SANA Book Prize

The SANA Book Prize is awarded every other year, with the most recent award given in 2019. The next award will be given in 2021 (for books published in 2020-2021).

2020-2021 Prize Winner: TBA

2018-2019 Prize Winner: Herlands

Keridwen N. Luis for Herlands: Exploring the Women’s Land Movement in the United States (University of Minnesota Press).

2016-2017 Prize Winners: The Land of Open Graves   and   Shapeshifters

There were many excellent nominations for the 2017 SANA Book award. The committee decided to share the award this year between two awardees.

   

2016-2017 Honorable Mention:

Sarah Horton, for the book They Leave their Kidneys in the Fields: Illness, Injury and Illegality among US workers (University of California Press).

2013-2014 Prize Winner: We are the Face of Oaxaca

Lynn Stephen & Collaborators for the book We are the Face of Oaxaca: Testimony and Social Movements (Duke University Press 2013).

Duke University Press 2013
Duke University Press 2013

2013-2014 Honorable Mentions:

Audra Simpson, for the book Mohawk Interruptus: Political Life Across the Borders of Settler States (Duke University Press 2014).

Kenneth MacLeish, for the book Making War at Fort Hood: Life and Uncertaintly in a Military Community (Princeton University Press 2013).

2011-2012 Prize Winner: Tobacco Capitalism

Peter Benson for the book Tobacco Capitalism: Growers, Migrant Workers, and the Changing Face of a Global Industry (Princeton University Press 2011).

Tobacco Capitalism

Peter Benson expertly handles grounding his topic in a broader historical and political economic context, telling a rich story while avoiding – and expressly dismantling – the oversimplified narratives that permeate the themes he engages. He succeeds in his aim to situate a nuanced, sensitive account of the workers’ experiences within a critical analysis of broader structural forces, illuminating a range of political projects that shape the contemporary historical moment.

2011-2012 Honorable Mention: Hound Pound Narrative

James Waldram for the book Hound Pound Narrative: Sexual Offender Habilitation and the Anthropology of North America (University of California Press).

Hound Pound Narrative

Taking seriously and, without romanticization, James Waldram attempts to understand the situations of a nearly universally reviled group – sexual offenders – and does it well.  He dodges the pitfalls of conventional tropes around these topics, problematizing and disrupting a range of assumptions along the way while examining the production and roots of the numerous discourses discussed.  The rich ethnographic detail makes this a compelling story.