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