The deadline to nominate books for the 2019 C. Wright Mills Award was December 15, 2019. Check back this fall for the 2020 C. Wright Mills Award nomination procedures. See below for information on award eligibility and a list of past winners.

ELIGIBILITY

Nominations are now closed for the 2019 C. Wright Mills Award. Check back next fall for information on how to submit nominations for the 2020 C. Wright Mills Award. 

The C. Wright Mills Award, established in 1964, is awarded annually and carries with it a stipend of $1,000 for the author(s) of the winning book.  The 2019 award will be presented at the 70th Annual Meeting in San Francisco, CA, August 7-9, 2020. Self nominations are acceptable.  Edited volumes, textbooks, fiction and self-published works are not eligible. Eligible books must be first edition (not a reprint or later edition) and bear a 2019 copyright date.  Exceptions may be made for a book bearing a 2018 copyright, but that was not released until 2019 for the first time.

CRITERIA

C. Wright Mills wrote in The Power Elite that: “Only when mind has an autonomous basis, independent of power, but powerfully related to it, can mind exert its force in the shaping of human affairs.  This is democratically possible only when there exists a free and knowledgeable public, to which [people] of knowledge may address themselves, and to which [people] of power are truly responsible.”  Consistent with Mills’ dedication to a search for a sophisticated understanding of the individual and society, the award will be given for that book with a 2019 copyright date that most effectively:1) critically addresses an issue of contemporary public importance,2) brings to the topic a fresh, imaginative perspective,3) advances social scientific understanding of the topic,4) displays a theoretically informed view and empirical orientation,5) evinces quality in style of writing,6) explicitly or implicitly contains implications for courses of action

PAST WINNERS

Review the list of past winners of the C. Wright Mills Award.

Please address all questions to:

Dr. Carla Shedd, ChairC. Wright Mills Award CommitteeE-mail: 

For further information, contact:

Michele Koontz, Administrative Officer & Meeting Manager Work: (865) 689-1531; E-mail: