We are thrilled to announce that Rachel Harris (SOAS) has been awarded the 2022 BFE Book Prize for her 2020 book Soundscapes of Uygur Islam. This book represents a multi-sited ethnography of ‘densely layered, heterophonic and often mediated’ soundscapes with reference to Sufi Muslims who live both within and outside of the highly contested Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of northwest China. Courageous, timely and keenly observed, the author draws history, politics and religion into a richly textured ethnomusicological study about shifting gendered soundscapes of agency, subjectivity, representation and power. The prize panel found this monograph to be "a beautifully written and deeply persuasive book".

A Special Commendation goes to Juan Diego Díaz (UC Davis) for his 2021 book Africanness in Action: Essentialism and Musical Imaginations of Africa in Brazil. The book focuses on ‘tropes of Africanness’ in self-identification and musical expression in the northeastern state of Bahia in Brazil. Many congratulations to Rachel and Juan Diego! To find out more about both authors and their award-winning work, visit the BFE Book Prize page.