UNC Press Award Winners

Award Winners banner image with illustrations of badges and trophies

New Award Winners

Wondrous Transformations by Alison Li 

2025 Jason A. Hannah Medal, Royal Society of Canada 

The Carceral City by John K. Bardes 

2025 Joe William Trotter, Jr. Prize, Urban History Association

Under Alien Skies by Vaughn Scribner 

2025 Society of the Cincinnati Prize 

Finalist, 2024 Gilder Lehrman Military History Prize, Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History 

An Efficient Womanhood by Natanya Duncan 

Shortlisted, 2025 Museum of African American History Stone Book Award 

Catastrophic Diplomacy by Julia F. Irwin 

Tonous & Warda Johns Family Book Award, Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association 

Quitting the Nation by Eric R. Schlereth 

Honorable Mention, Norris and Carol Hundley Award, Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association 

On the Swamp by Ryan E. Emanuel 

Finalist, 2025 Susanne M. Glasscock Book Prize, Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research

Sexual Violence and American Slavery by Shannon C. Eaves 

2025 Mary Kelley Prize, Society for Historians of the Early American Republic 

Making Never-Never Land by Mónica A. Jiménez 

2025 Gordon K. and Sybil Lewis Award, Caribbean Studies Association 

The Sandinista Revolution by Mateo Jarquín 

2025 Michael H. Hunt Prize, Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations 

What Side Are You On? by Michael Steven Wilson and José Antonio Lucero 

2024 Best Subsequent Book in Native American and Indigenous Studies, Native American and Indigenous Studies Association 

Confronting Jim Crow by Robert Cohen 

Co-Winner, 2025 Lillian Smith Book Award 

A Forgotten Migration by Crystal R. Sanders 

Co-Winner, 2025 Lillian Smith Book Award 


Recent Award Winners

Cross-Border Cosmopolitans by Wendell Nii Laryea Adjetey 

Finalist, 2024 Outstanding First Book Prize, Association for the Study of the Worldwide  

Seeing Things by Mason Kamana Allred 

2025 Susanne K. Langer Award for Outstanding Scholarship in the Ecology of Symbolic Form, Media Ecology Association 

The Carceral City by John K. Bardes 

2024 Kemper and Leila Williams Prize in Louisiana History, The Historic New Orleans Collection and the Louisiana Historical Association 

2025 Humanities Book of the Year Award, Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities 

A Question of Value by Robert Brunk 

Finalist, 2024 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards (Regional) 

Brown Women Have Everything by Sayantani Dasgupta 

Gold Winner, 2024 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards (Essays) 

Awakening the Ashes by Marlene L. Daut 

Gold, 2024 Book Award for Informational Nonfiction, Independent Publishers of New England 

Bundok by Adrian De Leon 

Finalist, 2025 Shapiro Book Prize, Shapiro Center for American History and Culture at The Huntington 

Sexual Violence and American Slavery by Shannon C. Eaves 

Honorable Mention, 2025 Darlene Clark Hine Award, Organization of American Historians 

DARE to Say No by Max Felker-Kantor 

Finalist, 2025 Association for the Study of African American Life and History Book Prize 

Awaiting Their Feast by Lori A. Flores 

2024 Book of the Year Award, International Labor History Association 

Captive Cosmopolitans by Mary E. Hicks (Published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture and the University of North Carolina Press)

2024 John Lyman Book Award in World Maritime History, North American Society for Oceanic History 

Encyclopédie noire by Sara E. Johnson (Published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture and the University of North Carolina Press)

2024 P. Sterling Stuckey Prize, Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora 

Rendered Obsolete by Jamie L. Jones 

Finalist, 2025 Ecocritical Book Award, Association for the Study of Literature and Environment 

The Politics of Safety by Shannon King 

2025 Liberty Legacy Foundation Award, Organization of American Historians 

The Cutting-Off Way by Wayne E. Lee 

2025 Distinguished Book Award, Society for Military History 

I Cannot Write My Life by Mbaye Lo and Carl W. Ernst 

Shortlisted, 2024 Muslim World Book Award, Muslim World Book Review, Kube Publishing, & the Markfield Institute of Higher Education 

The Multiracial Promise by Gordon K. Mantler 

2025 Outstanding Book on the History of Chicago Award, Union League Club of Chicago 

Culture in the Clinic by Catherine Mas 

Shortlisted, 2025 William H. Welch Medal, American Association for the History of Medicine 

Freedom Was in Sight by Kate Masur and Liz Clarke (Ferris & Ferris Books)

Finalist, 2025 PROSE Award in Humanities: Nonfiction Graphic Novels, Association of American Publishers 

Finalist, 2024 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards (Graphic Novels & Comics) 

Radical Solidarity by Lisa G. Materson 

Honorable Mention, 2025 Elsa Goveia Book Prize, Association of Caribbean Historians 

Lawyer, Jailer, Ally, Foe by Eric L. Muller 

Finalist, 2024 The Order of the Coif Book Award, The Order of the Coif 

We the Dead by Brian Michael Murphy 

2025 Anne Friedberg Innovative Scholarship Award, Society for Cinema and Media Studies 

Surgery and Salvation by Elizabeth O’Brien 

2025 William H. Welch Medal, American Association for the History of Medicine 

Honorable Mention, 2025 Prize for Best Book in the Social Sciences, Mexico Section, Latin American Studies Association 

Bedlam in the New World by Christina Ramos 

Shortlisted, 2025 William H. Welch Medal, American Association for the History of Medicine 

The After by Michael Ramos 

Honorable Mention, 2024 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards (War & Military) 

The Life and Death of Ryan White by Paul M. Renfro 

Honorable Mention, 2024 Florida Book Awards in General Nonfiction 

A Forgotten Migration by Crystal R. Sanders 

2025 Pauli Murray Book Prize, African American Intellectual History Society 

2025 Outstanding Publication Award, American Educational Research Association SIG 168 Graduate and Postdoctoral Education across the Disciplines 

Finalist, 2025 Association for the Study of African American Life and History Book Prize 

White Gloves, Black Nation by Grace Sanders Johnson 

2024 Rosalyn Terborg-Penn Book Prize, Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora 

Published by the Author by Bryan Sinche 

Finalist, 2025 Association for the Study of African American Life and History Book Prize 

Finalist, 2025 SHARP Book History Book Prize, Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing 

Sabor Judío by Ilan Stavans and Margaret E. Boyle (Ferris & Ferris Books)

Finalist, 2024 Jane and Stuart Weitzman Family Award in Food Writing & Cookbooks, National Jewish Book Awards, Jewish Book Council 

Cold War Country by Joseph M. Thompson 

2025 Belmont University Curb Music Industry Award for Country Music Book of the Year, International Country Music Conference 

Finalist, 2024 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in History 

Remembering Conquest by Omar Valerio-Jiménez 

2025 National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies Tejas Foco Non-Fiction Book Award

2025 TACHE Outstanding Book Award for Non-Fiction, Texas Association of Chicanos in Higher Education 

Honorable Mention, 2025 Theodore Saloutos Book Prize, Immigration and Ethnic History Society