Columbia University Press Announces the Winner of the Fourth Annual Columbia University Press Distinguished Book Award

Pictured at the 2018 Columbia University Press Distinguished Book Award ceremony (from left to right): Jennifer Crewe, Associate Provost and Director Columbia University Press; Neil Krishan Aggarwal, Winner 2018 Columbia University Press Distinguished Book Award; Jane Gaines, Chair Faculty Publication Committee and Co-Chair Distinguished Book Award Jury; John Coatsworth, Provost, Columbia University.

Columbia University Press, in conjunction with the Office of the Provost of Columbia University, is pleased to announce that Mental Health in the War on Terror by Neil Krishan Aggarwal is the winner of the fourth annual Columbia University Press Distinguished Book Award.

Neil Krishan Aggarwal, MD, is assistant professor of clinical psychiatry in the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University and a research psychiatrist at the New York State Psychiatric Institute.

The Columbia University Press Distinguished Book Award is given to the Columbia University faculty member with a book published by the Press in the two years prior that brings the highest distinction to Columbia University and Columbia University Press for its outstanding contribution to academic and public discourse. The winner is selected by a jury composed of the current members of the Press’s Faculty Publication Committee along with several guest jurors from the Columbia faculty.

In giving the award, Professor Jane Gaines, Co-Chair of the Distinguished Book Award Jury and Chair of Columbia University Press’s Faculty Publication Committee, commented that “Mental Health in the War on Terror makes a powerful and elegant argument: that the war on terror has had its influence on mental health knowledge and practice and, in turn, mental health knowledge and practice has impacted the war on terror.”

A ceremony to honor the winner was held on September 26, 2018, at the Casa Italiana at Columbia University. The author of the winning book receives a certificate and a cash award of $10,000.

Read an excerpt from the first chapter of Mental Health in the War on Terror.