Vicki L. Ruiz Award

The Vicki L. Ruiz Award is a $500 prize that recognizes the best article on race in the North American West. The award was established in 2018 by the Committee on Race in the American West (CRAW) to honor Dr. Vicki L. Ruiz's significant contributions to the field of Western History. The award was funded by the Western History Association membership along with a generous contribution from the Latinx Studies Program and the Department of History at Penn State University. The award is open to any peer-reviewed article published in the previous year that focuses on race in the North American West. Any WHA member, publisher, or author may nominate work, though book chapters are not eligible. The award recognizes excellence in scholarship that addresses racial issues, dynamics, and experiences in the Western United States and North America. Nominations are submitted electronically to the award committee and must include a brief cover page with author contact information, the journal's cover and copyright page, table of contents, and the complete article as a single PDF file. The Western History Association office notifies selected recipients at the end of August each year. This award continues Dr. Ruiz's legacy of advancing scholarship on race, ethnicity, and marginalized communities in Western American history.