Professor Alka Menon was a Finalist for 4S’s Ludwik Fleck Prize for her book “Refashioning Race”

Faculty Awards and Recognition
May 29, 2024

Alka Menon was a Finalist for the 2024 Ludwik Fleck Prize, awarded annually by the Society for the Social Studies of Science (4S) for an outstanding book in the area of the science and technology studies. The Fleck Prize Committee had this to say about Menon’s book, Refashioning Race: How Global Cosmetic Surgery Crafts New Beauty Standards: “This book beautifully charts questions around ideas of race transnationally. It moves from scientific publications to practitioner meetings and conferences, and to the sites of surgeries seamlessly. It is a fascinating book, multiple layers of analysis, from medical science to medical clinical practice; in the US and Malaysia; and from racial performance to embodiment. Ultimately, race emerges as a conversation between bodies, their ‘natural’ character, notions of beauty, and the limits of what is practical and ethical, while each of these aspects is a negotiated and on-the-move.” Refashioning Race was published by the University of California Press in 2023.