Prize awarded for open access book
Camelia Dewan, Department of Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology, has received an American prize for her book Misreading the Bengal Delta. The book has been published with open access. Photo: Mikael Wallerstedt, Uppsala University.
Camelia Dewan, Associate Senior Lecturer at the Department of Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology, has received an American prize for her book Misreading the Bengal Delta. The book is freely available online.
The prize she has won, one of the 2025 ACLS Open Access Book Prizes and Arcadia Open Access Publishing Awards, is awarded by the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) in collaboration with the Arcadia Foundation.
Camelia Dewan has been awarded the prize in the Environmental Humanities category, which is one of the four prize categories. The others are History, Literary Studies and Multimodal.
“At first I was just so surprised, almost shocked. It’s an incredible honour. I wasn’t even aware of the ACLS and then to learn that they are such a distinguished and important institution, and that the competition to win their prizes is really tough – I can certainly say that it almost feels overwhelming,” says Camellia Dewan.
Highlighting open access
The aim of these prizes is to recognize researchers and publishers who publish high-quality, innovative books in the humanities – freely accessible to all.
ACLS President Joy Connolly said in a press release that these books exemplify the promise of open access: top-notch scholarship with global impact that circulates freely; and invite readers worldwide into vital conversations about topics such as climate change, refugee issues and the role of art in society.
A critical take on the climate change debate
In Misreading the Bengal Delta, Camellia Dewan examines how the term ‘climate change’ is sometimes used to justify aid projects that misunderstand the dynamic geography and history of the river’s delta.
Through archival studies, oral accounts and long-term ethnographic fieldwork, she shows how the climate debate can mask colonial era, Eurocentric assumptions.
Why did you publish the book as open access?
“I felt that the most important thing was to make sure that the book would be freely available to the public at no cost. Otherwise, it would have cost the equivalent of a month’s salary in Bangladesh. It is now on the reading list for a number of courses in different disciplines and reaches both first- and second-cycle students. I think this is possible because the book is open access.
She contends that open access publication has made it possible for more people – including aid workers and engineers – to learn from research.
“Publication with open access has resulted in a broader readership that encourages critical reflection on contemporary climate change debates. The historicization of colonial and neo-colonial interventions in Bangladesh questions the prevailing image of the country as a passive ‘climate change victim’,” Camelia Dewan concludes.
Anders Berndt