The North American Society for Social Philosophy sponsors a prestigious book award at each of its annual meetings. Awardees are featured in a plenary session on their book, with comments from three presenters. In addition, the prize comes with a beautiful plaque.
The winner of the 2023 Book Award is Elsa Dorlin, for Self-Defense: A Philosophy of Violence, Verso 2022.
NASSP Members and publishers are invited to nominate books using the form below. Scroll down to see a list of previous winners!
Previous Award Winners
Book award for 2021 given at the 2022 meeting: Anne Schwenkenbecher’s Getting Our Act Together: A Theory of Collective Moral Obligations (Routledge)
Book award for 2020 given at the 2021 meeting: Serena Parekh’s No Refuge: Ethics and the Global Refugee Crisis (Oxford University Press)
Book award for 2019 given at the 2020 meeting: Yvonne Chiu’s Conspiring with the Enemy: The Ethic of Cooperation in Warfare (Columbia University Press)
Book award for 2018 given at the 2019 meeting: Rahel Jaeggi, Critique of Forms of Life (Harvard University Press)
Book award for 2017 given at the 2018 meeting: Colleen Murphy, The Conceptual Foundations of Transitional Justice (Cambridge University Press)
Book award for 2016 given at the 2017 meeting: Tommie Shelby, Dark Ghettos: Injustice, Dissent, and Reform (Harvard University Press)
Book award for 2015 given at the 2016 meeting: Paul B. Thompson, From Fork to Field: Food Ethics for Everyone (Oxford University Press)
Book award for 2014 given at the 2015 meeting: Joseph Fishkin, Bottlenecks: A New Theory of Equal Opportunity (Oxford University Press)
Book award for 2013 given at the 2014 meeting: Meira Levinson, No Citizen Left Behind (Harvard University Press)
Book award for 2012 given at the 2013 meeting: Jose Medina, The Epistemology of Resistance: Gender and Racial Oppression, Epistemic Injustice, and Resistant Imagination (Oxford University Press)
Book award for 2011 given at the 2012 meeting: Ben Berger, Attention Deficit Democracy: The Paradox of Civic Engagement (Princeton University Press)
Book award for 2010 given at the 2011 meeting: Stephen Nathanson, Terrorism and the Ethics of War (Cambridge University Press)
Book award for 2009 given at the 2010 meeting: Amartya Sen, The Idea of Justice (Harvard University Press)
Book award for 2008 given at the 2009 meeting: G.A. Cohen, Rescuing Justice and Equality (Harvard University Press)
Book award for 2007 given at the 2008 meeting: Will Kymlicka, Multicultural Odsseys: Navigating the New International Politics of Diversity (Oxford University Press)
Book award for 2006 given at the 2007 meeting: Lucas Swaine, The Liberal Conscience: Politics and Principle in a World of Religious Pluralism (Columbia University Press)
Book award for 2005 given at the 2006 meeting: Larry May, Crimes Against Humanity: A Normative Account (Cambridge University Press)
Book award for 2004 given at the 2005 meeting: Seyla Benhabib, The Rights of Others: Aliens, Residents and Citizens (Cambridge University Press)
Book award for 2003 given at the 2004 meeting: Susan Campbell, Relational Remembering: Rethinking the Memory Wars (Rowman & Littlefield)
Book award for 2002 given at the 2003 meeting: Paul Weithman, Religion and the Obligations of Citizenship (Cambridge University Press)
Book award for 2001 given at the 2002 meeting: Lawrence Blum, I’m Not a Racist But…The Moral Quandary of Race (Cornell University Press)
Book award for 1999 given at the 2000 meeting: Martha Nussbaum, Sex and Social Justice (Oxford University Press)
Book award for 1998 given at the 1999 meeting: James Sterba, Justice for Here and Now (Cambridge University Press)
Book award for 1995 given at the 1996 meeting: Joseph M. Schwartz, The Permanence of the Political: A Democratic Critique of the Radical Impulse to Transcend Politics (Princeton University Press)
Book award for 1992 given at the 1993 meeting: Stephen Toulmin, Cosmopolis (The Free Press)
Book award for 1991 given at the 1992 meeting: Ferdinand David Schoeman, Privacy and Social Freedom (Cambridge University Press)