Camelia Dewan Wins Prestigious Open Access Book Prize for Misreading the Bengal Delta
Camelia Dewan’s Misreading the Bengal Delta: Climate Change, Development, and Livelihoods in Coastal Bangladesh has won the 2025 ACLS Open Access Book Prize and the Arcadia Open Access Publishing Award in the Environmental Humanities category.
Camelia Dewan
The book challenges dominant narratives portraying Bangladesh as a climate change victim, revealing how development projects often recycle colonial-era interventions with harmful environmental consequences. Dewan argues that such misreadings risk deepening climate threats and social inequalities.
“I wrote the book to provide space for my Bangladeshi colleagues
concerns about the future of the environment, and make
it accessible to development professionals and students.”
- Camelia Dewan
Awarded one of the largest prizes for scholarly books, Dewan will receive $20,000, and the prize will be presented at the New York Public Library on October 22, 2025. The open access edition is available through University of Washington Press.
Warmest congratulations from all of us at Camelia’s department—we’re incredibly proud of this well-deserved recognition!