Feb. 16 is the deadline for nominations for the Transdisciplinary Humanities Book Award, which is presented annually by ASU’s Institute for Humanities Research in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Every other year, the award is reserved for ASU authors. Colleagues, publishers or authors themselves may nominate academic nonfiction books, written by ASU tenured or tenure-track full-time faculty members that reflect the finest contemporary transdisciplinary humanities-based scholarship on any topic. To be eligible, the book must be written in English and published in 2007 or 2008. Edited collections are not eligible.

Criteria and nomination forms are at http://ihr.asu.edu/research/bookaward. Additional information is available at 480-965-3000. The author of the winning book will be notified in May and receive $1,000, publicity in institute materials and an award certificate. The author will also be featured at an awards ceremony in the fall.

Last year, when the competition was open to works written or co-written by scholars from around the U.S., more than 30 books were nominated by publishers – “an incredible record and an impressive array of humanities based scholarship that not only transcends disciplinary boundaries but also contributes to our deeper understanding of compelling social and cultural issues,” according to Sally Kitch, director of the Institute for Humanities Research.

The recipient of the 2008 award was Marita Sturken for her book “Tourists of History: Memory, Kitsch and Consumerism from Oklahoma to Ground Zero.” Sturken is a professor in the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University as well as co-director of NYU’s Visual Culture Program.

“The Transdisciplinary Humanities Book Award highlights the central value that writing books holds in the humanities. But the award also illuminates the emphasis that this institution has placed on scholarly research that occurs at the edges of the disciplines – where history and religion intersect or literature and social movements coincide,” says Deborah Losse, dean of humanities in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. “This book program provides an opportunity to recognize an ASU faculty member whose research advances a pressing issue or insight at the intersection of two or more humanities disciplines.”