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 Charles Debenedetti Memorial Prize
Best Article published in Peace History in 2023-2024
Awarded November 2025
The Peace History Society awards the DeBenedetti Prize in Peace History bi-annually for an English language journal article, book chapter, or book introduction on peace history.
The winner for 2023-2024 is Sara L. Kimble, “The Genocide Convention is ‘Our Cause’: International Women’s Advocacy for the Criminalization of Genocide, 1945–1952,” Holocaust and Genocide Studies 38, no. 3 (2024): 323-339.
Sara Kimble’s article “The Genocide Convention is ‘Our Cause’: International Women’s Advocacy for the Criminalization of Genocide, 1945–1952,” brings to light the often overlooked role women’s organizations played in the establishment of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Refusing to remain victims or be victimized by the circumstance of their gender, Kimble’s thoroughly researched discussion outlines how women’s wartime activism and their intimate knowledge of Nazi atrocities, specifically those related to women, shaped their discussions, views, and critiques of the Convention and its failure to address sexual violence and the political repression of vulnerable groups globally. Through her gendered approach, Kimble is able to fill in the silences and blank spaces within genocide scholarship to delve into how women’s idealism contrasted with the seemingly pragmatic approach of male lawyers and politicians in the immediate postwar era. Despite their optimism and faith in the “moralizing power of law” these groups, Kimble nuances, were unable to overcome the fraught political tensions of the Cold War era to remain united in their cause. Her article provides the foundation for further research into the complex, hidden histories of women’s work in the creation, propagation, and adherence to the UN’s Genocide Convention and their protection of inalienable human rights.
 Honorable Mention: Elizabeth Son, “‘Stitching Korea Back Together’: Jogakbo Aesthetics of Care in Peace Advocacy,” Theatre Journal 76, no. 4 (2024): 525-548.
Prize Committee: Lauren Jannette (Chair), Harvey Strum, Sakiko Kaiga, Ronald Musto
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