Irene H. Chayes New Voices Award

Deadline: March 1, 2026

Applicants should demonstrate the following characteristics:

1. The author's understanding of the barriers that lead to the underrepresentation of women, ethnic and racial minorities, non-gender-conforming individuals, persons with disabilities, persons from low-socio-economic-status backgrounds, and other members of groups historically underrepresented in higher education careers. Evidence of this understanding may be drawn from the author's life experiences and educational background, and should be explained in a short personal statement.
2. The author's capacity to apply their understanding of the conditions of underrepresentation to their research. Applicants should demonstrate this critical perspective by, for example, proposing research topics that pertain in a substantial way to the artistic production or aesthetic experience of underrepresented groups.

Preference is given to applicants who are students, faculty on fixed-term, non-tenure stream contracts, or not in academic employment.

Award recipients will receive $1,000 plus a travel grant to present their work at the Annual Meeting. Paper submissions will be reviewed anonymously with all other papers for the meeting by the ASA program committee, without any information on their request for the New Voices Award or other support. In addition to submitting a paper, persons who wish to be considered should submit a letter to the Chair of the Diversity Committee addressing Items 1 and 2 (above): Hannah Kim (hhkim@arizona.edu) Eligibility for the Irene H. Chayes New Voices Award will be reviewed by the chair of the ASA diversity committee, based on this letter. The final selection will be made jointly by the Chairs of the Program Committee and the Diversity Committee. The submission deadlines for both the paper submission and the essay submission is March 1, 

These awards have been made possible by the generosity of a large bequest from the estate of Irene H. Chayes to the American Society for Aesthetics. Irene Hendry Chayes (1916-2014) received her B.A. and M.A. from New York University and her Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University. She taught literature at the University of Maryland, Hollins College, and SUNY Binghamton.

Irene H. Chayes New Voices Awards: Winners

2025: Juan Carlos Gonzalez, Colorado College
2025: Mary Gregg, Yonsei University - SUNY Korea

2024: Myriam Albor, Independent Scholar
2024: Angela Sun, Washington and Lee University

2023: Alice Harberd, University College London
2023: Zoe Walker, University of Oxford

2022: Claire Anscomb, University of Liverpool
2022: Corbin Covington, Northwestern University

2021: Irene Martínez Marín, Uppsala University
2021: Nicholas Whittaker, CUNY Graduate Center

2020: Christopher Jenkins, Oberlin College
2020: Hannah Kim, Stanford University

2019: Shannon Brick, CUNY Graduate Center
2019: Zoë Cunliffe, CUNY Graduate Center

2018: Emmanuel Ordóñez Angulo, University College, London
2018: Daniel Wilson, University of Auckland