PULLMAN, Wash. — Washington State University Professor Matthew Guterl, will be honored with the “Best Book” award later this month by the American Political Science Association‘s Organized Section on Race, Ethnicity, and Politics.
His book, “The Color of Race in America, 1900-1940,” was selected from more than 60 books in the area of Historical Perspectives of Race/Ethnicity. The announcement of the award stated the reviewing committee found his work to be “ a compelling study of the construction of race in American history, with important implications for the formation of racial/ethnic politics.”
Guterl said he was most thrilled with the cross disciplinary nature of the recognition. He is an historian being honored by a political science group. His book also crosses boundaries from literary criticism, history, sociology, political science and psychology. “It leads me to believe the writing and historical approach is compelling and let’s me know I’m on the right track,” he said.
The WSU faculty member is on leave from the WSU Department of Comparative American Cultures, participating in a two-year fellowship at the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University, Providence, R.I. He returns in the fall of 2003.
Guterl has recently secured a new book contract, again with Harvard University Press. The book will be a global and comparative history of emancipation in the American south, Caribbean and South America.
He plans to receive his award in person on Aug. 31 at the annual meeting of the APSA in Boston.
The APSA has more than 13,500 members in 70 countries making it the world’s largest professional organization for the study of politics.
