Awarded in 2008 for Books Published in 2007

The Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research at Texas A&M University invites publishers to submit scholarly monographs for its annual Glasscock Humanities Book Prize, which will be awarded to an interdisciplinary monograph in humanities studies published in 2007.  

To be considered, the book must be written in English and bear a copyright date of 2007.  It must make an outstanding contribution to the humanities that crosses traditional disciplinary boundaries.  A book must be nominated by its publisher, and each publisher may nominate only one book.  A cash prize of $1000 will be presented to the winning author, who will be invited to Texas A&M University to deliver a public address.

To nominate a book, please send three (3) copies of the book and a letter of nomination to:

Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research
Texas A&M University
4214 TAMU
College Station , TX 77843-4214
Attn: David Cockley

Entries must be postmarked by 1 May 2008.  Multiple submissions or submissions not published in 2007 will not be returned. For further information e-mail Donnalee Dox.

Employees of Texas A&M University are not eligible for nomination.

The Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research at Texas A&M University is pleased to announce the award of its 9th Annual Susanne M. Glasscock Humanities Book Prize for Interdisciplinary Scholarship to Lois Parkinson Zamora, Professor of Comparative Literature and Art History at the University of Houston, for her book The Inordinate Eye: New World Baroque and Latin American Fiction (University of Chicago Press, 2006).

Zamora gave a public lecture and accepted the book prize for 2007 on Wednesday, 13 February 2008.

The Inordinate Eye uncovers the transnational influences on Baroque art in the New World to determine how those relationships influence contemporary narratives and form points of resistance to European colonization. Latin American artists create a discourse of “counterconquest” that Zamora terms the “New World Baroque,” a hybrid form combining the diverse influences of indigenous, African, and European cultures in an effort to challenge the hegemony of Catholic and monarchical ideologies.

Zamora combines critique of visual art with discussion of fictional narratives to argue that an integrated understanding of each provides a better perspective to examine the epistemological structures that underpin modern and contemporary art in Latin America. The discussion ranges from the murals of Diego Rivera in the National Palace of Mexico City to the fictions of Jorge Luis Borges and Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez. Zamora examines these artists and many more, and in The Inordinant Eye offers a comparative study that goes beyond the interartistic, exploring how diverse artistic media influence one another and provide a unified challenge to the colonizer’s gaze.

The Glasscock Book Prize, first awarded in 1999, originated by the Texas A&M Center for Humanities Research, was permanently endowed in December 2000 by Melbern G. Glasscock '59 and his wife Susanne M. Glasscock, for whom the prize is now named.