The SEA Book Prize Committee looks for the best book in economic anthropology published over the last 3 years. We invite nominations of exceptional books, including self-nominations. Nominations may come from non-SEA members as well, so spread this call widely.
The book prize includes a $500 award. It will be presented at the fall 2023 annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association in Toronto, ON during the SEA Friday afternoon business meeting. The winning book will also be announced in the American Anthropological Association’s Anthropology News.
We also invite members of the SEA to join the Book Prize Committee, which will read the books and choose the winner.
Instructions for Nominations:
Deadline for nominations is April 1, 2023.
Nominations must include
1. Author(s)
2. SEA membership status
3. Book title
4. Publication date and publisher
5. A paragraph summarizing the book’s argument
6. A paragraph describing how the book fits into economic anthropology
7. Contact information for the person submitting the nomination (name, email, phone number)
Authors must be SEA members at the time of their book’s submission. SEA is a member organization of the American Anthropological Association. Nonmembers whose books are nominated will have the opportunity to join the SEA to be considered for this prize.
Books must be published between May 2020 and April 2023. Books previously considered for the SEA book prize are not eligible for resubmission.
Please email nominations to the book prize committee chair, Joanne Baron (joanne.p.baron@gmail.com) with the subject “SEA book prize nomination.” Volunteers to join this year’s book prize committee may also email the chair.
Previous winners of the Society for Economic Anthropology’s book prize are:
2003 Salaula: The World of Secondhand Clothing and Zambia by Karen Tranberg-Hansen
2005 Tsukiji: The Fish Market at the Center of the World by Ted Bestor
2008 Global Outlaws: Crime, money and power in the Contemporary World by Carolyn Nordstrom and Home Cooking in the Global Village: Caribbean Food from Buccaneers to Ecotourists by Richard Wilk
2011 Coffee and Community: Maya Farmers and Fair Trade Markets by Sarah Lyons
2014 The Darjeeling Distinction: Labor and Justice on Fair-Trade Tea Plantations in India by Sarah Besky
2017 Money from Nothing: Indebtedness and Aspiration in South Africa by Deborah James
2020 Reclaiming the Discarded: Life and Labor on Rio’s Garbage Dump by Kathleen Millar and Ethnography of Hunger: Politics, Subsistence, and the Unpredictable Grace of the Sun by Kristin Phillips
