INTERNATIONALLY SPONSORED COMPETITIONS

While the California Series in Public Anthropology has enjoyed significant success, it also remains very much a work in progress. It has garnered considerable prestige within anthropology with many prominent scholars – from Paul Farmer, Margaret Lock, and Aiwa Ong to Nancy Scheper-Hughes, Philippe Bourgois, and Carolyn Nordstrom – publishing (or soon to publish) books in it. Paul Farmer’s work, in particular, has helped shape how important social concerns are being addressed. But looking at the Series as a whole, it is fair to suggest the series is still struggling to escape the gravitational pull of the academy.

A key reason for this derives from the Series inability to offer six figure advances to prominent public figures that might consider publishing with the Series. The Series receives a number of interesting manuscripts on important subjects. But because the authors who submit them usually are academics, the manuscripts tend to be oriented toward academic audiences.

As a way around this problem, the University of California Press in association with the Center for a Public Anthropology will begin sponsoring in 2008 two annual competitions focused on drawing anthropologists to address major public problems and broad audiences. Both competitions will award book contracts at an early stage in the research/writing process in order to influence a manuscript’s subject and style. The hope is that authors, knowing they have a book contract in hand, will prove willing to speak about major public concerns in ways that non-academics find valuable.

One competition will focus on mid-career professionals. The winner will be selected based on (1) the public significance of the problem being addressed, (2) the way the problem is being approached, and (3) the author’s ability to write for a public audience (as judged by previous publications). The winner will receive, in addition to a formal book contract from U.C. Press, a ten thousand dollar advance.

The second competition focuses on graduate students preparing to conduct fieldwork. The winner will be selected based on (1) the public significance of the problem to be addressed, (2) the way the problem is to be approached, (3) a sample of the student’s writing, and (4) a signed agreement from the student’s dissertation committee that the committee will support the student writing up his or her research in a form readable by a broad, public audience rather than as a standard academic dissertation. (For a copy of this agreement form, click here.)

Interested individuals should read with care the statement in the Overview section (see link on the left of the screen). It will provide models to emulate as well as style guidelines. Prospective authors, the Overview suggests, should ask themselves: Are they writing for the same audiences as Fadiman, Ehrenreich or Diamond? Are they dealing with problems of broad import that others, beyond the academy, find compelling? Will their relatives and friends find the manuscript absorbing?

If you are interested in being considered for the Competition, please submit a 3-4,000 word description of your proposed research and manuscript. The description should include a detailing of the problem to be addressed, the manner in which you will approach it, and the style of writing you expect to use in perparing your manuscript. (Obviously, a clear indication of the writing style will be the overview itself.) The statement, along with an introductory cover letter indicating you wish to be considered for the Competition, should be emailed to borofsky@publicanthropology.org.