The Gordon J. Laing Award is conferred annually, by the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

's Board of University Publications, on the faculty author, editor, or translator whose book has brought the greatest distinction to the list of the

University of Chicago Press The University of Chicago Press is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It is operated by the University of Chicago and publishes a wide variety of academic titles, including ''The Chicago Manual of Style'', ...

. The first award was given in 1963 and the most recent award was given on May 8, 2023, to Elisabeth S. Clemens, the William Rainey Harper Distinguished Service Professor of Sociology and the College at the University of Chicago. The award is named in honor of Gordon Jennings Laing, the scholar who, serving as general editor of the Press from 1909 until 1940, firmly established the character and reputation of the Press as the premier academic publisher in the United States. The award is presented each spring at a ceremony at the David Rubinstein Forum at the University of Chicago.

Recipients of the Gordon J. Laing Award

* 2023 Elisabeth S. Clemens - ''Civic Gifts: Voluntarism and the Making of the American Nation-State'' * 2022

Lisa Wedeen Lisa Wedeen is Professor of Political Science and the College and Co-Director of the Chicago Center for Contemporary Theory at the University of Chicago. In 1995, Wedeen received her Ph.D. in political science at the University of California, ...

- ''Authoritarian Apprehensions: Ideology, Judgment, and Mourning in Syria'' * 2021 Michael Rossi - ''The Republic of Color: Science, Perception, and the Making of Modern America'' * 2020

Eve Ewing Eve Louise Ewing (born 1986) is an American sociologist, author, poet, and visual artist from Chicago, Illinois. Ewing is a tenured professor at the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago. Her academic research in ...

- ''Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago's South Side'' * 2019 Deborah L. Nelson - ''Tough Enough: Arbus, Arendt, Didion, McCarthy, Sontag, Weil'' * 2018 Forrest Stuart - ''Down, Out, & Under Arrest: Policing and Everyday Life in Skid Row'' * 2017

David Nirenberg David Nirenberg is a medievalist and intellectual historian. He is the Director and Leon Levy Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ. He previously taught at the University of Chicago, where he was Dean of the Divinity Scho ...

- ''Neighboring Faiths: Christianity, Islam and Judaism in the Middle Ages and Today'' * 2016

Amir Sufi Amir Sufi is the Bruce Lindsay Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He was awarded the 2017 Fischer Black Prize by the American Finance Association, given biennially to a financial economi ...

and

Atif Mian Atif Rehman Mian ( ur, ; born 28 June 1975) is a Pakistani-American economist who serves as the John H. Laporte Jr. Class of 1967 Professor of Economics, Public Policy, and Finance at Princeton University, and as the Director of the Julis-Ra ...

- ''House of Debt: How They (and You) Caused the Great Recession, and How We Can Prevent It From Happening Again'' * 2015 Mauricio Tenorio-Trillo - ''I Speak of the City: Mexico City at the Turn of the Twentieth Century'' * 2014 Alison Winter - ''Memory: Fragments of a Modern History'' * 2013 Andreas Glaeser - ''Political Epistemics: The Secret Police, The Opposition, and the End of East German Socialism'' * 2012

Adrian Johns Vice Admiral Sir Adrian James Johns, (born 1 September 1951) is a former senior officer in the Royal Navy, serving as Second Sea Lord between 2005 and 2008. He was the Governor of Gibraltar between 2009 and 2013. Early life and education Joh ...

- ''Piracy: The Intellectual Property Wars from Gutenberg to Gates'' * 2011

Robert J. Richards Robert J. Richards (born 1942) is an author and the Morris Fishbein Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Science and Medicine at the University of Chicago. He has written or edited seven books about the history of science as well as ...

- ''The Tragic Sense of Life:

Ernst Haeckel Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel (; 16 February 1834 – 9 August 1919) was a German zoologist, naturalist, eugenicist, philosopher, physician, professor, marine biologist and artist. He discovered, described and named thousands of new sp ...

and the Struggle over Evolutionary Thought'' * 2010 Martha Feldman - ''Opera and Sovereignty: Transforming Myths in Eighteenth-Century Italy'' * 2009

Bernard Harcourt Bernard E. Harcourt (born 1963) is an American critical theorist with a specialization in the area of punishment, surveillance, legal and political theory, and political economy. He also does pro-bono legal work on human rights issues. He is a pr ...

'

- ''Against Prediction: Profiling, Policing, and Punishing in an Actuarial Age'' * 2008

Philip Gossett Philip Gossett (September 27, 1941 – June 12, 2017) was an American musicologist and historian, and Robert W. Reneker Distinguished Service Professor of Music at the University of Chicago. His lifelong interest in 19th-century Italian opera bega ...

'

- ''Divas and Scholars: Performing Italian Opera'' * 2006 W.J.T. Mitchell - ''What Do Pictures Want?: The Lives and Loves of Images'' * 2005

Bill Brown (critical theory) Bill Brown is the Karla Scherer Distinguished Service Professor in American Culture at the University of Chicago, where he teaches in the Department of English Language and Literature, the Department of Visual Arts, and the College. He previously he ...

