THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
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
Education
The Development of the Concept of Person: The Young Child's View of the Other in Action and in Interaction
1987-88
John Lucy
Behavioral Sciences
Grammatical Categories and Cognitive Processes: An Historical, Theoretical, and Empirical Re-Evaluation of the Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis
1988-89
Robin L. Einhorn
History
Before the Machine: Municipal Government in Chicago, 1883-1872
1989-90
John Roth
History
From Confessionalism to Regional Patriotism: Popular Piety and the Emergence of a New Political Culture in the Palatinate, 1740-1832
1990-91
Craig Cameron
History
American Samurai: The Influence of Myth and Imagination on the Conduct of Battle in the First Marine Division During the Pacific War
1991-92
Chinhui Juhn
Economics
Decline of Male Labor Market Participation: the Role of Declining Market Opportunities
1992-93
Sarah Lamb
Anthropology
Growing in the Net of Maya: Persons, Gender, and Life Processes in a Bengali Society
1993-94
Stathis Kalyvas
Political Science
Religious Mobilization and Party Formation: Confessional Parties and the Christian-Democratic Phenomenon
1994-95
Charles G. Fried
Social Thought
Heidegger's Polemos: From Being to Politics
1995-96
Carol Horton
Political Science
Race, Liberalism, and American Political Culture: Politics and Ideology in the U.S., 1865-1980
1996-97
Bronwyn R. McFarland-Icke
History
Moral Consciousness and the Politics of Exclusion: Nursing in German Psychiatry, 1918-1945
1997-98
Christopher R. Browning
Sociology
Trauma and Transition: a Life Course Perspective on the Long-Term Effects of Early Sexual Experiences
1998-99
Charles King
History
The Living and the Dead: Ancient Roman Conceptions of the Afterlife
1999-2000
James E. Bjork
History
Neither German nor Pole: Catholicism and National Ambivalence in Upper Silesia: 1890-1914
2000-01
Monica Prasad
Sociology
The Politics of Free Markets: the Rise of Neoliberal Economic Policy in Britain, France, and the United States
2001-02
Fonna Forman-Barzilai
Political Science
Adam Smith and the Circles of Sympathy
2002-03
Mark Wilson
History
The Business of Civil War: Military Enterprise, the State, and Political Economy in the United States, 1850-1880
2003-04
Dorothee Brantz
History
Slaughter in the City: The Establishment of Public Abattoirs in Paris and Berlin, 1780-1914
2004-05
Dana Simmons
History
Minimal Frenchmen: Science and the Standards of Living, 1840-1960
2005-06
Hadas Shintel
Psychology
Analog Acoustic Expression in Speech
2006-07
Cameron Hawkins
History
Work in the City: Roman Artisans and the Urban Economy
2007-08
Stephen Halsey
History
European Imperialism and the Evolution of Chinese Statecraft, 1850-1927
2008-09
Sanyu Mojola
Sociology
Dangerous Transitions: Exploring the Gendered Disparity in HIV Rates among African Youth
2009-10
Joseph Hankins
Anthropology
Working Through Skin: Making Leather, Making a Multicultural Japan
2010-11
Nicholas Harkness
Anthropology
The Voices of Seoul: Sound, Body, and Christianity in South Korea
2011-12
Lily Chumley
Anthropology
Self-styling: Practicing creativity and remaking aesthetics in post-socialist China
2012-13
Caroline Schuster
Anthropology
Social Collateral: Microcredit Development and the Politics of Interdependency in Paraguay
2013-14
Alexander Blanchette
Anthropology
Conceiving Porkopolis: The Production of Life on the American "Factory" Farm
2014-15
Jonathan Obert
Political Science
Six Guns and State Formation: The Co-Evolution of Public and Private Violence in American Political Development
2015-16
Lauren Howard
Psychology
The Development of Memory in the Context of Human Action
2016-17
Mark Geraghty
Anthropology
Genocide Ideology, Nation-building, Counter-revolution: Specters of the Rwandan Nation-State
2017-18
Emma Stone Mackinnon
Political Science
Imperial Promises: The Contested Politics of Human Rights in the Twentieth Century
2018-19
Liam Mannix
History
The Catholic Agricultural Enlightenment in France
2019-2020
Gretchen Pfeil
Anthropology
Sarax and Sutura: Alms and the Value of Discretion in Dakar, Senegal
Winnie van Dijk
Griffin Economics
Essays on Rental Housing Market Policies and the Socio-Economic Mobility of Low-Income Households
2020-2021
Hiroko Kumaki
Anthropology
Reasonably Exposed: Politics and Ethics of Living Fukushima
Natasha Piano
Political Science
Elites and Democracy: Italian Elite Theory, American Political Science and the Problem of Plutocracy
2021-2022
Matthew Lowenstein
Department of History
Financial Markets in Late Imperial China, 1820-1911
Jennifer Lu
Department of Psychology
Emerging deictic systems shaped by language, modality, and social interaction
2022-2023
Pranathi Diwakar
Department of Sociology
Resounding Caste: Practices of Distinction, Urban Segregation, and Musical Politics in Chennai, India
Paula Martin
Department of Comparative Human Development
Practicing Gender: The Meanings and Uses of Gender Affirming Care for Youth in the United States
2023-2024
Alex Shams
Department of Anthropology
Constructing Islamic Modernity: Power, Religion, and Masculinity in Post- Revolutionary Iran