We are pleased to announce the winner of the 2025 Dorothy Ross Prize for the best article in U.S. intellectual history: Calvin Cheung-Miaw for his outstanding article “The Fate of ‘Shared Interests among People of Color:’ Asian American Intellectuals and Access to Education in the Post-Bakke Era,” Journal of American History, Vol. 111, No. 1 (June 2024), 91–114. This award goes to an emerging scholar, defined as a current graduate student or a scholar within five years of receiving the PhD. The article must have appeared in an academic journal in the 2023 calendar year and may be submitted by the author, editor, or others. The winner receives $500. In addition, and Honorable Mention is awarded to Whitney McIntosh, “F. A. Hayek, Libertarianism, and the Denationalization of Money,” Modern American History, (2024), 7:383-402. We are grateful to our committee (Kathryn C. Brownell, Daniel Hummel, Glory M. Liu) for their diligent work.
The committee writes: “The 2025 Ross Prize Selection Committee is honored to announce this year’s winner: Calvin Cheung-Miaw for his outstanding article “The Fate of ‘Shared Interests among People of Color:’ Asian American Intellectuals and Access to Education in the Post-Bakke Era,” Journal of American History, Vol. 111, No. 1 (June 2024), 91–114.
This exceptional work makes an original and significant contribution to U.S. intellectual history, offering fresh insights into the complex dynamics of Asian American intellectual discourse following the landmark Bakke decision in 1978. Through two compelling historical episodes—the controversy over University of California, Berkeley admissions criteria in the 1980s and a 1994 challenge to desegregation policies in the San Francisco Unified School District—Cheung-Miaw reveals how conflicting “color lines” among racial minorities were understood, developed, and deployed by Asian American writers and thinkers. This cultural work centered on educational institutions and policies, which served as pivotal sites of racial negotiation for Asian Americans in the late 20th century. As Cheung-Miaw explains, these episodes and spaces show how “Asian Americans came to be understood as possessing a group interest that diverged from those of other communities of color, not just by conservatives but also by Asian American intellectuals who were committed to multiracial solidarity and who rejected the model minority stereotype.”
The article demonstrates both rigorous research methodology and compelling narrative craft, presenting complex historical material with clarity and precision. The selection committee was particularly impressed by Cheung-Miaw’s meticulous use of archival sources and his skillful reconstruction of previously underexplored intellectual networks. This approach provides rich, textured historical context that advances historians’ understanding of the recent past while cultivating fertile ground for future scholarship. Beyond its scholarly merits, this work addresses contemporary challenges about race and education, making it both historically grounded and strikingly relevant to current debates.”
Of McIntosh’s work, the committee writes: “This deeply researched paper brought to life the ideas of F.A. Hayek around the concept of denationalizing money, or what Hayek called, “Free Money” that operated outside state control or regulation. With a lively narrative and fascinating archival material, the paper makes a significant contribution to U.S. intellectual history by excavating how Hayak’s radical ideas about abolishing monetary politics slowly gained acceptance in conservative circles through libertarian writings, speeches, and conferences. The committee was particularly impressed with the depth of the archival research that showed these networks undergirding the intellectual culture of the American libertarian movement, and how that shaped the broader trajectory of the American Right. Lucid in its analysis and engaging in its prose, the paper demonstrates how theorizing about money raised questions about the nature of political power itself, ultimately expanding anxieties around state power.”
