The Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs offers three prizes for papers written by students – the Percy Buchanan Graduate Prize for graduate students, and the Sidney DeVere Brown Prize and the Mikiso Hane Prize for undergraduate students. MCAA also offers the Jackson and Caroline Bailey Public Service Award for outstanding work in the advancement of Asian Studies. These prizes are awarded at the MCAA Annual Meeting held each fall.
The prize coordinator for 2024 is MCAA Vice President Nobuko Adachi. Please contact Professor Adachi with any questions about the undergraduate or graduate paper prizes; she can be reached at nadachi@ilstu.edu.
The 2024 awardees will be recognized at the MCAA Banquet on Saturday, September 14, 2024, 6:30-9:00 p.m.
Percy Buchanan Graduate Prizes
Up to three Percy Buchanan Prizes of $100 each, plus travel expenses of up to $100, will be awarded for the best original graduate student research papers. Papers should be no longer than 35 pages double spaced including the bibliography. Students will have an opportunity to present winning papers at the conference. There is one prize each for three of the main AAS regions: China and Inner Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. Graduate paper prize winners will receive a one-year complimentary membership in the Association for Asian Studies, and one of the winners will be nominated to present at the AAS annual conference (usually taking place in late March of that academic year) on the Council of Conferences designated panel.
2024 Awardees
Percy Buchanan Graduate Prize for China and Inner Asia
Jinsub Song, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign,
“The Divergence of Self in the Dasheng Qixin Lun and True Self as A Priori Foundation”
Percy Buchanan Graduate Prize for South Asia
Tathagata Bhowmik, Case Western Reserve University, “The Creation of Neoliberal Cultural Commodities out of Subaltern Artists: The Case of Indian Baul Musicians”
David Plath Graduate Prize in Northeast Asia
At the 2023 MCAA, members voted to name the graduate prize for Northeast Asia to honor David Plath, an anthropologist who studied Japan. Like the Percy Buchanan Graduate Prizes, the David Plath Graduate Prize in Northeast Asia gives $100 to the winning student, plus travel expenses of up to $100, will be awarded for the best original graduate student research papers. Papers should be no longer than 35 pages double spaced including the bibliography. Students will have an opportunity to present winning papers at the conference. Graduate paper prize winners will receive a one-year complimentary membership in the Association for Asian Studies, and one of the winners will be nominated to present at the AAS annual conference (usually taking place in late March of that academic year) on the Council of Conferences designated panel.
2024 Awardee
Ran Wei, Washington University in St. Louis,
“The Power of Nostalgia: Materiality, Solidarity, and Resistance in the 16mm Film The Kamagasaki Cauldron War (Tsukiyo no Kamagassen, 2017)”
Sidney DeVere Brown Prize and the Mikiso Hane Prize
The Sidney DeVere Brown Prize, and the Mikiso Hane Prize are awarded to the two best original papers composed by undergraduates. Prizes of $100, plus travel expenses of up to $100, are awarded to the authors of the winning papers. Paper submissions should be between 10 and 30 pages double-spaced and must be accompanied by a letter from the student’s professor or advisor confirming that the paper was written while the author was an undergraduate. Papers will be reviewed by scholars in the appropriate field. Undergraduate winners have the opportunity to publish their papers in The Wittenberg East Asian Studies Journal.
2024 Awardees
Sidney DeVere Brown Undergraduate Student Prize
Xiyun Wu, University of Notre Dame,
“Urban Drifts/Adrift: Rebels of the Neon God (1992) and Fallen Angels (1995)”
Mikiso Hane Undergraduate Student Prize
Thomas Holland, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, “Aesthetics of the Sex Trade: Geisha in Edo and Elsewhere”
Jackson and Caroline Bailey Public Service Award
This award commemorates the lifetime exemplary service to MCAA by Professors Jackson Bailey and Caroline Bailey. It recognizes and honors those members of MCAA who have assiduously contributed to outreach, extra-curricular instruction, and public service in their communities. Successful nominees should have made efforts beyond the normal and expected contributions of scholarship and teaching in order to bring Asian Studies to the community at large. Such activities might include: the creation of teaching materials to be used by K-12 teachers; production of Asian-centered audio-visual materials; work with sister city and/or citizen to citizen activities aimed at intercultural exchanges; working for student or faculty exchanges with Asian Universities; arranging Asian film series, community lectures, book clubs, children’s story hours, museum exhibitions, and public discussions. In short, this award for lifetime achievement honors those who have devoted time and treasure to public service outside the academy.