Ruth Benedict Prize

Ruth Benedict Prize The Ruth Benedict Prize recognizes exceptional scholarship on LGBTQ topics related to Asia, the Pacific, and diasporic communities, honoring interdisciplinary work across anthropology, history, literary studies, and area studies. Established by the Association for Queer Anthropology, the prize commemorates contributions to understanding sexualities and gender in non-Western contexts and has been awarded to authors, editors, and translators whose works engage with regional studies and queer theory.

History

The prize was established in 1986 amid scholarly conversations linking anthropology, queer studies, and postcolonial studies, and it was shaped by debates involving figures and institutions such as Margaret Mead, Franz Boas, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Edward Said, and organizations like the American Anthropological Association and the Association for Feminist Anthropology. Early prize years intersected with academic movements including poststructuralism, postcolonialism, feminist theory, and the rise of journals such as Cultural Anthropology, American Ethnologist, Signs, GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, and Journal of Asian Studies. Recipients have included scholars affiliated with universities and research centers like University of California, Berkeley, Harvard University, University of Chicago, School of Oriental and African Studies, Australian National University, National University of Singapore, University of Tokyo, and University of Hong Kong. The prize’s evolution reflects broader dialogues involving conferences and institutions such as the Society for Applied Anthropology, Modern Language Association, American Historical Association, Association for Asian Studies, and initiatives like the Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities era and the rise of archives such as the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and the ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives.

Criteria and Eligibility

Works considered for the prize typically come from fields including anthropology, history, literary studies, sociology, political science, and area studies focusing on Asia, the Pacific, and diasporas. Eligible formats have included monographs, edited volumes, translations, and digital projects published by presses such as University of California Press, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Duke University Press, Routledge, Columbia University Press, Verso Books, and Palgrave Macmillan. Submissions often engage with intellectual traditions associated with scholars like Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Homi K. Bhabha, Judith Butler, Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu, and Stuart Hall. Eligibility criteria connect to thematic frameworks found in works such as Orientalism, The Location of Culture, Gender Trouble, Discipline and Punish, and regional studies exemplars covering South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia, Pacific Islands, Hawaii, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia.

Selection Process

The selection process is overseen by committees convened by the Association for Queer Anthropology and often involves peer review by scholars from institutions like Yale University, Princeton University, Stanford University, Columbia University, New York University, Johns Hopkins University, Cornell University, Brown University, and University of Pennsylvania. Committees evaluate submissions against criteria reflecting methodological rigor, theoretical innovation, archival research, and contributions to debates linked to scholars such as Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Annamarie Jagose, Michael Warner, R.W. Connell, and Kimberlé Crenshaw. The process can include longlists and shortlists and is announced at meetings associated with conferences such as the American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference, and panels at venues like ICAS (International Congress of Asian Scholars). Administratively, the prize aligns with practices used by other awards like the Wellcome Book Prize, Kluge Prize, Pulitzer Prize, and the Bancroft Prize insofar as committee deliberation and publisher nominations are concerned.

Recipients

Recipients include a range of scholars whose works intersect with prominent monographs, edited collections, and translations produced by academic presses and university departments. Notable awardees have been affiliated with programs such as Gender Studies Program at Indiana University Bloomington, Department of Anthropology at CUNY Graduate Center, Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Kyoto University, Asia Research Institute at National University of Singapore, and centers like the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity and the Institute for Advanced Study. Prize-winning titles have engaged topics connected to historical events like British colonialism in India, American occupation of the Philippines, Japanese imperialism, Chinese Cultural Revolution, and movements including Indian independence movement, Vietnam War, and social sites such as Shanghai International Settlement, Manila, Singapore, Jakarta, Bangkok, Hanoi, Seoul, Tokyo, Beijing, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur, Mumbai, Chennai, Colombo, Kathmandu, Dhaka, Islamabad, Lahore, Honolulu, Suva, Auckland, Wellington, and diasporic hubs like San Francisco, New York City, London, Toronto, Vancouver, Sydney, and Melbourne.

Impact and Significance

The prize has shaped scholarship by elevating comparative and region-specific studies that inform debates associated with theorists and movements such as Queer theory, Transnationalism, Diaspora studies, Postcolonial studies, and interventions by scholars like Jacqueline Stevens, Lisa Lowe, Avtar Brah, Sara Ahmed, Homi K. Bhabha, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Leela Gandhi, and Ranajit Guha. Its influence extends to curricular decisions at universities including University of California, Los Angeles, University of Michigan, University of British Columbia, McGill University, Australian National University, and University of Sydney, and to public humanities initiatives at museums and archives like the Smithsonian Institution, Victoria and Albert Museum, Museum of Chinese in America, Asian American Federation, and community organizations such as APIDA groups and LGBTQ centers. The award has fostered cross-disciplinary citations in journals from Public Culture to Modern Asian Studies and shaped grant priorities at funders including the National Endowment for the Humanities, Social Science Research Council, Ford Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and MacArthur Foundation.

Category:Academic awards