The Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs offers three prizes for papers written by students - the Percy Buchanan Graduate Prize for graduate students, and the Sidney DeVere Brown Prize and the Mikiso Hane Prize for undergraduate students. MCAA also offers the Jackson and Caroline Bailey Public Service Award for outstanding work in the advancement of Asian Studies. These prizes are awarded at the MCAA Annual Meeting held each fall.
The deadline for submission is June 7, 2021. The prize coordinator for 2021 is MCAA Vice President Hiromi Mizuno. Please contact Professor Mizuno with any questions about the undergraduate or graduate paper prizes; she can be reached at mizuno@umn.edu.
Submission Requirements for All Papers
Graduate and undergraduate students may compete for these prizes if they attend a college or university in the following states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Decisions of the judges are final.
Percy Buchanan Graduate Prize
Four Percy Buchanan prizes of $100 each, plus travel expenses of up to $100, will be awarded for the best original graduate student research papers. Papers should be no longer than 35 pages double spaced including the bibliography. Students will have an opportunity to present winning papers at the conference. There is one prize for each of the four main AAS regions: China and Inner Asia, Northeast Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. Graduate paper prize winners will receive a one-year complimentary membership in the Association for Asian Studies, and one of the winners will be nominated to present at the AAS annual conference (usually taking place in late March of that academic year) on the Council of Conferences designated panel. To submit your paper, please visit the Percy Buchanan Graduate Prize Submission Portal.
Sidney DeVere Brown Prize and the Mikiso Hane Prize
The Sidney DeVere Brown Prize, and the Mikiso Hane Prize are awarded to the two best original papers composed by undergraduates. Prizes of $100, plus travel expenses of up to $100, are awarded to the authors of the winning papers. Paper submissions should be between 10 and 30 pages double spaced and must be accompanied by a letter from the student's professor or advisor confirming that the paper was written while the author was an undergraduate. Papers will be reviewed by scholars in the appropriate field. Undergraduate winners have the opportunity to publish their papers in The Wittenberg East Asian Studies Journal. To submit your paper, please visit the Sidney DeVere Brown Prize and the Mikiso Hane Prize Submission Portal.
Jackson and Caroline Bailey Public Service Award
This award commemorates the lifetime exemplary service to MCAA by Professors Jackson Bailey and Caroline Bailey. It recognizes and honors those members of MCAA who have assiduously contributed to outreach, extra-curricular instruction, and public service in their communities. Successful nominees should have made efforts beyond the normal and expected contributions of scholarship and teaching in order to bring Asian Studies to the community at large. Such activities might include: the creation of teaching materials to be used by K-12 teachers; production of Asian-centered audio-visual materials; work with sister city and/or citizen to citizen activities aimed at intercultural exchanges; working for student or faculty exchanges with Asian Universities; arranging Asian film series, community lectures, book clubs, children's story hours, museum exhibitions, and public discussions. In short, this award for lifetime achievement honors those who have devoted time and treasure to public service outside the academy.
Submission requirements: Both nominees and nominators must be regular members of MCAA at the time of nomination. The nomination must be made in writing and should include a summary of the exemplary activities that make the nominee worthy of the award. To apply please visit our Jackson and Caroline Bailey Public Service Award Submission Portal.