{"id":23267,"date":"2025-09-28T21:59:22","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T20:59:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/royalasiaticsociety.org\/?page_id=23267"},"modified":"2026-03-03T23:12:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T23:12:32","slug":"charles-norchi-prize","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/royalasiaticsociety.org\/charles-norchi-prize\/","title":{"rendered":"The Charles H. Norchi Prize"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Charles H. Norchi Prize<\/h2>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2\/3″ css=”.vc_custom_1759181596495{padding-right: 50px !important;}”][vc_column_text css=””]<\/p>\n

The Award<\/h4>\n

The Charles H. Norchi Prize is awarded for the publication of a book on Afghanistan in English during the two previous calendar years. The award winner will be presented with a prize of \u00a3500.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Nominations have now closed<\/h4>\n

The nominations will be considered by a panel of judges and the winner will be announced by the end of April 2026. The Prize will be awarded on the recommendation of the judges. No one shall receive the Prize twice for the same publication. The winner of the Prize would normally be expected to present a public lecture at an open meeting of the Society, either in person or remotely, subject to arrangements mutually agreed between the winner and the Society.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Submissions<\/h4>\n

Submissions must include a paragraph of not more than 500 words detailing why the book should be considered for the Prize, accompanied by a short biography of the author and one letter of support. All submissions and correspondence about the Prize should be addressed to Dr Alison Ohta via email: ao@royalasiaticsociety.org<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

About the Prize<\/h4>\n

This Prize was instigated in 2024, and has been offered by Dr James J. Busuttil to honour the work and distinguished career of his friend and colleague Professor Charles H. Norchi, Benjamin Thompson Professor of Law at the University of Maine, who has spent four decades researching, writing and advising on Afghanistan.[\/vc_column_text][vc_tta_accordion active_section=”0″ collapsible_all=”true”][vc_tta_section title=”About Professor Charles H. Norchi” tab_id=”1759093883545-aacfa703-2a40″][vc_column_text css=””]<\/p>\n

\"\"
Professor Charles H. Norchi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Born in Dublin, Ireland, Dr Charles H. Norchi was among those \u201cAfghan hands\u201d who cut their teeth in the Soviet War of the 1980\u2019s, first as a journalist, then as a human rights lawyer. He reported on many aspects of Afghan life during armed conflict\u2014refugees, development, humanitarian deprivations, Mujahadeen and the foreign policies of States then shaping the trajectory of Afghanistan. As a human rights advocate, Dr Norchi served as Director of the Independent Counsel on International Human Rights, working with the Committee for a Free Afghanistan and later as Executive Director of the International League for Human Rights. As a university professor, Afghanistan remained at the centre of his teaching at Yale, Sarah Lawrence, Smith, Harvard and Maine, where he holds the appointment of Benjamin Thompson Professor of Law in the University of Maine School of Law. His subject areas are International Law, Law of the Sea, Human Rights, International Security, the Arctic and Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

In addition to being a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Professor Norchi is co-Chair of the International Institute for Law, Science and Policy (Geneva, Switzerland), Visiting Professor in the Climate Change Institute of the University of Maine and the Institute for the Environment at Brown University, a Fellow of the World Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Fellow of the Explorers Club.\u00a0 He has served as Visiting Professor at City University of Hong Kong School of Law, Peking University School of Law, Human Rights Fellow at Harvard Law School, Research Fellow in the Center for Public Leadership in the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and Myres S. McDougal Fellow in Yale Law School. He holds an A.B. from Harvard College, a J.D. from Case Western Reserve University School of Law and an LL.M. and a J.S.D. from Yale Law School.<\/p>\n

In addition to teaching and writing, Professor Norchi regularly advises international and civil society organisations, governments and law firms while remaining engaged with Afghanistan and her people.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][\/vc_tta_accordion][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/3″ css=”.vc_custom_1759094634978{padding-right: 30px !important;padding-left: 30px !important;background-color: #FFFFFF !important;}”][vc_column_text css=””]<\/p>\n

2025 Winner<\/h3>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”23272″ img_size=”180×180″ alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_circle” css=””][vc_column_text css=””]<\/p>\n

Dr Annika Schmeding<\/strong><\/p>\n

for her book
\n<\/strong>Sufi Civilities: Religious Authority and Political Change in Afghanistan<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_btn title=”More about the prize ceremony and lecture” style=”outline-custom” shape=”round” align=”center” css=”” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Froyalasiaticsociety.org%2Fcharles-h-norchi-prize-ceremony%2F”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text css=””] The Charles H. Norchi Prize [\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2\/3″ css=”.vc_custom_1759181596495{padding-right: 50px !important;}”][vc_column_text css=””] The Award The Charles H. Norchi Prize is awarded for the publication of a book on Afghanistan in English during the two previous calendar years. The award winner will be presented with a prize of \u00a3500.   Nominations have now closed The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7635,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":"","_tec_slr_enabled":"","_tec_slr_layout":""},"class_list":["post-23267","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"ticketed":false,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/royalasiaticsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/royalasiaticsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/royalasiaticsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/royalasiaticsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7635"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/royalasiaticsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23267"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/royalasiaticsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24668,"href":"https:\/\/royalasiaticsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23267\/revisions\/24668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/royalasiaticsociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}