Call for Submissions: The Labrecque-Lee Book Prize

Past Recipients

Call for Submissions: The Labrecque-Lee Book Prize

The Canadian Anthropology Society is seeking submissions for the Labrecque-Lee Book Prize. Established in 2018, the Labrecque-Lee Book Prize recognizes outstanding anthropological publications in either French or English. CASCA is now accepting submissions for the award. This award honours two outstanding Canadian anthropologists, Marie-France Labrecque and Richard Lee. In addition to being awarded by CASCA at the annual meeting, recipients of the Labrecque-Lee Book Prize will also receive a $500 prize. Nominations for the Labrecque-Lee Book Prize must be submitted by someone other than the author(s) and meet the following criteria:

1. Single or co-authored monograph works (co-edited volumes/collections are ineligible).
2. Works published in the year preceding the prize (i.e. for the 2021 prize, works published in 2020, etc).
3. Works grounded in any anthropological subject and/or methodology is welcome (i.e. socio-cultural, archaeological, bio-cultural, ethnohistorical, and linguistic works).
4. Author(s) of the work must hold a CASCA membership and demonstrate a Canadian affiliation in at least one of the following ways:
   1. The publication nominated is an ethnography focused in a Canadian setting.
   2. The author or one of the authors is based at a Canadian academic and/or research institution.
   3. The author or one of the authors holds a degree from a Canadian university.
   4. The publication is connected to a grant provided by a Canadian institution.
5. A book may only be nominated once.

Nominations must include the following information:

1. Verification of one of the authors’ CASCA membership.
2. The author(s)’ CV curriculum vitae.
3. A letter of support from the nominator.
4. A one paragraph description of the book publisher including the year of establishment and information about the series and other anthropological titles published.

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

Once the nomination package has been received, arrangements will be made for copies of the books to be sent by the publisher to those on the Prize Selection Committee. The publisher will have two weeks to arrange shipment.

Please note: the publisher of the winning book is permitted to mention this prize in any publicity relating to its publication. An interdisciplinary panel composed of CASCA Members will select the winner. The selection panel reserves the right not to award the prize in any given year. The winner will normally be announced by CASCA in September of the same year. There will be no appeals of the decision of the panel.

Past Recipients

2022 

• Yana Stainova, assistant professor at McMaster University

Sonorous Worlds: Musical Enchantment In Venezuela. University of Michigan Press

2021

• Dr. Hannah Turner, assistant professor at the University of British Columbia School of Information (iSchool)

Cataloging Culture: Legacies of Colonialism in Museum Documentation. UBC Press 

2020 

• Greg Beckett, Professor of Anthropology, Western University, Ontario

There is no more Haiti; Between Life and Death in Port-au-Prince. University of California Press

• Wendy Wickwire, Professor Emerita, Department of History, University of Victoria 

At the Bridge; James Teit and an Anthropology of Belonging, University of British Columbia Press

2019

• Katie Kilroy-Marac, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Toronto Scarborough 

An Impossible Inheritance: Postcolonial Psychiatry and the Work of Memory in a West African Clinic. University of California Press  

This award, launched in 2017, aims to help Canadian university and college anthropology departments recognize their top graduating Bachelor’s, Master’s, and PhD students and to promote awareness of CASCA.

Each spring, departments may select one top student at each level of study who has graduated or will be graduating in that academic year to receive an award from CASCA. This is not a national competition; CASCA will send awards for one student at each level to each department. Students specializing in any subfield are eligible, as long as their degree is primarily in anthropology. The selection process is up to the department, but we hope that the strength of the student’s anthropological research is a priority in the decision.

CASCA accepts nominations for the awards from February 1 to May 15 each year. To be eligible, students must graduate between June 15 of the previous year  and June 15 of the current year. There is no cost for the institution and the students need not be members of CASCA.

A certificate and letter of congratulations, signed by our President, will be emailed to the department for each award winner by about May 31. The department should then give or mail these to the winning graduands. Award winners will be acknowledged publicly on the CASCA website as soon as possible thereafter. 

To name the award winners, a faculty member should fill in this form.

Contact membership@anthropologica.ca if you have any questions about the awards.