Call for SSILA Prize & Award Nominations: Due June 15, 2019

SSILA is pleased to announce a call for nominations for the Ken Hale Prize, the Victor Golla Prize, and the Mary R Haas Book Award. These awards will be presented at the 2020 SSILA meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana.

The 2019 deadline for receipt of Nominationsfor the Hale and Golla Prizes and submissions for the Haas Award is June 15, 2019. 

Seebelow for details about these awards:

Ken Hale Prize

The KenHale Prize is presented in recognition of outstanding community language workand a deep commitment to the documentation, maintenance, promotion, andrevitalization of indigenous languages in the Americas. The Prize, whichcarries a $500 stipend, honors those who strive to link the academic andcommunity spheres in the spirit of Ken Hale. Recipients can range from nativespeakers and community-based linguists to academic specialists, and may includegroups or organizations. No academic affiliation is necessary. Nominations maybe made by anyone; however, either the recipient or the nominee must be amember of SSILA.

Nominations should include:

  1. Letter of nomination, including:

    • position and affiliation, if appropriate, of nominee or nominated group (tribal, organizational, or academic)

    • summary of the nominee’s background and contributions to specific language communities

  2. Brief nominating package of relevant supporting materials, including for instance

    • nominee’s curriculum vitae

    • description of completed or on-going activities of the nominee

    • letters from at least 2 of those who are most familiar with the work of the nominee (e.g. language program staff, community people, academic associates)

    • other material that would support the nomination

Submissionof manuscript-length work is discouraged.

To submit a nomination for the Ken Hale Prize,send the letter of nomination and the nominating package in PDF format by emailto the SSILA Secretary. Please verify that ithas in fact been received.

The deadline for receipt ofnominations is June 15, 2019.

Victor Golla Prize

The Victor Golla Prize is presented in recognition of a significant history of both linguistic scholarship and service to the scholarly community, with service that expands the quality and/or dissemination of such scholarship. The linguistic scholarship can take the form of either the documentation, philology, or revitalization of one or more Indigenous languages of the Americas, such that the scholarly community knows significantly more about the language or languages of study as a result of that work. Service can take the form of providing opportunities for others to communicate their work on Indigenous languages, primarily through editorial work, organization of conferences, workshops or institutes, or responsibility for a major archive. Service must expand the opportunities of scholarly communities and should expand opportunities of Indigenous communities as well. The Prize, which bestows a life membership in SSILA on the recipient, seeks especially to honor those who strive to carry out interdisciplinary scholarship in the spirit of Victor Golla, combining excellent linguistic scholarship in one or more other allied fields, such as anthropology, education, history, or literature. Nominations must be made by a member of SSILA for a member of SSILA.

The nominating package includes the following:

  1. Letter of nomination

  2. A version of thenominee’s CV

  3. Two letters of supportreflecting the nominee’s scholarship and service.

To submit a nomination for the Victor GollaPrize, send the nominating package in PDF format by email to the SSILA Secretary. Please verify that it has in fact been received.

The deadline for receipt ofnominations is June 15, 2019.

Mary R Haas Book Award

The Mary R. Haas Award is presented to a junior scholar for an unpublished manuscript that makes a significant substantive contribution to our knowledge of Native American languages.

Manuscripts may be submitted in English, French, German, Portuguese orSpanish.

Winning manuscripts in English will beconsidered by the University of Nebraska Press for its series, “Studies in theNative Languages of the Americas.”

For winning manuscripts in languages other than English, the Society willprovide letters requesting special consideration by any potential publisher inlight of the manuscript’s award-winning status.

The manuscript submission should be accompanied by a letter of recommendation from the author’s dissertation advisor, detailing why the nominated dissertation is worthy of the Haas award. Nominations may be made by anyone; however, the recipient must be a member of SSILA.

The nominating package includes the following:

  1. Letter of recommendation

  2. Manuscript

Send the manuscript and letter of recommendation in PDF format by email to the SSILA Secretary. Please verify that it has in fact been received.

The deadlinefor receipt of submissions is June 15, 2019.

Pleaseemail secretary@ssila.org if you have anyquestions about the nomination process.

MaryLinn, SSILA Secretary/Treasurer

If you are not a current SSILA member, please join the Society at SSILA.org.  You may join at any time, and may subscribe to the International Journal of American Linguistics at a substantial discount with your paid membership.