08/31/2026
Congratulations to our very own Mandana Limbert who received the 2026 Jack Goody Award for her article: Homeland is Where the Soul Resides: Travel, Prayer, Passports, and Nation in the Western Indian Ocean. This award honors an article that best represents the mission of the journal, Comparative Studies in Society and History Comparative Studies in Society and History
The panel of judges shared the following praise:
"From its gripping opening on, Mandana Limbert’s article (“Homeland Is Where the Soul Resides: Travel Prayer, Passports, and Nation in the Western Indian Ocean,” Issue 67.2) presents an elegant and sophisticated exploration of political belonging that transcends the scope of classical frameworks of social and political theory. Her discussion of twentieth-century Omani travel and migration explores two rival techniques that shaped colonial-era identity practices and policies, and which still resonate today. One, the travel prayer (ṣalat al-safar), enacts a conceptualization of homeland (waṭan) through the negotiation of religious obligations for Omanis living in Zanzibar, far from the Ibadi Imamate. Limbert thereby recovers a counterintuitive idea of political belonging that is embodied, affective, and spatial without being territorial. The other, the passport, traces the growing emphasis of British colonial policies on constraining the movement of a subject (ra‘iyya) identified by political demarcations of space. Limbert’s narrative is both deep and wide-ranging, drawing on a rich multilingual assemblage that includes a diverse array of sources, from Islamic jurisprudence to colonial immigration decrees to emojis posted by an Oman/Zanzibar Facebook group. Her enlightening comparative analysis offers a deep take on the relevant regional literature while advancing ongoing theoretical debates about territory and sovereignty. Limbert’s accessible comparative approach and deft presentation of a complex regional history make her article a classic example of the kind of scholarship that sets CSSH apart from other journals and an apt tribute to the namesake of the Jack Goody Award."
