Each year, nominations are called for the AAS Article Prize, awarded for the best scholarly article published in an Australian journal.
The call is sent out to the editor(s) of the five eligible journals, who are responsible for nominating candidates. Nominations open four months prior to, and close three months prior to, the Annual Conference. Final decisions are made three weeks prior to the conference.
Article published in the following journals may be nominated.
Anthropological Forum
Oceania
The Australian Journal of Anthropology (TAJA)
The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology (TAPJA)
Australian Aboriginal Studies (anthropological articles only)
The winner is formerly announced at the Annual General Meeting and the prize is awarded at the Annual Conference dinner. The winner receives a written certificate, a prize of AUD500, as well as conference registration and a conference dinner ticket for that year’s conference. In the event that the winning article is co-authored, the prize money is to be split between all contributors and the AAS will provide a maximum of two conference registrations and two dinner tickets.
Articles submitted for the prize in previous years may not be resubmitted.
Nominated articles are judged by a panel of three judges, with a fourth on standby in case of dispute.
The criteria by which articles are assessed are as follows:
Theoretical sophistication
Ethnographic depth
Lucid writing
Originality
Pertierra, Anna Cristina (2018). 'Televisual experiences of poverty andabundance: Entertainment television in the Philippines'. The Australian Journal of Anthropology 29 (1): 3-18.
Dawson, Andrew (2017). 'Driven to sanity: An ethnographic critique of the senses in automobilities'. The Australian Journal of Anthropology 28 (1): 3-20.
Gillison, Gillian (2016). ‘Whatever Happened to the Mother? A New Look at the Old Problem of the Mother’s Brother in Three New Guinea Societies: Gimi, Daribi, and Iatmul’. Oceania 86 (1): 2-24.
Schram, Ryan (2015). ‘Notes on the Sociology of Wontoks in Papua New Guinea’. Anthropological Forum 25 (1): 3-20.
Plueckhahn, Rebekah (2014). ‘Fortune, Emotion and Poetics: The Intersubjective Experience of Mongolian Musical Sociality’. The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 15 (2): 123-140.
Hetherington, Tracy (2013), ‘Remodelling the Fortress of Conservation’. Anthropological Forum 22 (2): 165-185.
Biersack, Aletta 2011. ‘The Sun and the Shakers, Again: Enga, Ipili, and Somaip Perspectives on the Cult of Ain’. Oceania 81 (2): 113-136; (3): 225-243. (Part 1 and Part 2)
Sansom, B. 2010. ‘The Refusal of Holy Engagement: How Man-making Can Fail’. Oceania 80 (1): 24-57.
Telle, K. 2009. ‘Spirited places and ritual dynamics among Sasak Muslims on Lombok’. Anthropological Forum 19 (3): 289-306.
Rollason, Will. 2008. ‘Counterparts: Clothing, Value and the Sites of Otherness in Panapompom Ethnographic Encounters’. Anthropological Forum 18 (1): 17-35.
Telban, Borut. 2008. ‘The Poetics of the Crocodile: Changing Cultural perspectives in Ambonwari’. Oceania 78 (2): 217-235.
Scott, Michael 2007. ‘Neither “New Melanesian History” nor “New Melanesian Ethnography”: Recovering Emplaced Matrilineages in Southeast Solomon Islands’. Oceania 77 (3): 337-354.
Ram, Kalpana 2007. ‘Untimeliness as Moral Indictment: Tamil Agricultural Labouring Women’s Use of Lament as Life Narrative’. The Australian Journal of Anthropology 18 (2): 138-153.
