Awards, Prizes & Research Fellowships

Research Fellowships

Dr Michael Willis and Professor Peter Flügel

The James J. Busuttil Medal and Prize for Human Rights

The Medal and Prize are offered by Dr. James J. Busuttil, an activist, author, academic and non-governmental organisation leader in human rights, to promote research and publication on human rights.

Dr. James J. Busuttil FRSA FRAS FRGS FIoD founded the Amnesty International group at Harvard University while a student and later founded the Amnesty group at New York University School of Law. A few years later, he was asked to serve on the Board of Amnesty International USA. He has been on human rights fact-finding missions to Afghanistan, the Soviet Union and Uganda, and has written and published reports on these missions. In addition, Dr. Busuttil has published on international humanitarian law, European human rights, and religion and human rights. He created courses on Information and Communication Technologies for Human Rights; Religion, Human Rights and Social Change; Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; and Human Rights Practicum, among others. Dr. Busuttil was director of a major British human rights charity and a member of the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. He has served on numerous national and international professional committees concerning human rights.

All correspondence about the Medal and Prize should be addressed to Dr. Alison Ohta: ao@royalasiaticsociety.org

The Royal Asiatic Society is delighted to announce the launch of the annual Charles H. Norchi Prize for the publication of a book on Afghanistan in English during the two previous calendar years.

Nominations are invited for books on Afghanistan published during calendar years 2023 and 2024. Submissions must include a paragraph of not more than 500 words detailing why the book should be considered for the Prize, accompanied by a short biography of the author and one letter of support. The value of the annual Prize is £500. Nominations for the Prize will close on January 31st 2025. The nominations will be considered by a panel of judges and the winner will be announced by the end of April 2025. The Prize will be awarded on the recommendation of the judges. No one shall receive the Prize twice for the same publication. The winner of the Prize would normally be expected to present a public lecture at an open meeting of the Society, either in person or remotely, subject to arrangements mutually agreed between the winner and the Society.

This Prize has been offered by Dr. James J. Busuttil to honour the work and distinguished career of his friend and colleague Professor Charles H. Norchi, Benjamin Thompson Professor of Law at the University of Maine, who has spent four decades researching, writing and advising on Afghanistan.

Born in Dublin, Ireland, Dr Charles H. Norchi was among those “Afghan hands” who cut their teeth in the Soviet War of the 1980’s, first as a journalist, then as a human rights lawyer.  He reported on many aspects of Afghan life during armed conflict—refugees, development, humanitarian deprivations, Mujahadeen and the foreign policies of States then shaping the trajectory of Afghanistan. As a human rights advocate, Dr Norchi served as Director of the Independent Counsel on International Human Rights, working with the Committee for a Free Afghanistan and later as Executive Director of the International League for Human Rights.  As a university professor, Afghanistan remained at the centre of his teaching at Yale, Sarah Lawrence, Smith, Harvard and Maine, where he holds the appointment of Benjamin Thompson Professor of Law in the University of Maine School of Law.  His subject areas are International Law, Law of the Sea, Human Rights, International Security, the Arctic and Afghanistan.

In addition to being a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Professor Norchi is co-Chair of the International Institute for Law, Science and Policy (Geneva, Switzerland), Visiting Professor in the Climate Change Institute of the University of Maine and the Institute for the Environment at Brown University, a Fellow of the World Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Fellow of the Explorers Club.  He has served as Visiting Professor at City University of Hong Kong School of Law, Peking University School of Law, Human Rights Fellow at Harvard Law School, Research Fellow in the Center for Public Leadership in the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and Myres S. McDougal Fellow in Yale Law School. He holds an A.B. from Harvard College, a J.D. from Case Western Reserve University School of Law and an LL.M. and a J.S.D. from Yale Law School.

In addition to teaching and writing, Professor Norchi regularly advises international and civil society organisations, governments and law firms while remaining engaged with Afghanistan and her people.

