The Doyce B. Nunis, Jr. Award ($500) honors the best demonstration of significant scholarship in the Southern California Quarterly by a rising historian.
Doyce Nunis wrote and edited more than forty books and seventy articles, specializing in the history of the American West and California. He began his relationship with the HSSC in 1962, editing the Southern California Quarterly for forty-three years. Born in Georgia, Nunis served in the Navy before graduating with a bachelor’s degree from UCLA in 1947. He then earned a master’s degree in education in 1952 and a doctorate in history in 1958, both from USC. After receiving tenure at El Camino College, Nunis began at UCLA as an Assistant Professor of Education and History before achieving the rank of Associate Professor. Dr. Nunis joined the faculty of USC as an Associate Professor in 1965, and was a Full Professor from 1968 until his retirement in 1989. Professor Nunis was the recipient of USC’s Award for Teaching Excellence, the Rubenheimer Distinguished Faculty Award, Mortar Board’s Outstanding Professor Award as well as the USC Distinguished Emeriti Award. In 1984, Nunis received the Benemerenti Medal from Pope John Paul II in “recognition of his importance in terms of Californian history and the history of the Catholic Church in California.” He was a Knight of St. Gregory and a Guggenheim Fellow in 1964. In an interview, Nunis said, “I have found historical research to be an unending chain of questions with one link drawing you on to the next. It is a grand pursuit.”
The award is selected by the editorial board. There is no application or nomination process. From 2018, the award will be given in odd numbered years.
Award Recipients
2021
Michael Aguirre, “Identities, Quandaries, and Emotions: Labor in the Imperial-Mexicali Borderlands, Southern California Quarterly 102, no. 3 (Fall 2020 issue): 222-249.
Honorable Mention: Jan-Eric Hansen, “Water Infrastructure and Practical Knowledge in Progressive-Era Los Angeles,” Southern California Quarterly 102, no. 4 (Winter 2020 issue): 385-419.
2019
Elsa Devienne, “The Life, Death, and Rebirth of Muscle Beach: Reassessing the Muscular Physique in Postwar America, 1940s-1980s,” Southern California Quarterly 100, no. 3 (Fall 2018): 324-367.
Honorable Mention: David J. Neumann, “A Respectable Militancy: Reverend J. Raymond Henderson and the Civil Rights Struggle in Los Angeles, 1941-1963,” Southern California Quarterly 100, no.4 (Winter 2018): 471-504.
2017
Benjamin Cawthra, “Duke Ellington’s Jump for Joy and the Fight for Equality in Wartime Los Angeles,” Southern California Quarterly 98:1 (Spring 2016): 5-58.
2016
Kathleen A. Brown, “Persistent Pacificism, Southern California Women, and the People’s Council of America, 1917-1918,” Southern California Quarterly 97, no. 3 (Winter 2015): 362-398.
2015
James Tejani for “Dredging the Future: The Destruction of Coastal Estuaries and the Creation of Metropolitan Los Angeles, 1858-1908,” Southern California Quarterly 96, 1 (2014): 5-39.
2013
Hillary Jenks, “Bronzeville, Little Tokyo, and the Unstable Geography of Race in Post-World War II Los Angeles,” Southern California Quarterly 93, no. 2 (2011): .
2011
Kelly J. Sisson Lessens, “Bound for California: Chilean Contract Laborers and Patrons in the California Gold Rush,” Southern California Quarterly 90, no. 3 (2008): .
2006
Mary A. Van Balgooy, “Designer of the Dream: Cliff May and the California Ranch House,” Southern California Quarterly 86, no. 2 (2004):
2004
Kenneth C. Burt, “The Power of a Mobilized Citizenry and Coalition Politics: The 1949 Election of Edward R. Roybal to the Los Angeles City Council,” Southern California Quarterly 85, no. 4 (2003): .
2003
Clark Davis, “An Era of Civic Engagement: The Friday Morning Club,” Southern California Quarterly 84, no. 2 (2002): .
2001
Edward A. Byerly, “The Politics of Topographic Mapping: J.D. Whitney, C.F. Hoffman, and the California State Geographical Survey, 1860-1874,” Southern California Quarterly 82, no. 4 (2001): .
2000
Joshua Alper, “The Cahuenga Pass Treasure,” Southern California Quarterly 81, no. 1 (1999): .
1999
Robert Phelps, “‘The Manufacturing Suburb of Los Angeles’: Henry Huntington, Alfred Dolge, and the Building of Dolgeville, California, 1903-1910,” Southern California Quarterly 80, no. 2 (1998): .
1998
Blake Gumprecht, “51 Miles of Concrete: The Exploitation and Transformation of the Los Angeles River,” Southern California Quarterly 79, no. 4 (1997):
1997
Jared Orsi, “Restoring the Common to the Goose: Citizen Activism and the Protection of the California Coastline, 1969-1982,” Southern California Quarterly 78, no. 3 (1996): .