- ''A Sense of Things: The Object Matter of American Literature'' * 2004 Jonathan Hall - ''Hellenicity: Between Ethnicity and Culture'' * 2003

- ''The Romantic Conception of Life: Science and Philosophy in the Age of Goethe'' * 2002

Bruce Lincoln Bruce Lincoln (born 1948) is Caroline E. Haskell Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of the History of Religions in the Divinity School of the University of Chicago, where he also holds positions in the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Co ...

- ''Theorizing Myth: Narrative, Ideology, and Scholarship'' * 2001

François Furet François Furet (; 27 March 1927 – 12 July 1997) was a French historian and president of the Saint-Simon Foundation, best known for his books on the French Revolution. From 1985 to 1997, Furet was a professor of French history at the University ...

- ''The Passing of an Illusion: The idea of Communism in the Twentieth Century'' * 2000 James Chandler - ''England in 1819: The Politics of Literary Culture and the Case of Romantic Historicism'' * 1999

André LaCocque André — sometimes transliterated as Andre — is the French and Portuguese form of the name Andrew, and is now also used in the English-speaking world. It used in France, Quebec, Canada and other French-speaking countries. It is a variation o ...

Paul Ricoeur Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) *Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chris ...

- ''Thinking Biblically: Exegetical and Hermeneutical Studies'' * 1998

Martin E. Marty Martin Emil Marty (born on February 5, 1928) is an American Lutheran religious scholar who has written extensively on religion in the United States. Early life and education Marty was born on February 5, 1928, in West Point, Nebraska, and raised ...

- ''Modern American Religion'' (in three volumes) * 1997 Marshall Sahlins - ''How "Natives" Think: About Captain Cook, For Example'' * 1996 W.J.T. Mitchell - ''Picture Theory: Essays on Verbal and Visual Representation'' * 1995

Edward Laumann Edward Otto Laumann (born August 31, 1938) is an American sociologist. He is the George Herbert Mead Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Chicago. Laumann earned his Ph.D. in the Harvard Department ...

, Robert T. Michael, and

Stuart Michaels Stuart may refer to: Names * Stuart (name), a given name and surname (and list of people with the name) Automobile *Stuart (automobile) Places Australia Generally *Stuart Highway, connecting South Australia and the Northern Territory Northe ...

- ''The Social Organization of Sexuality: Sexual Practices in the United States'' * 1994

David McNeill Glenn David McNeill (born 1933 in California, United States) is an Americans, American psychologist and Author, writer specializing in Research#Scientific research, scientific research into psycholinguistics and especially the relationship of ...

- ''Hand and Mind: What Gestures Reveal About Thought'' * 1993 Gerald N. Rosenberg - ''

The Hollow Hope ''The Hollow Hope: Can Courts Bring About Social Change?'' was written by Gerald N. Rosenberg and published in 1991. A highly controversial work, it produced labels ranging from "revolutionary" to "insulting." A Second Edition of the book was pub ...

: Can Courts Bring About Social Change?'' * 1992 Jean Comaroff and John L. Comaroff - ''On Revelation and Revolution, Volume 1: Christianity, Colonialism, and Consciousness in South Africa'' * 1991

Leszek Kołakowski Leszek Kołakowski (; ; 23 October 1927 – 17 July 2009) was a Polish philosopher and historian of ideas. He is best known for his critical analyses of Marxist thought, especially his three-volume history, '' Main Currents of Marxism'' (1976). ...

- ''Modernity on Endless Trial'' * 1990

Richard G. Klein Richard G. Klein (born April 11, 1941) is a Professor of Biology and Anthropology at Stanford University. He is the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences. He earned his PhD at the University of Chicago in 1 ...

- ''The Human Career: Human Biological and Cultural Origins'' * 1989

S. Chandrasekhar Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (; ) (19 October 1910 – 21 August 1995) was an Indian-American theoretical physicist who spent his professional life in the United States. He shared the 1983 Nobel Prize for Physics with William A. Fowler for "... ...

- ''Truth and Beauty'' * 1988

David Grene David Grene (13 April 1913 – 10 September 2002) was an Irish American professor of classics at the University of Chicago from 1937 until his death. He was a co-founder of the Committee on Social Thought and is best known for his translations of ...

- ''Herodotus: The History'' (translation) * 1987 Philip B. Kurland and Ralph Lerner - '' The Founders' Constitution'' (in five volumes) * 1986

Mircea Eliade Mircea Eliade (; – April 22, 1986) was a Romanians, Romanian History of religion, historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. He was a leading interpreter of religious experience, who establ ...

- ''A History of Religious Ideas'' (in three volumes) * 1985

- ''Time and Narrative, Volume 1'' * 1984

Richard Hellie Richard Hellie (May 8, 1937 – April 24, 2009) was an American historian. Richard Hellie was born in Waterloo, Iowa, on May 8, 1937, to Ole Hellie and Elizabeth Larsen. His mother was a schoolteacher, and his father was a journalist. Ole worked s ...

