Category: Awards

Carlos Velez-Ibáñez Honored with the 2020 Franz Boas Award

Posted on July 15, 2020July 15, 2020 by Savannah Hicks

July 15, 2020

We are thrilled to announce that Carlos Velez-Ibáñez is the recipient of the American Anthropological Association’s 2020 Franz Boas Award for Exemplary Service to Anthropology! This award is presented annually by the AAA to its members whose careers demonstrate extraordinary achievement that have well served the anthropological profession.

Carlos G. Vélez-Ibáñez is a Regents Professor and the Motorola Presidential Professor of Neighborhood Revitalization in the School of Transborder Studies and a Regents Professor of in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University. His numerous honors include the 2004 Robert B. Textor and Family Prize for Excellence in Anticipatory Anthropology and the 2003 Bronislaw Malinowski Medal. Vélez-Ibáñez was elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1994 and was named as a corresponding member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences (Miembro Correspondiente de la Academia Mexicana de Ciencias) in 2015, the only American anthropologist so selected.

Carlos is the author of five University of Arizona Press books, including Border Visions, Hegemonies of Language and Their Discontents, An Impossible Living in a Transborder World, and The U.S.-Mexico Transborder Region. His forthcoming book, Reflections of a Transborder Anthropologist, explores Vélez-Ibáñez’s development as a scholar and in so doing the development of the interdisciplinary fields of transborder and applied anthropology.

Congratulations, Carlos!

Gerard P. Kuiper and the Rise of Modern Planetary Science Wins a Foreword Indies Award

Posted on June 23, 2020June 23, 2020 by Savannah Hicks

June 23, 2020

We are thrilled to announce that Gerard P. Kuiper and the Rise of Modern Planetary Science is the 2019 Bronze Winner of the Science section of the Foreword Indie Book Awards!

Gerard P. Kuiper and the Rise of Modern Planetary Science describes the life of a man who lived through some of the most dramatic events of the twentieth century and ended up creating a new field of scientific research, planetary science. As NASA and other space agencies explore the solar system, they take with them many of the ideas and concepts first described by Gerard P. Kuiper.

Derek W. G. Sears was a professor at the University of Arkansas for thirty years and is now a senior research scientist at NASA. He has published widely on meteorites, lunar samples, asteroids, and the history of planetary science.

Congratulations, Derek!

Unwriting Maya Literature and Dude Lit Awarded Honorable Mentions by the LASA Mexico Section

Posted on May 11, 2020May 11, 2020 by Savannah Hicks

May 11, 2020

We are thrilled to announce that two University of Arizona Press books were awarded honorable mentions for the LASA Mexico Section Libro en Humanities award! Unwriting Maya Literature by Paul M. Worley and Rita M. Palacios and Dude Lit by Emily Hind are the recipients.

Unwriting Maya Literature provides an important decolonial framework for reading Maya and other Indigenous texts. Through insightful analyses of Maya cultural productions—whether textiles or poetry—this perspective offers a point of departure for the study of Maya literature and art that is situated in an Indigenous way of performing the act of reading.

How did men become the stars of the Mexican intellectual scene? Dude Lit examines the tricks of the trade and reveals that sometimes literary genius rests on privileges that men extend one another and that women permit. Drawing on interviews, archival materials, and critical readings, this provocative book changes the conversation on literature and gendered performance.

A big congratulations to Paul, Rita, and Emily!

The Continuous Path Wins the Historical Society of New Mexico’s Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá Award

Posted on April 20, 2020April 20, 2020 by Savannah Hicks

April 20, 2020

We are thrilled to announce that The Continuous Path: Pueblo Movement and the Archaeology of Becoming is the winner of the 2020 Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá Award for an outstanding publication in New Mexico or Southwest borderlands history!

Dennis Reinhartz, President of the Historical Society of New Mexico, said, “Reviewers recognized the book for its significant contributions to scholarship of New Mexico history, archaeology and anthropology. In particular, the emphasis on collaboration between Natives and non-Native scholars in the research and writing was seen as a real strength. The multiple perspectives presented in the texts add tremendous value to the volume as a whole and are recognized to have “the potential to foster understanding between and among Natives and non-Natives alike. … We congratulate you, and all the contributing authors, on this wonderful work.”

The Continuous Path challenges archaeologists to take Pueblo notions of movement seriously by privileging Pueblo concepts of being and becoming in the interpretation of anthropological data. In this volume, archaeologists, anthropologists, and Native community members weave multiple perspectives together to write histories of particular Pueblo peoples. Within these histories are stories of the movements of people, materials, and ideas, as well as the interconnectedness of all as the Pueblo people find, leave, and return to their middle places. What results is an emphasis on historical continuities and the understanding that the same concepts of movement that guided the actions of Pueblo people in the past continue to do so into the present and the future.

Many congratulations to the editors, Samuel Duwe and Robert Preucel, as well as all of the contributors to the volume!

Gerard P. Kuiper and the Rise of Modern Planetary Science Named a Foreword Indies Book of the Year Award Finalist

Posted on March 30, 2020April 1, 2020 by Savannah Hicks

March 31, 2020

We are thrilled to announce that Gerard P. Kuiper and the Rise of Planetary Science by Derek W. G. Sears has been chosen as a finalist for the Science category of the Foreword Indies Book of the Year Awards!

More than 2,000 entries spread across 55 genres were submitted for consideration. The list of finalists was determined by Foreword’s editorial team. Winners are now being decided by teams of librarian and bookseller judges from across the country.

Winners in each genre will be announced June 17, 2020 at noon Eastern time.

