The 2026 AMSEAS
Early Career Book Prize
The Association of Mainland Southeast Asian Scholars offers a prize for the best first book on a Mainland Southeast Asian Studies topic by a scholar specialising in the area. The winner of the prize receives $500.
The judging panel for the 2026 Early Career Book Prize was Sophal Ear, Paul Chambers, and Jiraporn (Nui) Surachartkumtonkun. AMSEAS is deeply grateful for the thoughtful and insightful deliberation of the judges and for the time taken to review the books. The judges agreed that this was an exceptionally strong field of books, commenting that: "Together they represent an exceptionally strong field and reflect the remarkable breadth, vitality, and intellectual richness of contemporary scholarship on Mainland Southeast Asia. The committee was deeply impressed by the quality of every submission, and selecting a winner was both a privilege and a challenge."
The Association of Mainland Southeast Asian Scholars is pleased to award the 2026 AMSEAS Early Career Book Prize to Theara Thun for Epistemology of the Past: Texts, History, and Intellectuals of Cambodia, 1855–1970 (University of Hawai‘i Press, 2024).
In this original and intellectually ambitious work, Thun offers a major contribution to Cambodian studies, Southeast Asian intellectual history, and the study of historiography. Drawing upon an impressive body of Khmer chronicle manuscripts, colonial-era texts, and archival sources, the book examines how historical knowledge was produced, transmitted, contested, and transformed across the late precolonial, colonial, and early postcolonial periods.
Rather than treating chronicles merely as sources of historical information, Thun places them at the centre of inquiry, illuminating changing understandings of historical authority, textual interpretation, and knowledge production. In doing so, he demonstrates how Cambodian intellectuals engaged with, adapted, and reshaped competing traditions of historical thought under conditions of profound political and cultural change.
The committee was particularly impressed by the book’s combination of archival rigor, conceptual sophistication, and broad scholarly significance. Epistemology of the Past advances new perspectives on the relationship between colonialism, intellectual life, and historical consciousness while opening important avenues for future research across Mainland Southeast Asian Studies. It stands as an exemplary first monograph and a significant contribution to the field.
Runner-Up Citation
The Association of Mainland Southeast Asian Scholars recognizes Neil Loughlin’s The Politics of Coercion: State and Regime Making in Cambodia (Cornell University Press, 2024) as Runner-Up for the 2026 AMSEAS Early Career Book Prize.
Drawing upon extensive field research, original documentation, and a sophisticated theoretical framework, Loughlin provides a compelling reinterpretation of state formation and regime durability in contemporary Cambodia. By placing coercion at the centre of political analysis, the book challenges conventional accounts of governance and authoritarianism while offering important insights into the development of modern political order.
The committee commends the book’s empirical depth, analytical clarity, and contribution to broader debates on authoritarian politics, state power, and regime consolidation. The Politics of Coercion represents an outstanding first book that will be of lasting value to scholars of Cambodia, Southeast Asia, and comparative politics
AMSEAS congratulations all of the entries!
Criteria:
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The author must be a member of AMSEAS
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The book must be a monograph and deal primarily with a country or countries of Mainland Southeast Asia
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The book must be the scholar’s first
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The book must be sole-authored
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The book must have been published within two years of the awarding of the prize (2024-2025)
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The prize was awarded at the Biennial Conference of the Asian Studies Association of Australia in Geelong, 29 June - 2 July 2026
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Nominations must be received by 1st April 2026.