The Claudia Jones Award
The Claudia Jones Award
“A People’s Art is the Genesis of Their Freedom.”
- Claudia Jones, West Indian Gazette (1959)
The Claudia Jones Award is for best paper by a graduate student presented at the previous year’s meeting of the Caribbean Philosophical Association International Conference. Information on past awardees can be found below.
The Claudia Jones Award for Best Paper presented by a Graduate Student - CPA 2024 Annual Award
“Aimé Césaire’s ‘Tropical Marxism’ and the Problem of Alienation” by Arwa Awan
Arwa Awan is a PhD candidate in Political Science at the University of Chicago. Her research interests are in the history of political thought, with a focus on French, Iranian, and Caribbean anti-colonial thought, as well as in Marxist social theory, race, and political economy. Her dissertation project examines receptions of Marx and Marxism in twentieth century anti-colonial thought by bringing to light a distinct approach to anticolonial critique that adopted alienation as its central idiom. Arwa is currently a residential fellow at the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture at UChicago.
According to a member of the Awards Committee:
This paper offered a very nuanced account of Césaire's political thought, situating it in relation to a variety of other Marxist figures of the Global South in the mid-20th century. In particular, this paper focused on discussing Césaire's efforts to theorize and deploy a Marxism attuned to the specificities of the Caribbean context and antiblack racism. Awan's argument was a fitting contribution to the project of shifting the geography of socialist reasoning. Awan contends that Césaire's critical comments on Marxism and relation to the French Communist Party have often led to Césaire being understood as noncommittally socialist or even anti-Marxist. A consequence of this is that Césaire's contributions to poetry and literary theory often crowd out genuine discussion of their relation to not only Césaire's own political career but also his contributions to political thought and questions of decolonization beyond the aesthetic. Considering Awan's contribution in relation to the theoretical vernacular current in the CPA, what this paper demonstrates is that Césaire both participated in the project of creolizing Marxism as well as making significant theoretical statements on why thinkers of the Global South ought to be involved in creolizing Marxism, as opposed to embracing it in a spirit of orthodoxy on the one hand or throwing the baby out with the bathwater on the other hand. Moreover, Awan's paper was paired with a paper focusing on more literary aspects of Césaire's work. This pairing produced one of the conference's strongest and most memorable panels, offering a wide perspective on Césaire; Awan's contribution . . . brought a context and depth to the discussion of Césaire in this context that otherwise would be lacking. In short, this was a strong paper that made for a memorable panel and which touched on an array of intellectual currents and topics that are both central to and distinctive of the Caribbean Philosophical Association.
President Martinez adds:
This remarkable work by Arwa Awan deepens our understanding of the relevance of Césaire both within political thought and to the ongoing project of the CPA to shift the geography of reason. An exemplar of cutting-edge theoretical work, Awan is positioned to help lead the way through the coming generation of scholars.
The Caribbean Philosophical Association’s assessment of Awan’s paper was shared by others. It is now available online in the peer-reviewed journal Political Theory.
The Claudia Jones Award Previous Recipients
2023
Margaret Goldman, University of California, Irvine, for “Care Beyond the Carceral Education State”.
Work presented at the CPA 21st annual conference online, June 2022.
2016
Li Beilei, Zhejiang University, for “The Big World in ‘Small Places’: James W. Johnson’s Interpretation and Participation in the Reconstruction of African American Folk Culture”.
Work presented at the CPA 13th annual conference in Storrs, Connecticut, June 2016.
2015
Matthew McIlhenny, Independent Scholar, for “Accounting for Information in Data Value Chains and Regaining Finance Trust through Decentralized ledgers”.
Work presented at the CPA 12th annual conference in Riviera Maya, Quintana Roo, Mexico, June 2015.
2014
Kojo Koram, "Can the Subaltern Teach? Towards a New Geo-epistemic for the European Age of Crisis”.
Work presented at the CPA 11th annual conference in St. Louis, Missouri, June 2014.