Congratulations, Derek!

Norma E. Cantú Wins the NACCS Tejas Poetry Book Award

Posted on March 5, 2020March 5, 2020 by Savannah Hicks

March 3, 2020

We are thrilled to announce that Norma E. Cantú is winner of the 2020 NACCS Tejas Poetry Book Award for her recent University of Arizona Press collection, Meditación Fronteriza!

The poems in this collection are a celebration of culture, tradition, and creativity that navigates themes of love, solidarity, and political transformation. Deeply personal yet warmly relatable, these poems flow from Spanish to English gracefully. With Gloria Anzaldúa’s foundational work as an inspiration, Meditación Fronteriza unveils unique images that provide nuance and depth to the narrative of the borderlands.

The awards luncheon is in McAllen, Texas on March 6, 2020 at the South Texas College Pecan Campus Student Union Ballroom, from 12 to 2 p.m.

Congratulations, Norma!

Tom Miller Wins a Best Travel Writing Solas Award

Posted on March 3, 2020March 3, 2020 by Savannah Hicks

March 3, 2020

We are excited to announce that Tom Miller is the recipient of a Bronze Best Travel Writing Solas Award for an excerpt from the first chapter of his University of Arizona Press book, Cuba, Hot and Cold!

Since his first visit to Cuba thirty years ago, Miller has shown us the real people of Havana and the countryside, the Castros and their government, and the protesters and their rigor.

Congratulations, Tom!

Voices from Bears Ears Chosen as a Finalist for the 2020 Oregon Book Award

Posted on February 7, 2020February 7, 2020 by Savannah Hicks

February 7, 2020

We are thrilled to announce that Voices from Bears Ears by Rebecca Robinson and Stephen Strom is a finalist for the Frances Fuller Victor Award for General Nonfiction, a section of the 2020 Oregon Book Awards!

Literary Arts‘ Oregon Book Awards program honors the state’s finest accomplishments by Oregon writers who work in genres of poetry, fiction, graphic literature, drama, literary nonfiction, and literature for young readers. In addition to financial support, the program produces the Oregon Book Awards Author Tour to connect local writers and literary organizations in all parts of Oregon. Each year, Oregon Book Awards finalists and winners travel to towns across Oregon for readings, school visits, and free writing workshops.

Through the stories of twenty individuals, and informed by interviews with more than seventy people, Voices from Bears Ears captures the passions of those who fought to protect Bears Ears and those who opposed the monument as a federal “land grab” that threatened to rob them of their economic future. It gives voice to those who have felt silenced, ignored, or disrespected. It shares stories of those who celebrate a growing movement by Indigenous peoples to protect ancestral lands and culture, and those who speak devotedly about their Mormon heritage. What unites these individuals is a reverence for a homeland that defines their cultural and spiritual identity, and therein lies hope for finding common ground.

Portland-based journalist Rebecca Robinson provides context and perspective for understanding the ongoing debate and humanizes the abstract issues at the center of the debate. Interwoven with these stories are photographs of the interviews and the land they consider sacred by photographer Stephen E. Strom. Through word and image, Robinson and Strom allow us to both hear and see the people whose lives are intertwined with this special place.

Congratulations to all of the finalists! The winners will be announced live at the Oregon Book Awards Ceremony on Monday, April 27 at the Portland Center Stage at the Armory.

The Motions Beneath Wins the CALACS Book Prize

Posted on January 13, 2020January 13, 2020 by Savannah Hicks

January 13, 2020

We are excited to announce that The Motions Beneath by Laurent Corbeil is the winner of the 2019 Canadian Association for Latin American and Caribbean Studies’ (CALACS) Book Prize!

The CALACS Best Book Prize is awarded to the most outstanding book published in 2018 by a member of CALACS who researches Latin America and the Caribbean.

The CALACS Book Prize Committee praised The Motions Beneath by saying, “In this work, Corbeil carried out meticulous archival research to present the micro-interactions of Indigenous migrants who traveled to the mines of San Luís Potosí. While these migrants were motivated by economic needs, Corbeil notes that they interacted in ways– both within and beyond their own communities– that profoundly shaped the city. Corbeil makes creative use of legal records to unearth histories of mobility and the interactions between members of different Indigenous communities that otherwise do not appear in the historical record. Moreover, the book is written lucidly and provides expansive contextualization of colonial Potosí. The Committee congratulates Dr. Corbeil on this fantastic achievement.”

The University of Arizona Press congratulates Laurent Corbeil on this fantastic achievement, as well!

Yvette Saavedra Awarded the WHA-Huntington Library Martin Ridge Fellowship

Posted on October 28, 2019October 29, 2019 by Savannah Hicks

October 29, 2019

In recognition of Martin Ridge’s long service to both the Western History Association and The Huntington Library, the WHA-Huntington Library Martin Ridge Fellowship is a one-month research fellowship at The Huntington Library. The 2019 winner of the fellowship is University of Arizona Press author, Yvette Saavedra.

Yvette Saavedra’s recent book, Pasadena Before the Roses, examines a period of 120 years to illustrate the interconnectedness of power, ideas of land use, and the negotiation of identity within multiple colonial moments. By centering the San Gabriel Mission lands as the region’s economic, social, and cultural foundation, she shows how Indigenous, Spanish, Mexican, and American groups each have redefined the meanings of land use to build their homes and their lives. These visions have resulted in competing colonialisms that framed the racial, ethnic, gender, and class hierarchies of their respective societies.

Congratulations, Yvette, on receiving this honor!

The University of Arizona Press