicity, nation), originality, organization and coherence, and timeliness. The award will be presented to the winner at the AQA Business meeting during the annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association Montreal, Ontario, November 16-20, 2011.

Members of the 2011 Payne Prize Committee include: Naisargi N. Dave (University of Toronto), Elisabeth Engebretsen (McGill U), William Leap (American U – 2011 Payne Prize Committee chair), Simon J. Craddock Lee (U Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas), Gregory Mitchell (Northwestern U ), Bill Maurer ( U California –Irvine), Robert Phillips (St. Francis Xavier University), and Margot Weiss (Wesleyan University.)

For more information about the 2011 Payne prize competition, please contact wlm@american.edu .