The Early Slavic Studies Association, “a scholarly, non-profit organization dedicated to fostering closer worldwide communication among scholars interested in pre-eighteenth century Slavic studies” and “promoting the dissemination of scholarly information on early Slavic studies through the organization of meetings and conferences and through the Association’s newsletter,” held its annual meeting at the ASEEES conference in New Orleans today. Michael A. Pesenson (University of Texas at Austin), representing the ESSA Book Prize committee in the absence of the committee’s other two members, George Majeska (Emeritus, University of Maryland) and Julia Verkholantseva (University of Pennsylvania), announced the winners of this year’s ESSA Book Prize.

The Book Prize Committee found it difficult to choose only one winner and one honorable mention, so they awarded two first-place prizes and two honorable mentions.

First place honors went to:

David B. Miller, Saint Sergius of Radonezh, His Trinity Monastery, and the Formation of the Russian Identity (Northern Illinois University Press, 2010)

Image of the book cover for David Miller's "St. Sergius of Radonezh, His Trinity Monastery and the Formation of the Russian Identity." The Cover shows the onion domes of the monastery against a blue sky.

and Jan Klápště, The Czech Lands in Medieval Transformation: East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450-1450 (Brill, 2011)

Image of the front cover of "Czech Lands in Medieval Transformation": spring green cover with title and author in white letters in the upper third of the cover, and an image of possibly a manuscript painting of a man entering a monastery in the lower two-thirds of the front cover. The subtitles are in white letters, written horizontally to the left and to the right of the centered title, author and image.

ESSA 1st Place 2012

 

The honorable mentions are:

Isaiah Gruber, Orthodox Russia in Crisis: Church and Nation in the Time of Troubles (Northern Illinois University Press, 2012)

Image of the front cover of Isaiah Gruber's book

ESSA Honorable Mention 2012

 

and Michael Ostling, Between the Devil and the Host: Imagining Witchcraft in Early Modern Poland, Past & Present Book Series (Oxford University Press, 2012)

Image of the front cover of Michael Ostling's book

ESSA Honorable Mention 2012