The Mid-Atlantic Region/Association for Asian Studies (MARAAS) awards prizes for the best papers on East, Southeast, and South Asia presented by a graduate student at the annual conference. All winners will receive a one-year membership to the Association for Asian Studies. The best of these papers will be selected as winner of the Marlene Mayo Graduate Paper Prize that also awards $500.00 to the winner. The Mayo Prize winner is also eligible for participation in a panel at the annual AAS conference and will receive financial assistance for travel and accommodations to the national conference. Papers are nominated primarily by audience members at the conference.
Award nominees will be contacted after the conference and will be asked to submit supporting evidence in the form of a written paper or a slide deck.
For best consideration, papers should be approximately 12–13 pages, double-spaced; slide decks should be limited to 10–15 slides. Criteria include quality and depth of scholarship, originality, contribution to the student’s field or area of academic study, and clarity of presentation. Nominees should be enrolled in institutions in the mid-Atlantic region (Metropolitan New York, Metropolitan Washington, D.C, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia). A panel of scholars will read and rate each nominated submission. Announcement of the MARAAS award will be made by May; selection for participation at the national AAS conference will be made by October.
Please nominate a graduate student paper here.
PAST WINNERS OF THE MARAAS PAPER PRIZE
No winner in 2023
Patrick Carland-Echavarria, UPenn, 2022, Marlene Mayo Graduate Paper Prize
Paper Title: Finding the Rainbow World: Queer Translation and Utopian Imaginaries in Postwar Japan
Pritika Sharma, Boston University 2021, Marlene Mayo Graduate Paper Prize
Paper title: Marriage, Romance, and Destiny: Locating Individuals’ Desire and Autonomy within Familial Social Structures in India
Aiden James Kosciesza, Temple University 2021
Paper title: Teacher, Trickster, Troll: Great Teacher Onizuka's Populist Pedagogy and Japan's Lost Decade
Keiko Nishimura, (Communications, Modern Japan), University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 2019
Jason Beckman, (East Asian Languages and Cultures, Modern Japan), Stanford University 2019
Doopashika Welikala, (Public Health, Modern Sri Lanka), UMBC/Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health 2019, Marlene Mayo Graduate Student Paper Prize
Kaoru Hayashi (Japanese Literature, Premodern Japan), Princeton University 2017
Mark Bookman (East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Modern Japan), University of Pennsylvania 2016
Madeleine Wilcox (East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Modern China), University of Pennsylvania 2012
William Bridges IV (Literature, Modern Japan) Princeton University 2011
Megan Hamm (Anthropology, India) University of Pittsburgh 2010
Emily Price (History, Modern Japan) University of Maryland 2009
Nandor Forgach (Asian Studies, Japan) Seton Hall 2008