The Lowell prize is awarded by the Modern Language Association of America, the world's largest academic association centering on the study of languages and literatures. The Watchman in Pieces: Surveillance, Literature, and Liberal Personhood was published by Yale University Press in 2013.

The prize consists of a cash award and a certificate and will be presented to Aaron and his co-author at the MLA's annual convention in January 2015.

The selection committee had this so say about the book: "The Watchman in Pieces is outstanding in both scope and execution -- a risk-taking historical overview of signal developments in the coevolution of the surveillant state and the self-monitoring liberal subject from the sixteenth century into the present. To the manifest timeliness of their topic David Rosen and Aaron Santesso bring the seasoning perspective of history and the subtilizing perspective of theory, including a firm resistance to the sovereignty of Foucauldian paradigms. Closely watched texts come alive in new ways; even more impressive are the juxtapositions that carry the argument forward. The authors sustain a deft expository verve that conveys an ambitious template for reading and rereading in a wide variety of genres."