The 2nd Wadjih F. al-Hamwi Prize for the Best First Book in Mediterranean Studies (2024)

Competition is now closed - results will be announced by 1 June 2024

The 2nd Wadjih F. al-Hamwi Prize for the Best First Book in Mediterranean Studies covers scholarly and trade publications published from 2021 to 2023 inclusive. The committee is most interested in books that break new ground conceptually or methodologically, are comparative and/or interdisciplinary, that emphasize intercultural/interregional/inter-religious contact, and that are “of” rather than merely “in” the Mediterranean. Books ranging from any period will be considered, and entries from any of the relevant Humanities and Social Sciences disciplines are welcome, including but not limited to all fields of history, art and material culture, literary and cultural studies, anthropology, and sociology. The Mediterranean is broadly construed as the region centered on the sea, but including connected hinterlands in Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, the western Indian Ocean, the Near East and Central Asia.

The prize is named in honor of Wadjih Fouad al-Hamwi (1938-2021). Born and raised in Aleppo, the city he lived in throughout his life, Wadjih earned a degree in English Literature at Aleppo University where he then began to teach. Here, he earned the admiration and respect of both colleagues and the scores of students that passed through his classroom, such that he could scarecly walk down the street in Aleppo without being greeting by embraces, handshakes, and cries of Ustadh! from passersby. Eventually, he left the university to open a professional translation service, and came to be reputed as one of the top English-Arabic translators in Syria, before beginning work in tourism as well. Immensely proud of his Arab (through his father) and Ottoman (through his mother) heritages and of his Syrian homeland, he was a humane and cosmopolitan individual, whose friendships were not foreclosed by national, ethnic or religious identity, and whose noble character, generosity and humanity epitomized the best values of the Mediterranean Seminar in particular and of humanities scholarship in general. He remained in Aleppo with his family through the tribulations of the last decade, succumbing after a determined fight to COVID in March 2021. Brian Catlos, Mediterranean Seminar Co-Director had the great privilege of studying Arabic under Wadjih in Aleppo in 1992-3 establishing what became a deep friendship which endures now as a dear memory.

The committee for the 2024 Wadjih F. al-Hamwi Prize was:
• Brian A. Catlos: Relgious Studies, University of Colorado Boulder
• Sharon Kinoshita: Literature, University of California Santa Cruz
• Konstantina Zanou: Italian, Columbia University

Please see the entry form for terms and conditions.
The contest closes at 11:59pm PST, 31 December 2023.
The results should be announced before 1 June 2024.