Rachel Carson Prize

For a book length work of social or political relevance in the area of science and technology studies.

Nominations that provide a new perspective, or a feminist or minority voice, are especially encouraged.

Please submit book nominations (author, title, publisher) to the Secretary, .

Procedures

Committee: Membership on the book prize committees is completely ex-officio, consisting of council members and officers of the Society.

Nominations: For each of the three prizes (Fleck, Carson and Mullins), nominations may be made by any member of the Society to any Council member or officer of 4S. In addition, books may be self-nominated or nominated by any 4S member. Publishers are contacted in late January and invited to submit eligible books from their lists. Publishers may also nominate books that have not been nominated by members. Publishers are responsible for sending review copies to each member of the committee before the cutoff date. Books may be renominated until their elibility expires. (The cutoff date varies slightly each year, but is usually the end of May.)

Eligibility: Each year the committee will review books with publication dates in the 3 prior years. For example, during the 2008 meeting, the committee will consider books with copyright dates of 2005 - 2007. While the author(s) is informed immediately, the presentation and award will be made at the banquet during the 2009 meeting. Excluded are reprints, second editions, edited volumes, reference works and similar volumes. Multiply authored books are eligible where they represent original work.

Short List: Through the procedure above, committees will designate a preliminary short list and meet during the 4S annual meeting to determine the winners. Awards are to be granted solely on the basis of merit as determined by the members of the committee, without reference to book reviews or recommendations by outside members. If a consensus winner does not emerge, a secret ballot will determine the winner, with honorable mentions as appropriate.

Award: All award winners are announced at the annual banquet of the 4S, which takes place on Friday of the annual meeting.The Chair will inform the winner(s) as soon as possible in order that they may be present at a ceremony during the banquet the following year. Author-Meets-Critics sessions may also be held at that meeting to discuss the work.

Past Winners

2007. Charis Thompson. Making Parents: The Ontological Choreography of Reproductive Technologies

2006. Joseph Dumit. Picturing Personhood: Brain Scans and Biomedical Identity

2005. Nelly Oudshoorn. The Male Pill

2004. Jean Langford. Fluent Bodies

2003. Simon Cole. Suspect Identities: A History of Fingerprinting and Criminal Identification

2002. Stephen Hilgartner. Science On Stage: Expert Advice as Public Drama.

2001. Andrew Hoffman. From Heresy to Dogma: An Institutional History of Corporate Environmentalism.

2000. Wendy Espeland. The Struggle for Water: Politics, Rationality, and Identity in the American Southwest.

1999. Steven Epstein. Impure Science: AIDS, Activism, and the Politics of Knowledge

1998. Diane Vaughan. The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky Technology, Culture, and Deviance at NASA