About the Yasuo Sakakibara Prize

The Yasuo Sakakibara Prize honors the best paper presented by an international scholar at the annual meeting of the American Studies Association.

The prize honors Yasuo Sakakibara, Professor Emeritus of Economics and first chair of the Graduate School in American Studies at Doshisha University and a past president of the Japanese Association for American Studies.

Eligibility Requirements and Application Procedures

Who is eligible: International scholars who have had papers accepted for the annual meeting and who are registered for the annual meeting. The winning paper may deal with any aspect of U.S. history, culture, or society. The winning author must be a member of the American Studies Association or an affiliated international American Studies Association.

Who can apply: International scholars can apply directly, or self-nominate.  Any paper given at the meeting - either in-person or virtually - is eligible for consideration, provided that it does not exceed 12 pages. The paper should be a work-in-progress. The author of the winning paper will receive a $500 award, to be announced in November.

How to submit an application:

Step 1: Assemble the materials required for consideration. These include: (1) a cover page with author's name, institutional affiliation, paper title, and contact information, and (2) the conference paper. Papers should be 10-12 pages in length (approximately 3,500 words), including citations and notes. Illustrations are not counted as part of the 10-12 page limit and may be uploaded in a separate PDF file.

Step 2: Visit this Microsoft Office Form. You will be asked to enter the applicant's information (title, affiliation, address) before being prompted to upload a PDF of the materials to this Dropbox address: https://www.dropbox.com/request/0h2mERUvsqCfPIE5fmJ9 . Applications must be received no later than October 8. Late applications will not be accepted.

When is the deadline: October 2024

This Year's Winner (2023)

Lucy El-Sherif, McMaster University,“’Dabke is Better than a Thousand Lectures About Islamophobia’: Palestine, Arab Mothering and the Research Imagination.”

Past Winners 2002-2022

  • 2022: Kristin Moriah, Queen's University, "A Matter of Mastery: Blackness and Sound at the Edge of the Atlantic"
  • 2021: Kodai Abe, "Two Ground Zeros: The Transpacific Victimology of Hiroshima and 9/11"
  • 2020: No selection
  • 2019: Chenrui Zhao, Binghamton University, “Resistance from the ‘Unreal’: Trouble of the Neoliberal Racial Project in Chimamanda Adichie's Americanah”
  • 2018: Christine "Xine" Yao, University College London, United Kingdom, "(Un)Sympathetic Babo: Blackness, Science, and the Sentimental Politics of Recognition"
  • 2017: No selection
  • 2016: Chien-Ting Lin, National Central University, Taiwan, "Buddha Bless America: Militarized Medical Humanitarianism and Cold War Humanism"
  • 2015: Kirsty Robertson, University of Western Ontario, Canada, "Oil Futures/Petro-Fabrics"
  • 2014: Mary Chapman, University of British Columbia, "Playing in the Mediascape: A Pseudonymous Travelogue by Sui Sin Far/Edith Eaton"
  • 2013: Ethan Blue, University of Western Australia, "The Deportation Special: Mobile Carceral Space and the Emergence of Mass Deportation"
  • 2012: Leslie Paris, University of British Columbia, "'˜The Mess They Leave Behind': American Children and Environmental Activism, 1962-1980"
  • 2011: Ira Dworkin, The American University in Cairo (Egypt), "George Washington Williams, King Leopold II, and African American Emigration to the Congo"
  • 2010: Chris Lee, University of British Columbia, "New Criticism as Modernization"
  • 2009: Leslie Paris, University of British Columbia, "Happily Ever After: Reading Free to Be ... You and Me"
  • 2008: Chih-ming Wang, Academia Sinica, Taiwan, "How does America Mean in Chinese? Overseas Student Writing and Trans-Pacific American Studies"
  • 2007: No selection
  • 2006: Mary Chapman, University of British Columbia, Canada, "Sui Sin Far and the Discourses of the American and Chinese Suffrage Movements in the 1910's"
  • 2005: Finis Dunaway, Trent University, Canada, "Gas Masks, Pogo, and the Ecological Indian: Earth Day and the Visual Politics of American Environmentalism"
  • 2004: Lily Cho, University of Western Ontario, Canada, "Seeing through Smoke: Situating the Coolie within the Discourse of Freedom"
  • 2003: Min-Jung Kim, Ewha Woman's University, Seoul, Korea, "Nation, Immigration, and National Identity in Ronyoung Kim's Clay Walls"
  • 2002: Joanne M. Mancini, University of Sussex, United Kingdom, "The Country Age: Globalization and Modernity in an American Region"