James B. Palais Book Prize

The James B. Palais Prize of the Association for Asian Studies was initiated by the Palais Prize committee headed by AAS President Robert Buswell in 2008-09. The Palais Prize is given annually to an outstanding scholar of Korean studies from any discipline or country specialization to recognize distinguished scholarly work on Korea.

2025 Prize

The Palais Prize carries a $1,000 cash award.

Guidelines for Submission

• There are no citizenship or residence requirements for nominees.
• Authors need not be AAS members.
• Any original, scholarly, nonfiction work with a copyright date of 2022 or 2023 is eligible for the 2025 Palais Prize.
• Reference works, exhibition catalogs, translations, textbooks, collections of previously published essays, poetry, fiction, travel books, memoirs or autobiographies are not eligible.
• Publishers must complete the book nomination form. Each press may nominate a maximum of six books for the Palais Prize.
• Only publishers may nominate books.
• Upon receipt of a completed nomination form, publishers will be provided with addresses for prize committee members. A copy of each entry, clearly labeled “James B. Palais Prize,” must be sent to each member of the committee.

Books published by the Association for Asian Studies, Inc. are ineligible for consideration for prizes administered by the Association for Asian Studies. Employees of the Association are excluded from consideration for AAS book prizes, subventions, and grants. Publishers should check with authors to certify that they are not employed by the Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 

Deadline

The nomination deadline is June 30, 2024. Nominations will open for submission later in spring 2024.

Palais Prize Committee

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2024 Awards

Winner and Citation

Eleana J. Kim, Making Peace with Nature: Ecological Encounters along the Korean DMZ (Duke University Press)

Eleana Kim’s Making Peace with Nature is an insightful and thought-provoking account of the human-nature relationship that has emerged around the DMZ, an area that the author calls the “infrastructure of division” between the two Koreas. The Palais Prize committee was struck by Kim’s careful theorization of complex issues surrounding the area and her fresh analysis of new connections emerging in it. The book sets forth intriguing and daring propositions about the agency of the environment over state power and diverse human groupings (policy makers, preservationist activists, as well as residents). It challenges readers to think critically about the future of the DMZ beyond our political, epistemological and even ontological conventions.

Honorable Mention

Past Awards