The University of Chicago Press is pleased to announce that An Epidemic of Uncertainty: Navigating HIV and Young Adulthood in Malawi by Jenny Trinitapoli is the recipient of the 2025 Gordon J. Laing Award. The award was presented by the University of Chicago President Paul Alivisatos at a gala reception on April 9, 2025, in the City View Room of the David Rubenstein Forum at the University of Chicago.

The Gordon J. Laing Award is conferred annually by vote of the Board of University Publications on the faculty author, editor, or translator whose book has brought the greatest distinction to the list of the University of Chicago Press. Books published in 2022 and 2023 were eligible for the 2025 award. The award is named in honor of the scholar who, serving as general editor from 1909 until 1940, firmly established the character and reputation of the University of Chicago Press as the premier academic publisher in the United States.

An Epidemic of Uncertainty advances a new framework for studying social life by emphasizing something social scientists routinely omit from their theories, models, and measures–what people know they don’t know. Taking Malawi’s ongoing AIDS epidemic as an entry point, Jenny Trinitapoli shows that despite admirable declines in new HIV infections and AIDS-related mortality, an epidemic of uncertainty persists; at any given point in time, fully half of Malawian young adults don’t know their HIV status. Reckoning with the impact of this uncertainty within the bustling trading town of Balaka, Trinitapoli argues that HIV-related uncertainty is measurable, pervasive, and impervious to biomedical solutions, with consequences that expand into multiple domains of life, including relationship stability, fertility, and health. 

In its review, the journal Social Forces offered this praise: “The data in the book is rich, innovative, and unveils a deep connection and understanding of the Balaka region in Malawi. Throughout the book, Trinitapoli expertly weaves together historical accounts of shifts in global HIV policy and the local legislative order, broader demographic changes in fertility, mortality, and migration, and data from her own longitudinal studies and ethnographic vignettes, to offer a compelling and complex analysis of the role uncertainty plays in the lives of young adults in contemporary Malawi.”

“We are very proud to support Professor Trinitapoli’s work, which reveals the sociological importance of studying unknowns and treats uncertainty as a significant determining factor in understanding human experience,” said Garrett Kiely, director of the Press.

Joel Isaac, chair of the Board of University Publications, commented: “The Laing Award celebrates the historic links between the University of Chicago Press and the faculty of the University.  This year’s winner, An Epidemic of Uncertainty: Navigating HIV and Young Adulthood in Malawi by Jenny Trinitapoli, is a remarkable feat of scholarship.  Its focus is on something intangible yet pervasive: uncertainty.  For young adults in Malawi, the most salient ‘known unknown’ is the HIV status of both themselves and their potential or actual partners.  Those making decisions about marriage and reproduction must live in the shadow of what remains (despite the rollout of life-saving treatments) an epidemic. Brilliantly, Trinitapoli combines micro-level analysis of how individuals confront these decisions with macro-level findings about the impact of this uncertainty on fertility, marriage, divorce, family structure, income, and poverty.  An Epidemic of Uncertainty does nothing less than crystallize an emergent field that Trinitapoli calls ‘uncertainty demography,’”

President Paul Alivisatos added: “An Epidemic of Uncertainty exemplifies the kind of scholarship the Laing Prize was created to honor—empirically rich, methodologically rigorous, and conceptually bold. In exploring HIV-related uncertainty as a measurable and consequential social force, Trinitapoli has produced a thought-provoking work of global relevance.”

“It’s an honor to be recognized by the university community; it’s especially gratifying to know that the work we did in Balaka is spurring a more expansive conversation about the role of uncertainty in social life. Demographic research is only as good as the data it is based on, and An Epidemic of Uncertainty rests on the good work of the Tsogolo La Thanzi (TLT) study team. Leading TLT for more than a decade has been, without a doubt, the most rewarding experience of my career,” said Trinitapoli.

Jenny Trinitapoli is professor of sociology at the University of Chicago.

She joins a distinguished list of previous recipients that includes, most recently, Margareta Ingrid Christian, Elisabeth C. Clemens, Lisa Wedeen, Michael Rossi, Eve L. Ewing, and Deborah Nelson.

For a complete list of winners, visit the Laing Award page.