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Congratulations Shelley Fisher Fishkin, for ASA lifetime achievement award!

Shelley Fisher Fishkin

Dear Stanford American Studies community,

We are delighted to announce that the American Studies Association has awarded its lifetime achievement prize to our own Shelley Fisher Fishkin, noting her “astonishing record of four decades of serious scholarly research and service in American Studies” (see more below).

Please join us in congratulating Professor Fishkin on this most richly deserved award!

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THE 2023 CARL BODE-NORMAN HOLMES PEARSON PRIZE

For lifetime achievement and outstanding contribution to American Studies

This year’s nominations for the Bode-Pearson Award for Lifetime Achievement were impressive, indicative not only of the vast and wide-ranging productivity of the nominees, but of the weight and power of the Association, together with the commitment of its members to carry out the mission of American Studies.

The 2023 winner of the Bode Pearson Award goes to Professor Shelley Fisher Fishkin for an astonishing record of four decades of serious scholarly research and service in American Studies, and most especially for introducing and defining the notion of a “transnational turn.” On top of the forty-eight books she has authored or edited and the more than one hundred fifty articles and essays she has published, she co-founded the Journal of Transnational American Studies. She reframed and re-defined Mark Twain Studies, modeling what it means to “unsettle American literature” and establishing herself as the world’s foremost Twain scholar. Professor Fishkin’s consistent engagement with international and global themes in American Studies manifested in a multi-year collaborative effort to recover the lost histories of the Chinese laborers who built the railroads of North America.

Over a stellar career, Professor Fishkin has forged her unbelievable stamina with a drive to leverage resources and create institutional relationships. She has pursued a vision but it is much more than that: she has grasped the possibilities of various historical moments, turning hopeful possibilities into beneficial realities that extend far beyond her immediate circles of influence.

Professor Fishkin has served as ASA President along with serving on the Nominating, Program, Finance, and Executive Committees over a period of fifteen years. The prize for International Scholarship in Transnational American Studies is named after her. Professor Fishkin’s remarkable and long-lasting presence in this Association is made complete by this award.

https://theasa.net/about/news-events/announcements/announcing-2023-asa-prize-winners