Kenneth W. Payne Student Prize
Scholarship Sponsored by Association for Queer Anthropology
Prize overview
The Association for Queer Anthropology (AQA) annually awards the Kenneth W. Payne Student Prize to an outstanding undergraduate or graduate student for exceptional anthropological work that either 1) focuses on lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender topics, or 2) offers a critical examination of sexualities and genders in a broader sense. The prize carries a $500 cash award.
Eligibility
- Open to undergraduate and graduate students in any of the four fields of anthropology.
- Submitted work must have been completed while the entrant was actively enrolled as a student.
- Both written papers and visual media (for example, documentary film) are acceptable.
Submission requirements
- Written entries: maximum length 40 pages, double-spaced, typed in 11- or 12-point font. Works that have already been published or accepted for publication are not eligible.
- Visual media: maximum running time 60 minutes. Projects already under contract for commercial distribution will not be considered.
- Submit an electronic copy of written work as a Word file (*.doc or *.docx) attached to an email sent to payne.prize@gmail.com on or before the deadline. For visual projects, the work must be available for download from an accessible website; send an email to payne.prize@gmail.com naming the project and confirming how it can be accessed.
- In the body of the email include a brief statement declaring your intent to enter the Kenneth W. Payne Prize competition, and provide your name, mailing address, academic department and university, telephone number, email address, and the stage of your undergraduate or graduate training when the work was produced.
- You will receive an acknowledgement of receipt via email within one week. Only resend duplicates if you have not received any confirmation two weeks after submission.
Deadline
Submissions must be received by June 1 each year.
Evaluation criteria
Entries will be judged on:
- engagement with relevant LGBTQ and/or feminist anthropological theory and literature;
- potential to contribute to and advance LGBTQ studies and global understandings of sexualities;
- attention to axes of difference (including gender, class, race, ethnicity, nation, and disability);
- originality;
- clarity, organization, and coherence; and
- topical relevance.
Award presentation
The recipient will be announced and the prize presented at the AQA Business Meeting during the annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association.
About Kenneth W. Payne
The award honors Dr. Kenneth W. Payne, a medical anthropologist noted for his fieldwork among the Tagabawa Bagobo of Mindanao, Philippines (1972–1985). During repeated field seasons living with the Bagobo, he collected artifacts and documented local disease concepts, treatments, and healing practices, as well as aspects of culture and family life. While conducting this research he taught at Washington University in St. Louis and at the State University of New York, Purchase, and worked with data in the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. In the early 1980s he began pioneering socio-cultural research on HIV/AIDS and published widely on the epidemic from an anthropological perspective, often emphasizing doctor–patient dynamics and advocating for the LGBTQI community. Dr. Payne was diagnosed with AIDS in 1985 and died in 1988 at the age of 37.