Labrecque-Lee Book Prize Committee Award 2023 Prize Announcement

The Labrecque-Lee Book Prize Committee is delighted to announce the winner of the 2023 award is Michael J. Hathaway for What a Mushroom Lives For, and the runner-up is Christopher Krupa for A Feast of Flowers.

The Labrecque-Lee Book Award was established in 2018, and named in honour of two outstanding Canadian anthropologists, Marie-France Labrecque and Richard Borshay Lee. The Labrecque-Lee Book Award honours a single or co-authored monograph on sociocultural, archaeological, bio-cultural, ethnohistorical or linguistic work, in French or English. It is given to CASCA members who demonstrate a Canadian affiliation through either their fieldwork, institution, degree or funding.

What A Mushroom Lives For, Michael J. Hathaway

The committee was impressed by how Hathaway drew together so much to think through the matsutake–one particular kind of mushroom–via actions of moving and eating. Amidst a recent interest in thinking through mushrooms, Hathaway’s ethnography stands out in both its writing style and its ability to combine ecology, botany, and history into a compelling ethnographic account.

A Feast of Flowers, Christopher Krupa

This rich account of colonialism, labour, and capital is an incredible ethnographic analysis of the industry of cut flowers in highland Ecuador. This work opened up ways of thinking about power and exploitation through tracing the commodity of cut flowers amidst a textured historical context.

Please join us in celebrating this year’s winners!

Call for Submissions: The Labrecque-Lee Book Prize 2024

The Canadian Anthropology Society is seeking submissions for the Labrecque-Lee Book Prize 2024. The Labrecque-Lee Book Prize recognizes outstanding anthropological publications in either French or English. In addition to being honoured by CASCA at the annual meeting, recipients of the Labrecque-Lee Book Prize will also receive a $500 award.

Nominations for the Labrecque-Lee Book Prize must be submitted by someone other than the author(s). Please find the detailed submission criteria on our website.

Nominations must be submitted electronically to membership@anthropologica.ca no later than May 15th, 2024