Twenty Books Advance to Final Round of $50,000 Prize for Open Access Titles in the Humanities
NEW YORK, May 23, 2025 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is pleased to announce 20 finalists for the 2025 . The five finalists in each of four categories—environmental humanities, history, literary studies, and multimodal works—were selected by distinguished panels of scholars, librarians, digital humanities experts, and accessibility specialists. Supported by Arcadia, these prizes recognize and reward the authors and publishers of exceptional, innovative, and open humanities books published from 2018 to 2023.
One open access monograph in each of the four categories will receive dual awards. The authors of the winning titles will receive the $20,000 ACLS Open Access Book Prize, and the publishers will receive the $30,000 Arcadia Open Access Publishing Award to support forthcoming open access books. The prizes, among the largest for scholarly books, will be announced in fall 2025.
"ACLS congratulates the authors and publishers of the terrific finalists for the 2025 ACLS Open Access Book Prizes and Arcadia Open Access Publishing Awards," said ACLS Vice President James Shulman. "Having made these books available for free and without barriers, these authors and publishers share knowledge with the world. By seeing these works celebrated, scholars across the sector will be encouraged to write and publish in ways that reach far beyond the gates of campus."
Environmental Humanities Finalists
- by BenjamÃn Schultz-Figueroa (University of California Press, 2023)
- by Joanna Page (Open Book Publishers, 2023)
- by Camelia Dewan (University of Washington Press, 2022)
- by Peder Anker (Cambridge University Press, 2020)
- by Mauro José Caraccioli (University Press of Florida, 2021)
History Finalists
- by Evyn Lê Espiritu Gandhi (University of California Press, 2022)
- by Yan Liu (University of Washington Press, 2021)
- by Cesar D. Favila (Oxford University Press, 2023)
- of Persian Musical Traditions by Ann E. Lucas (University of California Press, 2019)
- by Elizabeth Quay Hutchison (Duke University Press, 2022)
Literary Studies Finalists
- by Jean Ma (University of California Press, 2022)
- by Sami Schalk (Duke University Press, 2022)
- by Hannah Frank, edited by Daniel Morgan (University of California Press, 2019)
- by Kathryn M. Rudy (Open Book Publishers, 2019)
- by Jan M. Ziolkowski (Open Book Publishers, 2018)
Multimodal Finalists
- by Abé Markus Nornes (University of Michigan Press, 2021)
- by Refqa Abu-Remaileh (Stanford University Press, 2023)
- by Anna L. Tsing, Jennifer Deger, Alder Keleman Saxena, and Feifei Zhou (Stanford University Press, 2020)
- by Jacob Smith (University of Michigan Press, 2021)
- by Samhita Sunya (University of California Press, 2022)
For more than 100 years ACLS has supported the creation and circulation of knowledge that advances our understanding of humanity and human endeavors. through initiatives such as the ACLS Open Books Prizes and Arcadia Open Access Publishing Awards helps cultivate a twenty-first-century ecosystem in which humanistic publications can thrive.
Formed a century ago, the is a nonprofit federation of 81 scholarly organizations. As the leading representative of American scholarship in the humanities and social sciences, ACLS upholds the core principle that knowledge is a public good. In supporting its member organizations, ACLS expands the forms, content, and flow of scholarly knowledge, reflecting our commitment to diversity of identity and experience. ACLS collaborates with institutions, associations, and individuals to strengthen the evolving infrastructure for scholarship.
 is a charitable foundation that works to protect nature, preserve cultural heritage and promote open access to knowledge. Since 2002 Arcadia has awarded more than $1.2 billion to organizations around the world.
Media Contact
Anna Polovick Waggy, American Council of Learned Societies, 6468307661, [email protected],
SOURCE American Council of Learned Societies
Share this article