The University of Washington Press is proud to publish prize-winning authors and books in Asian studies. Join us in celebrating these recent award winners, which will be featured at the Association for Asian Studies annual conference (AAS 2025) in Columbus, Ohio, March 13–16.
For those not able to attend the conference in person, we are pleased to offer a 30% discount and free domestic shipping on all Asian studies books with promo code WAAS25 at checkout on our website, available through March 31, 2025. Visit our AAS 2025 virtual booth to learn more.
Winner of the 2025 Harry J. Benda Prize
The Camphor Tree and the Elephant: Religion and Ecological Change in Maritime Southeast Asia
by Faizah Zakaria
“While historians have produced studies of individual polities in the region before and after the imposition of imperial rule, The Camphor Tree and the Elephant is the first to situate this transition in a much larger environmental and religious perspective, thus providing a vibrant reevaluation of approaches to the Southeast Asian past.” —Journal of Southeast Asian Studies
Winner of the 2025 Bei Shan Tang Catalogue Prize
China’s Hidden Century: 1796–1912
edited by Jessica Harrison-Hall and Julia Lovell
Copublished with the British Museum
“The exhibition catalogue’s seven essays, edited by the scholars Jessica Harrison-Hall and Julia Lovell, are a guide to this re-reading of the past, threading the relics on display into a rich tapestry of what life entailed under the last century of Manchu reign.” —Mekong Review
“A substantial tome: a coffee-table book that incorporates many more objects and artworks than the actual exhibition could fit.” —China Books Review
Past Award Winners
