The Scott Award

Award History

This award was established in honour of Robert Balgarnie Young Scott, one of Canada’s most renowned Old Testament Scholars. In 1951, Scott purchased several fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls for McGill University, which were eventually retained in Israel. His own antiquities is housed in the Redpath Museum at McGiill University as the R. B. Y. Scott Collection. Scott was a founding member of CSBS, served as the Secretary-Treasurer for its first seven years, and was named President of the Society in 1971.

Value

The award of $500 is announced each year at the CSBS Annual General Meeting.

Criteria

This award recognizes an outstanding book in the areas of Hebrew Bible and/or the Ancient Near East written in English or French by a member of the CSBS and published in the current and previous two years (currently those with a copyright date of 2024, 2023, 2022). Collections of essays, whether by a single author or by multiple authors, are not eligible for the award.

The category of “outstanding” ought to be understood expansively and may be characterized by persuasiveness and originality, theoretical or methodological innovation, intellectual creativity, and/or the high quality of scholarship that reaches beyond the academic guild and is public-facing. As of 2023, a lifetime maximum of two CSBS Book Awards can be given to any one scholar. When equally competitive books are considered, preference should be given to authors who have not previously won this award.

Selection Process

The three-person Adjudication Committee is appointed from among members of CSBS with a publishing record in at least one of the areas covered by the award.

Nominations

Nominators must be CSBS members. Self-nominations are acceptable. Nominations are made in the member login area of the CSBS website. The nomination deadline is January 15, 2024. Authors of all nominated books will be notified February, while only the award winner will be notified by late April or early May. Books can only be nominated for one of the two CSBS book awards.

Previous Winners