- ''Slavery in Russia, 1450-1725'' * 1983

Anthony C. Yu Anthony Christopher Yu (; October 6, 1938 – May 12, 2015) was an American literary theorist, sinologist, and theologian. He was a scholar of literature and religion, both East Asian and Western; and was the Carl Darling Buck Distinguished Serv ...

- ''

The Journey to the West ''Journey to the West'' () is a Chinese novel published in the 16th century during the Ming dynasty and attributed to Wu Cheng'en. It is regarded as one of the greatest Classic Chinese Novels, and has been described as arguably the most popul ...

'' (in four volumes) * 1982 James M. Gustafson - ''Ethics from a Theocentric Perspective, Volume 1: Theology and Ethics'' * 1981

Wayne C. Booth Wayne Clayson Booth (February 22, 1921, in American Fork, Utah – October 10, 2005, in Chicago, Illinois) was an American literary critic. He was the George M. Pullman Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in English Language & Literature an ...

- ''Critical Understanding: The Powers and Limits of Pluralism'' * 1980

Morris Janowitz Morris Janowitz (October 22, 1919 – November 7, 1988) was an American sociologist and professor who made major contributions to sociological theory, the study of prejudice, urban issues, and patriotism. He was one of the founders of military ...

- ''The Last Half Century: Societal Change and Politics in America'' * 1979

Alan Gewirth Alan Gewirth (November 28, 1912 – May 9, 2004) was an American philosopher, a professor of philosophy at the University of Chicago, and author of '' Reason and Morality'' (1978), ''Human Rights: Essays on Justification and Applications'' (19 ...

- ''Reason and Morality'' * 1978

Sewall Wright Sewall Green Wright FRS(For) Honorary FRSE (December 21, 1889March 3, 1988) was an American geneticist known for his influential work on evolutionary theory and also for his work on path analysis. He was a founder of population genetics alongsi ...

- ''Evolution and the Genetics of Populations, Volume 3: Experimental Results and Evolutionary Deductions'' * 1977 Marshall Sahlins - ''Culture and Practical Reason'' * 1976

Keith Michael Baker Keith Michael Baker (born 7 August 1938) is a British-born historian. Baker received his bachelor's and master's degrees at Peterhouse, Cambridge, and completed a doctorate at University College London. He began his academic career in the United ...

- ''Condorcet: From Natural Philosophy to Social Mathematics'' * 1975 Eric W. Cochrane - ''Florence in the Forgotten Centuries, 1527–1800: A History of Florence and the Florentines in the Age of the Grand Dukes'' * 1974 Stuart M. Tave - ''Some Words of Jane Austen'' * 1973

Edward Shils Edward Albert Shils (1 July 1910 – 23 January 1995) was a Distinguished Service Professor in the Committee on Social Thought and in Sociology at the University of Chicago and an influential sociologist. He was known for his research on the rol ...

- ''The Intellectuals and the Powers'' * 1972 Edward Wasiolek - ''The Notebooks of Dostoevsky'' (in five volumes) * 1971

Herrlee G. Creel Herrlee Glessner Creel (January 19, 1905June 1, 1994) was an American Sinologist and philosopher who specialized in Chinese philosophy and history, and was a professor of Chinese at the University of Chicago for nearly 40 years. On his retirement ...

- ''The Origins of Statecraft in China, Volume 1: The Western Chou Empire'' * 1970 Gerald D. Suttles - ''The Social Order of the Slum: Ethnicity and Territory in the Inner City'' * 1969 Leonard B. Meyer - ''Music, the Arts, and Ideas: Patterns and Prediction in Twentieth-Century Culture'' * 1968 Philip Foster - ''Education and Social Change in Ghana'' * 1967 Donald F. Lach - ''Asia in the Making of Europe, Volume 1, Books 1 and 2'' * 1966

A. Leo Oppenheim Adolf Leo Oppenheim (7 June 1904 – 21 July 1974), one of the most distinguished Assyriologists of his generation was editor-in-charge of the ''Chicago Assyrian Dictionary'' of the Oriental Institute from 1955 to 1974 and John A. Wilson Profe ...

- ''Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization'' * 1965

Tang Tsou Tsou Tang (; 18 December 1918 – 7 August 1999) was a China-born American political scientist, best known for his book ''America's Failure in China'' (1963) and studies of contemporary Chinese politics. He was on the faculty of University of Chica ...

- ''America’s Failure in China, 1941-1950'' * 1964

William Hardy McNeill William Hardy McNeill (October 31, 1917 – July 8, 2016) was an American historian and author, noted for his argument that contact and exchange among civilizations is what drives human history forward, first postulated in '' The Rise of the Wes ...

- ''

The Rise of the West ''The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community'' is a book by University of Chicago historian William H. McNeill, first published in 1963 and enlarged with a retrospective preface in 1991. It explores world history in terms of the eff ...

: A History of the Human Community'' * 1963 Bernard Weinberg - ''A History of Literary Criticism in the Italian Renaissance''

References

External links

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