Berks Conference Annual Article Prize Winners
History of Women, Gender, and/or Sexuality
Cameron Blevins and Annelise Heinz, "'Separated, but far from alone': Forging Lesbian Networks in the 1970s–1980s" Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 93, No. 3 (August 1, 2024)
Cameron Blevins and Annelise Heinz present an impressive methodological approach using digital mapping techniques to trace lesbian networks across the 1970s and 1980s. Their work demonstrates how separated lesbian communities maintained connections and built solidarity despite geographic and social barriers. The committee praised their accessible writing style and nuanced historical approach that brings visibility to previously hidden networks of support and activism within lesbian communities during this crucial period of LGBTQ+ history.
Honorable Mention
Julia Stephens, "Material modernities: Tracing Janbai's gendered mobilities across the Indian Ocean" Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 58, No. 2 (2024)
Julia Stephens conducts expansive research tracing the gendered mobilities of Janbai across the Indian Ocean, offering a distinctive approach to sharing the historical process. The committee recognized her innovative methodology and the way she centers individual agency within broader patterns of migration and modernization, contributing to our understanding of women's experiences in transoceanic networks of trade and cultural exchange.
Any Field of History
Hannah Waits, "Missionary Positions: How American Evangelicals Learned to Love Global AIDS Work, 1985-2005" American Quarterly, Vol. 76, No. 4 (December 2024)
Hannah Waits examines how American evangelical communities transformed their approach to global AIDS work between 1985 and 2005, demonstrating mastery of archival sources across multiple subfields. Her research reveals the complex evolution of evangelical attitudes toward HIV/AIDS, showing how religious communities moved from stigmatization to compassionate engagement. The work crosses boundaries between religious history, public health history, and international relations, offering crucial insights into how faith-based organizations became major players in global health initiatives.
Honorable Mention
Tessa Murphy, "Centering Slavery in the Age of Abolition: Insights from the Saint Lucia Register of Plantation Slaves, 1815" The William & Mary Quarterly, Vol. 81, No. 2 (April 2024)
Tessa Murphy conducts extraordinary archival work recovering silenced histories from the Saint Lucia Register of Plantation Slaves. Her research centers enslaved people's experiences during the supposed "age of abolition," revealing the persistent realities of bondage and resistance. The committee recognized her creation of a searchable database that makes this crucial historical information accessible to future researchers, contributing significantly to our understanding of slavery's persistence even as abolition movements gained momentum.
History of Women, Gender, and/or Sexuality
Sara Balakrishnan, "Prison of the Womb: Gender, Incarceration, and Capitalism on the Gold Coast of West Africa, c. 1500–1957" Comparative Studies in Society and History, April 2023, 65-2:296-320
The committee was struck particularly by the breadth and temporal scope of Balakrishnan's research. Her study highlights the various forms of incarceration that could be faced, particularly by women, in counterpoint to the "official" forms in the colonial state.
Honorable Mention
Sharon Block, "Rewriting the Rape of Rachel: Historical Methods, Historical Justice" The William and Mary Quarterly, October 2023, Volume 80, Number 4, pp. 649-676
The committee felt Block's self-reflection on a career's work and changing theoretical approaches struck several members as a perfect case study for students in theory and methods classes.
Any Field of History
Jennifer Robin Terry, "Niños por la causa: Child Activists and the United Farm Workers Movement, 1965-1975" Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 92, Number 2, pp. 227–259
The committee found Terry's work to be original and innovative. She studies the participation of children in the UFW strikes and protests, drawing out themes of the social and familial impact of the UFW's activism.
History of Women, Gender, and/or Sexuality
Meg Weeks, "A Prostitutes' Jamboree: The World Whores' Congresses of the 1980s and the Rise of a New Feminism" Journal of the History of Sexuality, Vol. 31, Issue 3
The committee noted that Weeks explores the differing political philosophies (and tactics) of the groups who came together at the sex-worker conferences, and how they forged international alliances despite contrasting goals, and differing cultural contexts.
Any Field of History
Samantha Payne, "A General Insurrection in the Countries with Slaves: The US Civil War and the Origins of an Atlantic Revolution, 1861-1866" Past & Present, Vol. 257, Issue 1
The committee praised Payne's work for foregrounding the actions of enslaved people in the debate about emancipation following the American Civil War and its ripple effects on the other slave states of the Americas. The committee was impressed by her breadth of research, with archives in several countries and multiple languages, and her examination of communication networks among enslaved and free people of color in the Atlantic world.
History of Women, Gender, and/or Sexuality
Sandy F. Chang, "Intimate Itinerancy: Sex, Work, and Chinese Women in Colonial Malaya's Brothel Economy, 1870s-1930s" Journal of Women's History, 33, no. 4 (2021): 92-117
The committee praised Chang's layered study of sex workers that draws on an impressive range of sources, from temple inscriptions to police reports. They were particularly impressed by her ability to build a nuanced understanding of this community with a focus on migrant workers.
Honorable Mention
Jacqueline Antonovich, "White Coats, White Hoods: The Medical Politics of the Ku Klux Klan in 1920s America" Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 95, no. 4 (2021): 437-463
The committee noted Antonovich's work on reproductive surveillance as having continuing relevance with a fluid style that creates an engaging narrative about race nationalism in the KKK.
