OSU historian Karibo named to 2025 Choice Outstanding Academic Titles list

OSU historian Karibo named to 2025 Choice Outstanding Academic Titles list

Thursday, December 11, 2025

Media Contact: Dr. Caitlin Barnes | Director of Outreach, College of Arts and Sciences | 405-744-9009 | [email protected]

Oklahoma State University history professor Dr. Holly Karibo's book, "Rehab on the Range," has been selected as one of Choice magazine's 2025 Outstanding Academic Titles, placing it among the top 12% of scholarly works reviewed nationwide.

The distinction recognizes excellence in research, presentation and impact - an honor awarded to only 343 books and digital resources from more than 2,800 reviews this year. Compiled by Choice, a trusted source for academic book reviews, the list highlights the top scholarly works of the year.

"This is a tremendous accomplishment for Dr. Karibo and a point of pride for our department," said Dr. Brian Hosmer, head of the OSU Department of History. "Her research offers fresh insight into the history of rehabilitation, incarceration and borderlands communities in Texas, and it is wonderful to see it recognized at the highest level."

"Rehab on the Range" examines the complicated social world of drug policy, treatment, policing and gender in the American Southwest, providing one of the first book-length interpretations of this topic. Karibo's research has drawn wide interest from humanities scholars and social scientists alike.

"'Rehab on the Range'expands the geography of the nation's long war on drugs to include the American West, while illustrating how increasingly punitive drug policies fueled the growth of mass incarceration in the 20th-century United States," said William Bush, professor of history at Texas A&M University-San Antonio. "This book should be a required reading for academic historians, public health specialists, legal scholars, members of the advocacy community and policymakers at the local, state and national levels."

Karibo joined OSU in 2016 and is known for her contributions to borderlands history, gender studies and the experience of communities shaped by policing and criminalization in North America. Her scholarship has appeared in leading journals and shaped public understanding of drug policy in regional, national and transnational contexts. Earlier this year, the book also received the Coral Horton Tullis Memorial Prize for Best Book on Texas History, awarded by the Texas State Historical Association - another major honor for Karibo.

To learn more about the Choice Outstanding Academic Titles honor, visit the organization's official announcement. Information about the Coral Horton Tullis Memorial Prize can be found through the Texas State Historical Association.

Story By: Kierstin Pigg | [email protected]