The Kenneth W. Payne Student Prize is presented each year by the Association for Queer Anthropology (AQA) of the American Anthropological Association to a graduate or undergraduate student in acknowledgment of outstanding anthropological work on 1) a lesbian, gay, bisexual or trans* topic, or 2) a critical interrogation of sexualities and genders more broadly defined.

Thirty-four students (seventeen undergraduate and seventeen graduate) submitted papers this year. Submissions were evaluated 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 2018 recipient of the Payne Prize:

Paula Martin (University of Chicago), for the paper “Changing Our Bodies and Changing Our Selves: Bodily Interventions, Youth Futures, and the Possibilities of Gender.” The abstract reads:

Gender expansive youth, or young people who do not identify with the sex they were assigned at birth, must navigate complex pragmatic as well as ideological terrains in order to access the biomedical inventions that can modify their bodies. For young people looking to access gender specific medical care, the anticipation of biological development at odds with their gender identity amplifies the sense of urgency in, and the ethical stakes of, receiving biomedical treatments. Drawing on the experiences of gender expansive youth participating in a social support group in the Midwestern United States, the paper explores how ideas of gender, body, and self, structure how interventions emerge and are taken up presently, as well as imagined to impact individual and collective futures. I show how the ideology of gender held by youth participants, as well as many providers, decouples gender from the biological body, yet upholds the importance of living in the body one wants. Attending to this reality, I argue, reveals how medical forms of care can expand the conceptual and embodied possibilities of gender itself.

The committee is also pleased to award an honorable mention to Alexia Arani (University of California, San Diego) for the paper “Queering Vulnerability, Queering Care: The Affective Politics of Queer Community.” The abstract reads:

This paper examines the affective politics of radical vulnerability and the forms of care it engenders within queer and trans intimate publics online. Drawing on queer and feminist theories of vulnerability and emotion, I explore how practices of radical vulnerability queer feeling rules and self-other relations, creating the conditions of possibility for solidarity, care, and the building of political communities. While I argue that vulnerability and care are productive avenues for queer politics, I end with an exploration of contemporary constraints and limitations curtailing queer and trans community members’ attempts to care for themselves and each other. I call for continued collaboration between researchers, activists, and queer and trans community members to sustain vulnerability and care as mechanisms for survival and social transformation.

The 2018 Payne Prize recipients will be recognized at the AQA Business meeting during the annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association in San Jose (November 14-18).

The 2018 Payne Prize Committee: Brooke Bocast (University of the Witswatersrand), Michael Connors Jackman (Memorial University of Newfoundland), Tayo Jolaosho (University of South Florida – 2018 Payne Prize Committee co-chair), Richard J. Martin (Harvard University – 2018 Payne Prize Committee co-chair) and Shaka McGlotten (Purchase College-SUNY).

For additional information contact the Payne committee co-chair Tayo Jolaosho (jolaosho@usf.edu)