Frank Bonilla

Book Award

Named in honor of Frank Bonilla, one of the most distinguished, foundational figures in our field, and intended to recognize the most notable book produced in Puerto Rican Studies between our biennial meetings. This competition is open without regard to particular topic, theme, approach or discipline. However, re-editions of a work previously published are ineligible to compete; and anthologies of selections by multiple authors, though not excluded, will also not normally be priority candidates for this award. Nominations may be made by any PRSA member, by individual authors, their publishers or agents. The Selection Committee’s commitment is to choose from among all entries received that one which, in the uncommon caliber of its scholarship, originality, and overall excellence, best and most compellingly engages issues and concerns of Puerto Ricans and their communities and altogether represents a preeminent, exceptionally distinguished contribution to the field of Puerto Rican Studies.

Call For Submissions:

 

The Puerto Rican Studies Association is pleased to open its biennial Frank Bonilla Book Award Competition. It includes a modest monetary award of $500.00 and a certificate of recognition. The honoree will be recognized in the PRSA’s various social media platforms and at our biennial conference on August 23-25, 2024.

Eligibility:

Books published between April 2, 2022 and May 1, 2024 are eligible for consideration.

All authors are required to be members in good standing of the Puerto Rican Studies Association at the time of the competition.

Deadline:

May 15, 2024.

Submission Guidelines:

Complete the Online Submission form below.

We ask authors to submit both a hardcopy and digital copy of the book under consideration. If authors encounter difficulties obtaining a hardcopy of the book from their publishers, please get in touch with the committee chair. 

Send a digital copy of the book under consideration to ricanstudies@gmail.com and malebron@ucsc.edu.

Send a hardcopy of the book under consideration to the following mailing address: 

Prof. Hilda Lloréns

University of Rhode Island

Dept. of Sociology/Anthropology

Chafee Social Science Center, Rm 507

142 Flagg Road

Kingston, RI 02881

General questions regarding the book award competition can be directed to award committee chair, Marisol LeBrón (malebron@ucsc.edu).

 Selection Committee:

Marisol LeBrón (Committee Chair, PRSA President)

Associate Professor of Feminist Studies and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies

University of California, Santa Cruz

Hilda Lloréns

Associate Professor of Anthropology

The University of Rhode Island

Ana Ramos-Zayas

Frederick Clifford Ford Professor of Ethnicity, Race, & Migration

Yale University

Past Winners

 

2022: Hilda Lloréns, Making Livable Worlds: Afro-Puerto Rican Women Building Environmental Justice.

Honorary Mention:

  • Jorell Meléndez-Badillo, The Lettered Barriada: Workers, Archival Power, and the Politics of Knowledge in Puerto Rico.

2020: Ismael García-Colón, Colonial Migrants at the Heart of Empire: Puerto Rican Workers on U.S. Farms.

Honorary Mentions:

  • Helena Hansen, Addicted to Christ: Remaking Man in Puerto Rican Pentecostal Drug Ministries.

  • Patricia Silver, Sunbelt Diaspora: Race, Class, and Latino Politics in Puerto Rican Orlando.

2018: Licia Fiol-Matta, The Great Woman Singer: Gender and Voice in Puerto Rican Music.

2016: Isar P. Godreau, Scripts of Blackness: Race, Cultural Nationalism, and U.S. Colonialism in Puerto Rico and Nelson A. Denis, War Against All Puerto Ricans: Revolution and Terror in America's Colony.

2014: Ileana Rodríguez-Silva, Silencing Race: Disentangling Blackness, Colonialism, and National Identities in Puerto Rico.

2012: Ana Yolanda Ramos-Zayas, Street Therapists, Race, Affect, and Neoliberal Personhood in Latino Newark.