Any Field of History
Adriana Chira, "Freedom with Local Bonds: Custom and Manumission in the Age of Emancipation" The American Historical Review, 126.3 (2021): 949-977
The committee found Chira's work innovative in exploring manumission, considering social networks as a resource and examining the grey area between enslaved and free status.
Honorable Mention
Choon Hwee Koh, "The Ottoman Postmaster: Contractors, Communication and Early Modern State Formation" Past & Present, Volume 251, Issue 1, May 2021
The committee recognized Koh's innovative examination of communication systems and their role in early modern state formation through the lens of Ottoman postal networks.
History of Women, Gender, and/or Sexuality
Rosanna Dent, "Subject 01: exemplary Indigenous masculinity in Cold War genetics" British Journal of the History of Science, 53 (3)
The committee recognized Dent's examination of Indigenous masculinity through the lens of Cold War scientific practices and genetic research.
Any Field of History
Amy Chazkel, "Toward a History of Rights in the City at Night: Making and Breaking the Nightly Curfew in Nineteenth-Century Rio de Janeiro" Comparative Studies in Society and History, 62 (1), 2020
The committee praised Chazkel's work for using temporality to explore Rio's residents' experiences in the 19th century. They highlighted her creative approach to examining how night criminalized activities for certain inhabitants. The committee was particularly impressed with how her scholarly approach could be applied by other researchers to understand urban environments evolving alongside modern policing, transportation, and technology.
History of Women, Gender, and/or Sexuality
No award given in this category for 2019.
Any Field of History
Bathsheba Demuth, "The Walrus and the Bureaucrat: Energy, Ecology, and Making the State in the Russian and American Arctic, 1870-1950" American Historical Review, Vol. 124, No. 2 (April 2019)
The committee recognized Demuth's innovative comparative study of Arctic development, examining how energy and ecological concerns shaped state formation in both Russian and American contexts during a crucial period of modernization.
History of Women, Gender, and/or Sexuality
No award given in this category for 2018.
Any Field of History
Kimberly A. Arkin, "Historicity, Peoplehood, and Politics: Holocaust Talk in Twenty-First-Century France" Comparative Studies in Society and History
The committee praised Arkin's examination of how Holocaust discourse functions in contemporary French society, analyzing the intersection of memory, identity, and political discourse.
Yumi Kim, "Seeing Cages: Home Confinement in Early Twentieth-Century Japan" Journal of Asian Studies
The committee recognized Kim's innovative study of domestic confinement practices in early twentieth-century Japan, offering new perspectives on social control and family structures.
History of Women, Gender, and/or Sexuality
No award given in this category for 2017.
Any Field of History
Carole McGranahan, "Imperial but Not Colonial: Archival Truths, British India, and the Case of the 'Naughty' Tibetans" Comparative Studies in Society and History
The committee appreciated McGranahan's innovative approach to understanding the complexities of imperial relationships, examining how Tibet's unique position challenged conventional colonial frameworks.
Vanessa Ogle, "Archipelago Capitalism: Tax Havens, Offshore Money, and the State, 1950s-1970s" American Historical Review
The committee recognized Ogle's groundbreaking analysis of the emergence of offshore financial networks and their impact on global capitalism during the mid-twentieth century.
History of Women, Gender, and/or Sexuality
No award given in this category for 2016.
Any Field of History
Devra Anne Weber, "Wobblies of the Partido Liberal Mexicano: Reenvisioning Internationalist and Transnational Movements through Mexican Lenses" Pacific Historical Review
The committee praised Weber's transnational approach to labor history, examining how Mexican perspectives reshape our understanding of international workers' movements in the early twentieth century.
History of Women, Gender, and/or Sexuality
Rebecca Jo Plant and Frances M. Clarke, "The Crowning Insult: Federal Segregation and the Gold Star Mother and Widow Pilgrimages of the Early 1930s" Journal of American History
The committee noted the article highlighted the decline in African American status in interwar years by examining segregated pilgrimages for mothers and widows of fallen soldiers. They praised the work for giving historical voice to African American women seldom heard.
Any Field of History
Debora L. Silverman, "Diasporas of Art: History, the Tervuren Royal Museum for Central Africa, and the Politics of Memory in Belgium, 1885–2014" The Journal of Modern History
The committee appreciated Silverman's treatment of Belgium's colonial amnesia and how the article demonstrated patterns of collective forgetting about imperial violence in the Congo.
History of Women, Gender, and/or Sexuality
No detailed information available for this category in 2014.
Any Field of History
Julia Phillips Cohen, "Oriental by Design: Ottoman Jews, Imperial Style, and the Performance of Heritage" American Historical Review
The committee recognized Cohen's innovative examination of how Ottoman Jews navigated imperial identity and heritage performance within the broader context of Ottoman society.
History of Women, Gender, and/or Sexuality
Jaime Wadowiec, "Muslim Algerian Women and the Rights of Man: Islam and Gendered Citizenship in French Algeria at the End of Empire" French Historical Studies
The committee recognized Wadowiec's important contribution to understanding the intersection of gender, religion, and citizenship rights in the context of decolonization.
Any Field of History
Molly Loberg, "The Streetscape of Economic Crisis: Commerce, Politics, and Urban Space in Interwar Berlin" Journal of Modern History
The committee praised Loberg's analysis of how economic crisis reshaped urban spaces and commercial practices in interwar Berlin, offering important insights into the relationship between politics and everyday urban life.