Professor Levi Vonk’s book Border Hacker: A Tale of Treachery, Trafficking, and Two Friends on the Run has been named an Honorable Mention for the 2022 Arthur J. Rubel Book Prize competition, awarded by the Society for Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology (SLACA).

Border Hacker is a work of public anthropology and literary nonfiction that follows the journey of an undocumented, Afro-Latinx migrant and computer hacker named Axel Kirschner. Border Hacker is novel in that Levi collaborated with Axel to co-author portions of the book in his own first-person voice, a decolonizing methodology that allows him to tell his story on his own terms, even when he criticizes or contradicts Levi’s account of events. They hope that this book inspires other anthropologists to think about crafting new forms of anthropological dialogue and engagement in the 21st century.

Levi and Axel will accept their award at the American Anthropological Association’s annual meeting in Toronto, Canada.