2007-2008 Transdisciplinary Humanities Book Award
Deadline for nominations: February 15, 2008
The Institute for Humanities Research at Arizona State University invites nominations of books written in English and published in 2006 or 2007 which reflect the finest contemporary humanities-based scholarship on any topic. Nominations should be for books that are (a) transdisciplinary in methodology and scope, and (b) focused on compelling topics of social relevance, past, present, or future.
Nominated books should be works of academic non-fiction that feature a clear humanities perspective, even if they also involve methodologies and perspectives from the sciences and social sciences. (For the IHR definition of the humanities, see below.)* Nominated books may have multiple authors, but edited collections are not eligible. Each publisher may nominate one or two books only.
The prize will include a cash award of $1,500, advertisement of the book in all IHR materials, an award certificate, and an all-expense paid visit to the ASU campus in the year following the award so the author(s) may make an informal presentation on the book.
For each nomination, please send 4 copies of the book and a completed nomination form by February 15, 2008, to the Institute for Humanities Research, 107 Social Sciences Building, PO Box 876505, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-6505. The winner will be announced by May 1, 2008, and the author’s visit will be scheduled in the 2008-09 academic year. (This is a bi-annual award.)
*The Humanities entail the study of: languages and literatures; linguistics; history; philosophy; religion; ethics; the theory, criticism, and history of the arts; jurisprudence and cultural theory; as well as those aspects of social sciences that have humanistic content and employ humanistic methods. The humanities also include the study and application of the humanities to the human environment and to contemporary life, with particular attention to race, class, gender, and sexuality, as well as to diverse peoples and traditions. Humanities methods include (but are not limited to) the deep reading of texts and signs, the construction of meaning through language and interpretation, the exploration of material and visual culture and human practices, and the investigation of knowledge construction itself.