Carol E. Mayer

Carol E. Mayer has won the 2026 Basil Stuart-Stubbs Prize for Sea of Islands: Exploring Objects, Stories, and Memories from Oceania.

The $3,500 prize, given by UBC Library and the Pacific BookWorld News Society, is awarded annually to an outstanding scholarly book on a British Columbia subject by a Canadian author.

Mayer’s book, published by Figure 1 Publishing, is a study of the stories behind the 3,500 objects in Canada’s largest Oceanic collection, which is housed at the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia.

Mayer is a curator who is the research fellow–Pacific at the museum.

The finalists for this year’s prize were Jennifer E. Shaw for Tender Labour: Migrant Care Work, Filipina/o Young People, and Family Life Across Borders (UBC Press) and Roger Hayter, Jerry Patchell, and Kevin Rees for The Thin Edge of Innovation: Metro Vancouver’s Evolving Economy (UBC Press).