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Joseph Sciorra's Built with Faith wins IASA 2016 Book Award

IASA  is pleased to present its  2016 Book Award to Joseph Sciorra for Built with Faith: Italian American Imagination and Catholic Material Culture in New York City (University of Tennessee Press,  2015). The committee recognizes the fine production of this volume and the author's more than three decade devotion to his topic. Sciorra looks at "how value and meaning are reproduced at the confluences of everyday life" and how artifacts of modern day New York City "make the sacred present in everyday urban spaces." Shrines, altars, creches, decorated houses, and processions are examined through thick description and rich interpretation in Sciorra's Built with Faith. The Award will be presented at IASA's 2016 Conference in Long Beach, California. Next year's winner will be announced in September, 2017.

The award committee members thank all the scholars and presses that submitted books for the Italian American Studies Book Award and we encourage the authors and presses to continue their work in this field.


 September 14, 2016