Edward Sapir Prize
The Edward Sapir Book Prize was established in 2001 and is awarded in alternate years to a book that makes the most significant contribution to our understanding of language in society, or the ways in which language mediates historical or contemporary sociocultural processes. The SLA invites books with conceptual and theoretical focus, as well as ethnographic and descriptive works. Single-or multi-author books - but not edited collections - are eligible. For this first award, books published in the last three years are eligible. Self nominations are encouraged. Authors or nominators should send a substantive letter of nomination and published reviews, if available. Nominees should send three copies to the current president of the SLA (often it is possible for the author to request that the press send these) by May 15th. A committee appointed by the president of the SLA will evaluate all submissions and choose prizewinners. Winners will be announced and prizes will be awarded at the SLA Business Meeting during the AAA Annual Meeting.
Annual Student Essay Prize
The Society for Linguistic Anthropology announces a competition for Outstanding Paper by a Student, one each at both undergraduate and graduate levels. To be eligible for this award, an applicant must have been either a graduate or undergraduate (in a degree-granting program) when the paper was written, must be the sole author of the paper, and must submit the paper no more than two years after it was written.
The paper should be an original work, based on research conducted by the author. It will be evaluated on the basis of its clarity, significance to the field, and substantive contribution. Papers should be suitable for submission to the Journal of Linguistic Anthropology and must not exceed 25 double-spaced 8.5 X 11 (standard U.S.-letter size) pages, not including bibliography. Such papers must not have been published or submitted for publication at the time of application.
The paper must be submitted as a digital file, in either .pdf or Word formats and sent to Janina Fenigsen at fenigsen [at] gwm [dot] sc [dot] edu by the deadline of JUNE 15, 2008. Queries may be sent to Janina Fenigsen or Joe Errington at j [dot] errington [at] yale [dot] edu.
Awards will be made only when submissions produce a work to be of sufficiently high quality, as judged by a panel of evaluators according to the criteria above, to merit an SLA Student Paper Prize. Winners of the Prizes will be announced at the SLA business meeting. SLA Prize-winners will receive a certificate of their accomplishment from the SLA, $100, and free books from publishers including Blackwell and others.
Annual Student Essay Prize Winners
Lauren Knapp (Undergraduate, ‘07)
Isaac Gagne (Graduate, ‘07)
Heather Loyd, “Language socialization in Nicastro, Italy” (’05)
Joseph Sung-Yul Park, “Ideological Aspects of Korean English yumeo.” (’03)
Eleanor Culley (’02)
Jonathan Larson (’02)
Sarah Meacham (’01)