On the Brinck | Places Prize: Call for Proposals

Places Editors

June 14, 2024

Photograph of a rural, two-lane highway in New Mexico. The landscape is flat with golden desert grasses with light blue mountains in the distance on the horizon. The sky takes up half of the image at the top is blue with a speckling of white clouds. The road is empty of vehicles and cuts through the center of the image at an angle. A short wire and wood post fence lines the side of the road on the land. Handwritten caption by J.B. Jackson reads: "Highway, NM."
John Brinckerhoff Jackson, Highway, NM, undated. [Center for Southwest Research, University of New Mexico, Collection of J. B. Jackson Pictorial Materials from Various Sources. Resource identifier 000-866-10-043]

We are pleased to announce that proposals are now being accepted for the inaugural On the Brinck | Places Prize.

A collaboration between Places Journal and the On the Brinck program at the School of Architecture + Planning at University of New Mexico, the prize supports ambitious public scholarship focused on the Southwestern region of what is now the United States. In doing so, it extends the goals of the school’s On the Brinck Book Awards, which are dedicated to “emphasizing new and overlooked areas of study, challenging existing scholarship, integrating allied disciplines, and appealing to a broad readership,” in the spirit of landscape writer and critic John Brinckerhoff Jackson.

Award Details

The winner of the On the Brinck | Places Prize will receive an honorarium of $7,500 to research and write a major work of public scholarship for publication in Places Journal, and present a related public lecture at the SA+P at University of New Mexico. The prize is open to institutionally-based and independent scholars.

Application Requirements

• Current CV.
• A sample of published writing, ideally an article-length work of public scholarship (see below).
• A brief proposal of no more than 500 words, describing your prospective article.
• A cover letter outlining the significance of the proposed topic, both within and beyond the Southwestern U.S.

Application Deadline

Applications must be submitted by 5:00 pm Pacific Time on August 30, 2024.

Applications should be submitted by email to [email protected]; please put “On the Brinck | Places Prize” in the subject line. Writing samples that exceed the file size of Gmail (or other email) attachments should be submitted via a file-sharing system referencing the same email address.

Selection Process

Applications will be evaluated and the winner selected by members of the On the Brinck | Places Prize Committee at University of New Mexico. The editors of Places will serve on the committee.

We strongly encourage applicants to browse the journal and to read our statement of Commitment to Public Scholarship in advance of submission.

The winner will be announced in December 2024.