Deadline: July 1, 2026
The Society for Medical Anthropology welcomes nominations for the Eileen Basker Memorial Prize, awarded annually for a significant contribution to scholarship on gender and health by a scholar (or scholars) from any discipline or nation for a specific book, article, film, or exceptional PhD thesis produced within the preceding three years. The Prize is awarded to the work judged to be the most courageous, significant, and potentially influential contribution to this area of scholarship. Winners receive a $2000 cash award and are recognized at the SMA Awards Ceremony during the AAA Annual Meeting.
The Prize was founded by Virginia R. Dominguez in collaboration with the Society for Medical Anthropology in 1987 following the death of Israeli-American critical medical anthropologist and feminist, Eileen Basker, in October 1986. Works most appropriate for this prize analyze the ways in which gender is culturally constructed and/or socially enacted, and consider how health informs these processes and/or their consequences. Works that focus on describing health experiences of people within a particular gender category, rather than more fully analyzing gender, are normally not competitive. Given this, and given that works can be submitted for consideration for one SMA prize only, authors/nominators should decide whether a given work is most appropriate for the Basker Prize or the New Millennium Book Award. The deadline for receipt of materials is July 1, 2026.
Nominations are invited from one or more scholars familiar with the designated work in the form of a letter indicating its impact on the field. Self-nomination and nomination by presses/publishers are not permitted. Publishers of nominated books are expected to supply three copies of the relevant work to the Prize Committee. Inquiries should be sent to the chair of the Basker Prize Committee, Maryani Palupy Rasidjan at maryani.palupy.rasidjan@nyu.edu. Please contact us before forwarding copies of books or dissertations (print copies required) so that we may provide mailing addresses for all committee members. Do not hesitate to contact us if you are experiencing trouble with making physical copies of books or dissertations available to the committee.
All materials must be received by July 1, 2026.