Saller Prize

The Saller Dissertation Prize recognizes the most outstanding dissertation of the year. It is awarded annually through the work of a multidisciplinary faculty committee.  

The award is named for Richard P. Saller, the tenth Provost of the University of Chicago (2002-2006) and former Dean of the Division of the Social Sciences (1994-2002). Professor Saller joined the University of Chicago as an Associate Professor in 1984. He was awarded the Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in 1992 and was named the Edward L. Ryerson Distinguished Service Professor. In 2007, he left UChicago for Stanford University where he currently serves as President of the university. He earned his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois in 1974 and his Ph.D. from Cambridge University in 1978.

1986-87

Patricia Ann Smiley
The Development of the Concept of Person: The Young Child's View of the Other in Action and in Interaction
Education

1987-88

John Lucy
Grammatical Categories and Cognitive Processes: An Historical, Theoretical, and Empirical Re-Evaluation of the Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis
Behavioral Sciences

1988-89

Robin L. Einhorn
Before the Machine: Municipal Government in Chicago, 1883-1872
History

1989-90

John Roth
From Confessionalism to Regional Patriotism: Popular Piety and the Emergence of a New Political Culture in the Palatinate, 1740-1832
History

1990-91

Craig Cameron
American Samurai: The Influence of Myth and Imagination on the Conduct of Battle in the First Marine Division During the Pacific War
History

1991-92

Chinhui Juhn
Decline of Male Labor Market Participation: the Role of Declining Market Opportunities
Economics

1992-93

Sarah Lamb
Growing in the Net of Maya: Persons, Gender, and Life Processes in a Bengali Society
Anthropology

1993-94

Stathis Kalyvas
Religious Mobilization and Party Formation: Confessional Parties and the Christian-Democratic Phenomenon
Political Science

1994-95

Charles G. Fried
Heidegger's Polemos: From Being to Politics
Social Thought

1995-96

Carol Horton
Race, Liberalism, and American Political Culture: Politics and Ideology in the U.S., 1865-1980
Political Science

1996-97

Bronwyn R. McFarland-Icke
Moral Consciousness and the Politics of Exclusion: Nursing in German Psychiatry, 1918-1945
History

1997-98

Christopher R. Browning
Trauma and Transition: a Life Course Perspective on the Long-Term Effects of Early Sexual Experiences
Sociology

1998-99

Charles King
The Living and the Dead: Ancient Roman Conceptions of the Afterlife
History

1999-2000

James E. Bjork
Neither German nor Pole: Catholicism and National Ambivalence in Upper Silesia: 1890-1914
History

2000-01

Monica Prasad
The Politics of Free Markets: the Rise of Neoliberal Economic Policy in Britain, France, and the United States
Sociology

2001-02

Fonna Forman-Barzilai
Adam Smith and the Circles of Sympathy
Political Science

2002-03

Mark Wilson
The Business of Civil War: Military Enterprise, the State, and Political Economy in the United States, 1850-1880
History

2003-04

Dorothee Brantz
Slaughter in the City: The Establishment of Public Abattoirs in Paris and Berlin, 1780-1914
History

2004-05

Dana Simmons
Minimal Frenchmen: Science and the Standards of Living, 1840-1960
History

2005-06

Hadas Shintel
Analog Acoustic Expression in Speech
Psychology

2006-07

Cameron Hawkins
Work in the City: Roman Artisans and the Urban Economy
History

2007-08

Stephen Halsey
European Imperialism and the Evolution of Chinese Statecraft, 1850-1927
History

2008-09

Sanyu Mojola
Dangerous Transitions: Exploring the Gendered Disparity in HIV Rates among African Youth
Sociology

2009-10

Joseph Hankins
Working Through Skin: Making Leather, Making a Multicultural Japan
Anthropology

2010-11

Nicholas Harkness
The Voices of Seoul: Sound, Body, and Christianity in South Korea
Anthropology

2011-12

Lily Chumley
Self-styling: Practicing creativity and remaking aesthetics in post-socialist China
Anthropology

2012-13

Caroline Schuster
Social Collateral: Microcredit Development and the Politics of Interdependency in Paraguay
Anthropology

2013-14

Alexander Blanchette
Conceiving Porkopolis: The Production of Life on the American "Factory" Farm
Anthropology

2014-15

Jonathan Obert
Six Guns and State Formation: The Co-Evolution of Public and Private Violence in American Political Development
Political Science

2015-16

Lauren Howard
The Development of Memory in the Context of Human Action
Psychology

2016-17

Mark Geraghty
Genocide Ideology, Nation-building, Counter-revolution: Specters of the Rwandan Nation-State
Anthropology

2017-18

Emma Stone Mackinnon
Imperial Promises: The Contested Politics of Human Rights in the Twentieth Century
Political Science

2018-19

Liam Mannix
The Catholic Agricultural Enlightenment in France
History

2019-2020

Gretchen Pfeil 
Sarax and Sutura: Alms and the Value of Discretion in Dakar, Senegal
Anthropology

Winnie van Dijk
Essays on Rental Housing Market Policies and the Socio-Economic Mobility of Low-Income Households
Griffin Economics

2020-2021

Hiroko Kumaki
Reasonably Exposed: Politics and Ethics of Living Fukushima
Anthropology

Natasha Piano
Elites and Democracy: Italian Elite Theory, American Political Science and the Problem of Plutocracy
Political Science

2021-2022

Matthew Lowenstein
Financial Markets in Late Imperial China, 1820-1911
Department of History

Jennifer Lu
Emerging deictic systems shaped by language, modality, and social interaction
Department of Psychology

2022-2023

Pranathi Diwakar
Resounding Caste: Practices of Distinction, Urban Segregation, and Musical Politics in Chennai, India
Department of Sociology

Paula Martin
Practicing Gender: The Meanings and Uses of Gender Affirming Care for Youth in the United States
Department of Comparative Human Development

2023-2024

Alex Shams
Constructing Islamic Modernity: Power, Religion, and Masculinity in Post- Revolutionary Iran
Department of Anthropology