Books
Recognizing major contributions to Brazilian Studies published in English.
About the program
Named for BRASA co-founder Roberto Reis, the award recognizes books that contribute significantly to promoting an understanding of Brazil.
Who it supports
The program considers eligible books in Brazilian Studies under the categories and publication window specified in each call.
Applications and nominations
Eligibility rules, required materials, deadlines, and submission instructions are published when the next cycle opens. Please consult the current call before preparing an application or nomination.
Past recipients
2026
First Book Award · Co-winner
Isadora Moura Mota
Freedom’s Horizon: Black Abolitionism in Nineteenth-Century Brazil
University of Pennsylvania Press, 2025
First Book Award · Co-winner
David C. Thompson
Where the Sun Rises Square: Mass Incarceration and the Binds of Reform in Brazil
Stanford University Press, 2025
Senior Scholar Award
Marc A. Hertzman
After Palmares: Diaspora, Inheritance, and the Afterlives of Zumbi
Duke University Press, 2024
Senior Scholar · Honorable Mention
Kelly E. Hayes
Spirits of the Space Age: The Imagined World of Brazil’s Valley of the Dawn
Oxford University Press, 2024
Senior Scholar · Honorable Mention
Alex Ungprateeb Flynn
Pathways to Utopia: Time and Transformation in the Landless Workers Movement of Brazil
Indiana University Press, 2025
2024
First Book Award
Anjuli Fahlberg
Activism Under Fire: The Politics of Non-Violence in Rio de Janeiro’s Gang Territories
Oxford University Press, 2023
First Book Award
Carolina Sá Carvalho
Traces of the Unseen: Photography, Violence, and Modernization in Early Twentieth-Century Latin America
Northwestern University Press, 2023
First Book · Honorable Mention
Courtney J. Campbell
Region out of Place: The Brazilian Northeast and the World, 1924–1968
University of Pittsburgh Press, 2022
First Book · Honorable Mention
Bryce Henson
Emergent Quilombos: Black Life and Hip-Hop in Brazil
University of Texas Press, 2024
First Book · Honorable Mention
Katherine Jensen
The Color of Asylum: The Racial Politics of Safe Haven in Brazil
University of Chicago Press, 2023
Senior Scholar Award
Elizabeth Hordge-Freeman
Second-Class Daughters: Black Brazilian Women and Informal Adoption as Modern Slavery
Cambridge University Press, 2022
Senior Scholar Award
Hal Langfur
Adrift on an Inland Sea: Misinformation and the Limits of Empire in the Brazilian Backlands
Senior Scholar · Honorable Mention
Seth Garfield
Guaraná: How Brazil Embraced the World’s Most Caffeine-Rich Plant
University of North Carolina Press, 2022
2021
First Book Award
Victoria Saramago
Fictional Environments: Mimesis, Deforestation, and Development in Latin America
Northwestern University Press, 2020
First Book Award
Case Watkins
Palm Oil Diaspora: Afro-Brazilian Landscapes and Economies on Bahia’s Dendê Coast
Cambridge University Press, 2021
Senior Scholar Award
Rafael Cardoso
Modernity in Black and White: Art and Image, Race and Identity in Brazil, 1890–1945
Cambridge University Press, 2021
Senior Scholar Award
Benjamin A. Cowan
Moral Majorities Across the Americas: Brazil, the United States, and the Creation of the Religious Right
University of North Carolina Press, 2021
2019
Award winner
Jessica Graham
Shifting the Meaning of Democracy: Race, Politics, and Culture in the United States and Brazil
University of California Press, 2019
Award winner
Rebecca Tarlau
Occupying Schools, Occupying Land: How the Landless Workers Movement Transformed Brazilian Education
Oxford University Press, 2019
Honorable Mention
Oscar de la Torre
The People of the River: Nature and Identity in Black Amazonia, 1835–1945
University of North Carolina Press, 2018
2017
Award winner
Celso T. Castilho
Slave Emancipation and Transformations in Brazilian Political Citizenship
University of Pittsburgh Press, 2016
Award winner
Christopher Dunn
Contracultura: Alternative Arts and Social Transformation in Authoritarian Brazil
University of North Carolina Press, 2016
Honorable Mention
Tianna Paschel
Becoming Black Political Subjects: Movements and Ethno-Racial Rights in Colombia and Brazil
Princeton University Press, 2017
2015
Award winner
Barbara Weinstein
The Color of Modernity: São Paulo and the Making of Race and Nation in Brazil
Duke University Press, 2015
Award winner
Heather F. Roller
Amazonian Routes: Indigenous Mobility and Colonial Communities in Northern Brazil
Stanford University Press, 2014
Honorable Mention
Rebecca J. Atencio
Memory’s Turn: Reckoning with Dictatorship in Brazil
University of Wisconsin Press, 2014