The Kenneth W. Payne Prize

for outstanding anthropological scholarship

by a student on a lesbian, gay, bisexual, or trans* topic

Call for submissions

Deadline for submission: June 1, 2026

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 trans* topic, or 2) a critical interrogation of sexualities and genders more broadly defined. The Prize includes a cash award in the amount of $500. 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 2025 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 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 SUBMISSIONS IS JUNE 1, 2026. Submit an electronic copy of the print submission as a Word (*.doc or *.docx) attachment to payne.prize@gmail.com on or before the indicated deadline. Visual media projects should be available for download from an accessible website; send an email to payne.prize@gmail.com identifying the visual media project and indicating its accessibility. In either case, include with your email message a statement showing your intent to enter the 2026 Kenneth W. Payne Prize competition. Include your name, address, department and university, telephone number, and email address in the body of the email; in addition, indicate the stage of your graduate or undergraduate work at the time the submission was developed (how far along you are in your program, for example). 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 two weeks post-submission.

Submissions will be judged according to the following criteria: use of relevant LGBTQ and/or feminist anthropological theory and literature, potential for contribution to and advancement of LGBTQ 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 to be held in November this year. 

Our award is named after medical anthropologist Dr. Kenneth W Payne, often recognized for his work from 1972 to 1985 on the traditional medicinal practices of the Tagabawa Bagobo people of Mindanao, Philippines. After numerous field trips, and living among the Bagobo, Payne brought back many artifacts to help historically document their diseases, treatments and cures, as well as their culture and family traditions. While actively researching, he also taught at Washington University in St. Louis, the State University of New York, Purchase, and worked analyzing data in the Department of Medicine at University of California, San Francisco. At the same time, he also began groundbreaking research on HIV/AIDS from a socio-cultural perspective in the very early 80’s. He went on to collaborate on numerous articles regarding the newly identified epidemic in relation to anthropology, always advocating for the LGBTQI community, particularly on doctor/patient considerations. In 1985, Dr. Payne was diagnosed with AIDS, and passed away in 1988. He was 37 years old.  

Members of the 2026 Payne Prize Committee: John Song Pae Cho (University of British Columbia), Michael Connors Jackman (Freie Universität Berlin), Paula Martin (University of Chicago), Shunyuan Zhang (Trinity College), Manu Multani [Chair] (California Institute of Integral Studies), and Zhiqiu Benson Zhou (New York University Shanghai).