Book Awards Honor Best of Faculty Scholarship

By Jordan Schraeder in 40 Acres on October 21, 2011 at 8:39 am | No Comments

At the 15th annual Robert W. Hamilton Book Awards this week, the University Co-op honored the scholarship of faculty members who have published a book of their research in the last year.

The night’s grand prize went to L. Michael White, a classics professor, for his book Scripting Jesus: The Gospels in Rewrite, which describes how history’s earliest stories were written—or rewritten, that is. White’s work points to the fact that the gospels weren’t pure biographies, but instead dramatic presentations.

White also won the $10,000 grand prize back in 2006 for writing a book that also dealt with Christianity.

The topics of each nominated book varied widely, from thermal radiation and Texas history to African-American involvement in the beauty industry and jazz music.

“Research and teaching are two sides of one coin, and that coin is public education,” said Linda Golden, the night’s master of ceremonies and Co-op board member.

Juan Sanchez, UT’s vice president of research, offered his congratulations to the 74 award nominees, the largest nominee pool in the history of the Hamilton Book Awards.

“That banner behind me says what starts here changes the world,” University Co-op president George Mitchell said at the end of the night. “Nothing would start here without the scholarship of our faculty.”

The nights other winners included:

Hamilton Book Award Runners-up, who received $3,000 each

Richard Graham, PhD
Department of History
“Feeding the City: From Street Market to Liberal Reform in Salvador, Brazil, 1780-1860”

David Hillis, PhD
Department of Integrative Biology
“Principles of Life”

Inga Markovits, LLM
School of Law
“Justice in Luritz: Experiencing Socialist Law in East Germany”

Karl Miller, PhD
Department of History
“Segregating Sound: Inventing Folk and Pop Music in the Age of Jim Crow”

The Career Research Excellence Award winner, who received a $10,000 prize

J. Patrick Olivelle, PhD
Department of Asian Studies

Best Research Paper Award winners, who received a $5,000 prize

Barbara McArthur and George “Fritz” Benedict, PhD
McDonald Observatory, College of Natural Sciences

Creative Research Award winner, who received a $5,000 prize

Steven Dietz
Department of Theatre and Dance