The winners of the inaugural ACLS Open Access Book Prizes were announced on May 2, 2024, at the ACLS Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland. A second ceremony was held at the Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver on October 22 to honor authors who could not attend the first celebration.

Baltimore Ceremony

The ACLS Annual Meeting opened with the announcement of the prizes, which aspire to generate enthusiasm and prestige for open access publication among humanistic scholars. Generously supported by Arcadia, the prizes further aim to raise public awareness of the resources freely available to anyone with an internet connection.

Winners were announced in two categories—history and multimodal. The authors of each book won the $20,000 ACLS Open Access Book Prize, while the publishers won the $30,000 Arcadia Open Access Publishing Award. Peter Baldwin—Arcadia co-founder, ACLS board member, and author of Athena Unbound: How and Why Scholarly Knowledge Should Be Free for All—delivered remarks about the importance of open access before presenting the prizes.

The history prize went to Freedom Seekers: Escaping from Slavery in Restoration London (University of London Press, 2022). Hear from author Simon P. Newman, Sir Denis Brogan professor of American History (Emeritus), University of Glasgow, and Honorary Research Fellow, Institute for Research in the Humanities, University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Hear from Emma Gallon, Publisher at the University of London Press.

The multimodal prize went to As I Remember It: Teachings (ʔəms tɑʔɑw) from the Life of a Sliammon Elder (University of British Columbia Press / RavenSpace, 2019). Hear from Darcy Cullen, Assistant Director, Acquisitions, and the founder of the RavenSpace platform.

The following day, May 3, the winners in attendance joined the panel discussion Meet the 2024 Winners to describe their experiences with publishing open access. The panel featured a recording of remarks by Tla’amin elder Elsie Paul.

Watch the full conversation.

Vancouver Ceremony

The Haida House at the Museum of Anthropology, located on the campus of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, provided the perfect setting to honor the co-authors of the multimodal winner As I Remember It: Teachings (ʔəms tɑʔɑw) from the Life of a Sliammon Elder. In attendance were the lead author, Tla’amin elder Elsie Paul, and co-authors Davis McKenzie, Paige Raibmon, and Harmony Johnson.

The ceremony opened with a territorial welcome delivered by Musqueam representative Jordan Wilson. Darcy Cullen then spoke about the development of the RavenSpace platform and the benefits of open access publication before Sarah McKee of ACLS presented the awards to the authors. Tla’amin elder Elsie Paul closed the ceremony with a brief talk in which she shared her experiences with developing the book as well as the childhood memories and lessons that inspire her work.

I want to thank my grandparents today in spirit. I thank them for the beautiful memories and the teachings they left with me that I can pass on to my family and to my community and share it with the outside community.

Elsie Paul
Tla’amin Elder

Prizes for the 2025 competition will be awarded in four categories—environmental humanities, history, literary studies, and multimodal—on October 22 during International Open Access Week. Stay tuned for more details about the ceremony!

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