All correspondence to be addressed to Dr. Alison Ohta: ao@royalasiaticsociety.org

Professor Surya P. Subedi

Surya Prasad Subedi OBE KC DCL LLD is an international jurist of Nepali origin. He is Professor of International Law at the University of Leeds, a member of the Institut de Droit International, and a barrister in London. He served as the United Nations special rapporteur for human rights in Cambodia for six years (2009-2015). He also served for five years, starting in 2010, on an advisory group on human rights to the British Foreign Secretary. He has written a number of works on the theory and practice of international law and human rights and acted as a counsel in a number of cases before international courts and tribunals, including the International Court of Justice. He also has published widely on Nepal and especially on international legal aspects of Nepal’s external relations. He was the founder-Chair of the Britain-Nepal Academic Council for 10 years (2000-2010) and Joint Co-Chair of the Britain-Nepal Medical Trust (2012-2019). He obtained a DPhil (PhD) in Law with a prize from the University of Oxford in 1993. He was awarded Oxford’s highest accolade – the degree of Doctor of Civil Law – in 2019 and the degree of Doctor of Laws honoris causa by the University of Hull in 2020. He was appointed a Queen’s Counsel (Hon) in 2017 in recognition of his contribution to international law and human rights. He has received high-level state honours from the monarchs of the UK and Nepal. He was made an OBE in 2004 by Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of the UK; and was decorated with the Suprabal Gorkhadaxinbahu by His late Majesty King Birendra of Nepal in 1998. He also was awarded another high-level state honour – the Prasiddha Prabal Janasewa Shree – by the President of Nepal on the occasion of the National Day of Nepal in 2022.

The Professor Mary Boyce Prize for an Article relating to the study of religion in Asia:

The Royal Asiatic Society will again be awarding the Boyce prize for articles relating to the study of religion in Asia.  Award winning submissions will receive £250 and be published in the Society’s peer-reviewed Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society which, since 1834, has provided a forum for scholarly articles of the highest quality on South Asia, the Middle East (together with North Africa and Ethiopia), Central Asia, East Asia and South-East Asia.  The focus of the prize is any religion, anywhere in Asia and at any time, and the Society’s main aim is to encourage the submission of pieces of  original, unpublished research that make innovative contributions to understanding, learning and scholarship.

David’s impact on learning and thought went further than just publishing. He nurtured a sense of enquiry and constructive critical thought in so many from undergraduates through to early career colleagues. Professor Peter Frankopan has generously offered this prize to be used to provide a small annual award to the author of a Journal article published during a calendar year. Authors will be asked to indicate whether they are eligible for the prize when they submit their article to the Journal. Entry will be confined to those who have completed their PhDs within the last 10 years to reflect David’s commitment to education and to the encouragement of younger scholars. 

Scholars are invited to submit papers for the New Barwis-Holliday Award. Submissions should be new unpublished research on any of the following subjects; anthropology, art, history, literature or religion of any part of East Asia. East Asia is defined as being Japan, China, Korea and the eastern-most regions of the former Soviet Union. The winning article will be published in the Journal, as will all short-listed entries. The author of the winning entry will also receive a £250 cash prize.

No rigid limit is imposed on the length of a submission, although 6,000 words is deemed to be a comfortable length. Papers should be emailed in word.doc form accompanied by a pdf and clearly marked as a Barwis-Holliday.

Submission to info@royalasiaticsociety.org 

The Royal Asiatic Society Award

This award is made every three years, in recognition of outstanding contribution to scholarship in the field of Asian Studies. It has replaced the RAS Gold Medal which was last awarded in 1990. The first recipient of the award was John Gullick in 2001, a noted scholar of the Malay world. Other recipients include Professor Edmund Bosworth in 2003, Professor Christopher Shackle in 2006, Professor Sir Christopher Bayly in 2009, and Dr Bridget Allchin and Professor David Bivar in 2014.

The Sir Richard Burton Medal

Sir Richard Burton was one of the Society’s most famous and adventurous members. The award was established in 1923, in conjunction with the Richard Burton Memorial Lecture Programme, which was set up a few years before to mark the 100th anniversary of Burton’s birth. The person who receives the award is also expected to deliver the lecture, on Burton, his travels, or some related topic. Well-known scholars and travellers who have received the award include Freya Stark (1934) and Wilfred Thesiger (1966). It was awarded to Simon Digby in 1999, Professor David Snellgrove in 2004, Ralph Pinder Wilson in 2009 and Professor Caroline Humphrey in 2014.

The Denis Sinor Medal

This award was inaugurated in 1993 by Professor Denis Sinor, specifically to honour scholars in the field of Inner Asian Studies. It was awarded in 2001 to Academician Sh. Bira for his outstanding work on Mongolia and Inner Asian historiography. Previous recipients were Professor Sir Harold Bailey in 1993 and Professor Karl Jettmar in 1998. It was awarded in 2007 to Dr Igor de Rachewiltz and Professor Nicholas Sims Williams in 2015.