The purpose of the ASM Samuel Escobar Book Award is to encourage ASM members who are from the Global South or who are North American persons of color in the publication of their first book, by providing an official award of $500 to the author and a publishing subvention of up to $4,000 to be given directly to the publishing house of the book that receives the award. A publisher does not need to be secured to be eligible for this award.
The ASM is offering this award to promote racial and ethnic diversity in the field of missiology and out of a recognition that publishing houses increasingly face financial difficulties in publishing academic missiological titles. The $4,000 subvention is thus intended to encourage publishing houses to publish a missiological text of the highest caliber at a reasonable price.
This award is named after Professor Samuel Escobar who served as the first president (2001-2002) of the American Society of Missiology who was from the Global South. Originally from Peru, Professor Escobar’s early ministry was as a traveling secretary and evangelist for the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students in Peru, Argentina, Brazil, and Spain. In the Lausanne movement, he played a leading role in affirming the importance of holistic mission and was a founding member of the Latin American Theological Fraternity. From 1985 to 2005, Professor Escobar was a beloved teacher and prolific author at Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now Palmer Theological Seminary of Eastern University) near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His publications encompass more than twenty books in Spanish and English, including Tiempo de misión (Semilla 1999), Changing Tides: Mission in Latin America (Orbis Books, 2002), The New Global Mission (Intervarsity Press, 2003), En busca de Cristo en America Latina (Kairos, 2012), and In Search of Christ in Latin America (Intervarsity Press, 2019).
How to apply: To apply for this award, one needs to be either a person of color from North America or be a resident in the Global South. Eligible persons must also be a member of the American Society of Missiology. (It is acceptable for persons to become a member during the same year that they are applying for this award.) The manuscript submitted for this award must be a scholar’s “first book” beyond a doctoral-level dissertation. The ASM already has a publication outlet for dissertations in our Scholarly Monographs Series.
It is the author’s responsibility to secure a publisher of their work. Under no circumstances will the subvention be awarded to the author of the manuscript for the purposes of self-publishing.
The recipient(s) of the Samuel Escobar Book Award, as part of their acceptance of the award, will agree to acknowledge that they were the recipient of the “American Society of Missiology Samuel Escobar Book Award” in their book.
To apply for this award, eligible persons may send an electronic copy of the completed manuscript to the following email: [email protected] by February 1. The recipient of this award will be notified prior to the ASM’s Annual Conference in June. It is requested but not required that recipients of this award be present at our annual conference.