Category Archives: Awards

We are delighted to announce that New Sensory Approaches to the Past: Applied Methods in Sensory Heritage and Archaeology, edited by Pamela Jordan, Sara Mura and Sue Hamilton, has been shortlisted for the 2026 European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) Book Prize.

Awarded annually, the EAA Book Prize recognises exceptional recent publications by EAA members. This year’s prize attracted a highly competitive field, with a selection of seven titles shortlisted.

The winner will be announced at the Opening Ceremony of the 32nd Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists, which will take place in Athens later this year.

Shortlisting for the prize reflects the originality, scholarly quality and wider contribution of New Sensory Approaches to the Past. Bringing together an international range of contributors, the volume explores how people in the past experienced their worlds through the senses, offering innovative approaches that challenge the predominantly visual focus of traditional archaeological research.

Through case studies spanning diverse periods and geographies, the book demonstrates how attention to sound, smell, movement and embodied experience can open up new perspectives on cultural environments and lived experience. Its interdisciplinary scope highlights the value of integrating methods and insights from across archaeology and beyond.

Published open access by UCL Press, the book is freely available to read online, ensuring its research can reach and inform readers across the world.

We warmly congratulate the editors and contributors on this well-deserved recognition and look forward to the announcement of the 2026 prize winner in Athens.

We’re delighted to announce that Between Feast and Famine: Food, Health, and the History of Ghana’s Long Twentieth Century by John Nott has been shortlisted for the Royal Historical Society’s First Book Prize 2026.

Moving between the dry Northern savannah, the mineral-rich and food-secure Southern rainforest, and the youthful, ever-expanding cities, Between Feast and Famine is a comparative history of nutrition in Ghana since the end of the nineteenth century. At the heart of this story is an analysis of how an uneven capitalist transformation variously affected the lives of women and children. It traces the change from sporadic periods of hunger in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, through epidemics of childhood malnutrition during the twentieth century, and into emergent epidemics of diet-related non-communicable disease in the twenty-first century. Employing a novel, critical approach to historical epidemiology, John Nott argues that detailing the co-production of science and its subjects in the past is essential for understanding and improving health in the present.

The prize recognises first, sole-authored monographs published in 2025 by early career historians. This year’s shortlist of eight titles was selected following an open call, and the shortlisted titles span a wide range of subjects, periods and geographies. Two winners will be selected from the shortlist and announced in July 2026. Each will receive a prize of £1,000.

Links

• Read and download Between Feast and Famine free: https://uclpress.co.uk/book/between-feast-and-famine/
• Royal Historical Society announcement: https://blog.royalhistsoc.org/2026/05/18/royal-historical-society-first-book-prize-2026-shortlisted-titles/
• Image: Cuadro de comedor by José Agustín Arrieta. Public domain. Available from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cuadro_de_comedor_basket.jpg

We are delighted to share that Shelley with Benjamin: A Critical Mosaic by Mathelinda Nabugodi has been shortlisted for the British Association of Romantic Studies (BARS) First Book Prize 2026.

The shortlisting recognises an outstanding first monograph in Romantic Studies and places Nabugodi’s book among an impressive and highly competitive field. Published by UCL Press in 2023, Shelley with Benjamin offers a bold and innovative critical reading of Percy Bysshe Shelley through the philosophical lens of Walter Benjamin, reframing Romanticism as a dynamic, fragmentary mode of thought and interpretation.

This year’s judging panel received a large number of high‑quality nominations, making the selection process particularly challenging. The final shortlist reflects the breadth and vitality of current scholarship in Romantic Studies, and includes works published by major academic presses from the UK, Europe, and North America.

The 2026 shortlist is chaired by Professor Ross Wilson (University of Cambridge), with judges Dr Susan Civale (Canterbury Christ Church University), Professor Daisy Hay (University of Exeter), Dr Andrew McInnes (Edge Hill University), Dr Cleo O’Callaghan Yeoman (University of Glasgow), Dr Emily Paterson-Morgan (The Byron Society), and Dr Amy Wilcockson (Queen Mary University of London).

The winner of the BARS First Book Prize will be announced at the BARS International Conference 2026, Romantic Retrospections, which will take place at the University of Birmingham from Wednesday 29 to Friday 31 July

UCL Press has been awarded a gold rated 100% ASPIRE score for its accessibility statement, recognising the Press’s commitment to delivering the highest standard of accessible digital publishing.

The ASPIRE project is an industry wide initiative that evaluates the clarity, transparency and usability of accessibility information provided by scholarly publishers and content platforms. A 100% score is the project’s highest rating and reflects best practice in communicating accessibility support to readers, librarians and disability services teams.

Achieving the gold rating follows a sustained programme of work at UCL Press to improve the accessibility of its open access books and journals. This has included updating accessibility documentation, enhancing workflows for EPUB and PDF formats, and strengthening guidance for authors and editors on inclusive publishing.

Jaimee Biggins, Production Manager at UCL Press, welcomed the result and highlighted its value for the research community. She noted that a clear and comprehensive accessibility statement helps all readers understand how they can use and engage with content and demonstrates the Press’s commitment to meeting diverse needs.

The rating also reflects UCL’s institutional commitment to equitable access to knowledge. As the UK’s first fully open access university press, UCL Press aims to ensure that removing paywalls goes hand in hand with removing barriers created by format, technology or disability.

UCL Press is pleased to share that Dr Jovana Diković, author of The Laissez-Faire Peasant: Post-Socialist Rural Development in Serbia, has been honoured by the Ethnographic Institute of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

The award recognises Dr Diković’s outstanding contribution to ethnological and anthropological research. Presented once every four years, it is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious honours within the Serbian anthropological community.

Published by UCL Press in 2025, The Laissez-Faire Peasant offers a timely and original examination of post-socialist rural transformation in Serbia. Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, the book explores how evolving political and economic structures have shaped everyday life, agricultural practices and rural identities.

We warmly congratulate Dr Diković on this outstanding achievement.