Former NOMIS Fellow Anna Skarpelis has been awarded the prestigious Gould Prize of the American Journal of Sociology (AJS) as well as three awards by the American Sociological Association for her AJS article “Horror Vacui: Racial Misalignment, Symbolic Repair, and Imperial Legitimation in German National Socialist Portrait Photography,” which she wrote as a NOMIS–eikones Fellow.
The Gould Prize is given annually to the article that best exemplifies the qualities that made Roger Gould’s own work so remarkable. From articles published over a two-year period, the American Journal of Sociology editorial boards select a piece that is empirically rigorous, theoretically grounded, and lucidly written. The article was chosen for this award out of all the papers published in AJS between January 2022 and November 2023.
Anna Skarpelis’ AJS contribution has won further prizes by the American Sociological Association. She was honored with the following awards:
- ASA Political Sociology Article/Chapter Award (Award Winner)
- Global and Transnational Section Best Article Award (Honorable Mention)
- Clifford Geertz Prize in the Sociology of Culture (Honorable Mention)
The award ceremony was held at the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, which took place from August 9-13, 2024, in Montréal. The jury of the Political Sociology Article/Chapter Award mentioned “the substantive importance, theoretical scope, and empirical ambition of this brilliant contribution to political sociology and well beyond.” The jury highlighted Skarpelis’ ability to bring together previously disconnected literatures from sociology, art history, and even physics to substantiate the research question.
Skarpelis is a WZB Fellow of the Unit Migration, Integration, Transnationalization and assistant professor at the City University of New York (CUNY). She was a NOMIS–eikones Fellow from 2021 to 2022.
Go to this WZB Berlin Social Science Center story: Congrats to Anna Skarpelis!
Read the AJS publication: Horror Vacui: Racial Misalignment, Symbolic Repair, and Imperial Legitimation in German National Socialist Portrait Photography
