Edward Sapir Book Prize
The Edward Sapir Book Prize was established in 2001 and is awarded in alternate years to a book that makes the most significant contribution to our understanding of language in society, or the ways in which language mediates historical or contemporary sociocultural processes. The SLA invites books with conceptual and theoretical focus, as well as ethnographic and descriptive works. Single-or multi-author books – but not edited collections – are eligible. For this first award, books published in the last three years are eligible. Self nominations are encouraged. Authors or nominators should send a substantive letter of nomination and published reviews, if available. Nominees should send three copies to the current president of the SLA (often it is possible for the author to request that the press send these) by May 15th. A committee appointed by the president of the SLA will evaluate all submissions and choose prizewinners. Winners will be announced and prizes will be awarded at the SLA Business Meeting during the AAA Annual Meeting.
Past Winners of the Edward Sapir Book Prize
- Asif Agha (2008) Language and social relations
- Richard Bauman and Charles Briggs (2006) Voices of modernity : language ideologies and the politics of inequality
- Laura Ahearn (2004) Invitations to love : literacy, love letters, and social change in Nepal
- Alexandra Jaffe (2002) Ideologies in action : language politics on Corsica
Annual Student Essay Prize
The Society for Linguistic Anthropology holds an annual student essay competition at both undergraduate and graduate levels. In order to be eligible for one of these awards, the applicant must have been either a graduate or undergraduate student in a degree-granting program when the paper was written; must be the sole author of the paper; and must submit the paper no more than two years after it was written.
The paper must be an original work based on original research conducted by the author. It will be evaluated on the basis of clarity, significance to the field, and substantive contribution. The paper should be suitable for submission to the Journal of Linguistic Anthropology and must not exceed 25 double-spaced pages, not including bibliography. At the time of submission for this competition, the paper must not have been published or submitted for publication.
Submissions will be evaluated by a panel of judges. A prize will be awarded in each category only if a submission of sufficiently high quality is received. The winner or winners will be announced at the SLA business meeting, which is held during the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association. The winner in each category (undergraduate and graduate) receives an award certificate as well as a cash prize.
The paper must be submitted electronically in either .pdf or .doc format. It should be sent to Jillian Cavanaugh (SLA Member at Large) at jcavanaugh@brooklyn.cuny.edu by the deadline of June 15. The cover sheet should include the title of the paper; the author’s name; the author’s email address; the author’s college or university affiliation; the prize category (undergraduate or graduate) for which the paper is being submitted; and the name of the faculty member who served as the student’s advisor with respect to the writing of the paper.
Annual Student Essay Prize Winners
- Ruairidh Falconer (Undergraduate, 2009), “Santiago Atitlán: Globalisation and Bilingual Development among Youth in a Mayan Town.”
- Benjamin K. Smith (Graduate, 2009), “Of Marbles and (Little) Men: Bad Luck, Aymara Boyhood and Masculine Identification.”
- Lauren E. Deal (Undergraduate, 2008), “Fat Birds and Intercostals: Ideologies of Science and Poetry in Bel Canto Singing.”
- Alejandro Paz (Graduate, 2008), “The Circulation of Chisme and Rumor: Gossip, Evidentiality and Authority in the Perspective of Latino Labor Migrants in Israel.” (AnthroSource)
- Lauren Knapp (Undergraduate, 2007), “The Way it Ought to Be: Objectification Through Bluegrass Performance.”
- Isaac Gagné (Graduate, 2007), “Role-Playing and ‘Women’s Language’ in Japan’s Gothic/Lolita Subculture.”
- Heather Loyd (2005), “Language socialization in Nicastro, Italy”
- Joseph Sung-Yul Park (2003), “Ideological Aspects of Korean English yumeo.”
- Eleanor Culley (2002), “Learning to Listen: Confronting Two meanings of ‘Language Loss’ in the Contemporary White Mountain Speech Community”
- Jonathan Larson (2002), “Ambiguous Transparency: Resume Fetishism in a Slovak Workshop.”
- Sarah Meacham (2001), “Getting Schooled: Rehabilitative Practices in a Los Angeles Court School.”
