The Middle East Section Book Award is awarded biennially to an anthropological work (single- or multi-authored, but not edited volumes) that speaks to issues in a way that holds relevance beyond our subfield. Criteria may include: innovative approaches, theoretical sophistication, and topical originality. The jury for this award is chaired by an MES board member, usually the Past President, who selects two other scholars as jury members.
2023 MES Book Award Winner
Nomi Stone
MES Book Award Winner
Pinelandia: An Anthropology and Field Poetics of War and Empire (University of California Press, 2022)
2021 MES Book Award Winners
Sophia Stamatopoulou-Robbins
MES Book Award Winner
Waste Siege: The Life of Infrastructure in Palestine (Stanford University Press, 2019)
Salih Can Açiksöz
Honorable Mention
Sacrificial Limbs: Masculinity, Disability, and Political Violence in Turkey
(University of California Press, 2019)
2019 MES Book Award Winners
Nathalie Peutz
MES Book Award Winner
Islands of Heritage: Conservation and Transformation in Yemen (Stanford University Press, 2018)
Elif M. Babül
Honorable Mention
Bureaucratic Intimacies: Translating Human Rights in Turkey
(Stanford University Press, 2017)
2017 MES Book Award Winners
Zuzanna Olszewska
MES Book Award Winner
The Pearl of Dari: Poetry and Personhood Among Young Persons in Iran
(Indiana University Press, 2015)
Alice Wilson
Honorable Mention
Sovereignty in Exile: A Saharan Liberation Movement Governs
(University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016)
2015 MES Book Award Winner
Diana Allen
MES Book Award Winner
Refugees of the Revolution: Experiences of Palestinian Exile
(Stanford University Press, 2013)