$50,000 Prizes Recognize Outstanding Open Access Books in the Humanities and Fund Future Open Access Publications
NEW YORK, Sept. 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is proud to announce the winners of the 2026 ACLS Open Access Book Prizes and Arcadia Open Access Publishing Awards. Supported by Arcadia, these prizes recognize the authors and publishers of exceptional, innovative, and open access humanities books published from 2019 to 2024.
Anthropology
Mal-Nutrition: Maternal Health Science and the Reproduction of Harm
by Emily Yates-Doerr (University of California Press, 2024)
Environmental Humanities
Ecological States: Politics of Science and Nature in Urbanizing China
by Jesse Rodenbiker (Cornell University Press, 2023)
History
Abortion Pills: US History and Politics
by Carrie Baker (Amherst College Press, 2024)
Literary/Media Studies
Twining: Critical and Creative Approaches to Hypertext Narratives
by Anastasia Salter and Stuart Moulthrop (Amherst College Press, 2021)
Multimodal
Deaf Mobility Studies: Exploring International Networks, Tourism, and Migration
by Annelies Kusters, Erin Moriarty, Amandine le Maire, Sanchayeeta Iyer, and Steven Emery (Gallaudet University Press, 2024)
Political Science
Renegotiating Patriarchy: Gender, Agency and the Bangladesh Paradox
by Naila Kabeer (LSE Press, 2024)
A distinguished panel of judges selected prize winners in each category from a shortlist of five finalists. The authors of the winning titles will receive a cash award of $20,000, and the winning publishers will receive a grant of $30,000 to support the immediate open access publication of at least two new books. The prizes, among the largest for scholarly books, will be presented at The New York Public Library on Wednesday, November 4, 2026. The event includes a public panel discussion.
“The 2026 ACLS Open Access Book Prize awardees exemplify innovative, impactful, and open humanistic scholarship that is accessible in multiple registers,” said Sarah McKee, ACLS Program Officer for Amplifying Humanistic Scholarship. “Beyond dropping the paywall, the authors and publishers of these six books offer clear prose that nonspecialist audiences can understand. They integrate technical affordances that meet a variety of reader needs, including multiple file formats, alt-text, video captioning, and screen reader compatibility. They combine high visibility with seamless navigation on publishing platforms, ensuring that students, policy makers, and interested communities around the world can discover and benefit from the research. ACLS is delighted to celebrate the accomplishments of these six honorees.”
In 2026 ACLS also celebrates 100 years of grantmaking to individual scholars. Throughout the past century, ACLS has supported the creation and circulation of knowledge that advances our understanding of humanity and human endeavors. Amplifying humanistic scholarship through initiatives such as the ACLS Open Access Book Prizes and Arcadia Open Access Publishing Awards helps cultivate a twenty-first-century ecosystem in which humanities and social sciences publications can thrive.
Formed more than a century ago, the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is a nonprofit federation of 85 scholarly organizations. As the leading representative of American scholarship in the humanities and social sciences, ACLS upholds the core principle that knowledge is a public good. In supporting its member organizations, ACLS expands the forms, content, and flow of scholarly knowledge, reflecting our commitment to diversity of identity and experience. ACLS collaborates with institutions, associations, and individuals to strengthen the evolving infrastructure for scholarship.
Arcadia is a charitable foundation that works to protect nature, preserve cultural heritage and promote open access to knowledge. Since 2002 Arcadia has awarded more than $1.2 billion to organizations around the world.
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SOURCE American Council of Learned Societies
