MIT Anthropologist Wins the Levitan Prize in the Humanities

Erica Caple James, associate professor of anthropology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has received the James A. and Ruth Levitan Prize in the Humanties. The prize comes with a $25,000 cash award to support research in the humanities.

A medical and psychiatric anthropologist, Dr. James’ research focuses on human rights, humanitarianism, and post-conflict transition processes. Her first book, Democratic Insecurities: Violence, Trauma, and Intervention in Haiti (University of California Press, 2010) examined how humanitarian organizations helped the recovery of victims who had been tortured.  She is currently finishing work on her second book, Charity, Security, and Disparities: Haitain Quests for Asylum.

Dr. James will use the cash award to finance research for her third book, Governing Gifts: Law, Risk, and the “War on Terror.”

Professor James is a graduate of Princeton University. She holds two master’s degrees and a Ph.D. in social anthropology from Harvard University.