Chosen from more than 350 nominations, the Leverhulme Trust offers five prizes in each of the following subject areas: Classics, Earth Sciences, Physics, Politics and International Relations, Psychology, and Visual and Performing Arts. These awards recognise the achievements of outstanding researchers whose work has attracted international acclaim and whose future career is exceptionally promising. The winners each receive £100,000 to be used for any scholarly purpose.

Ross was appointed Lecturer in Popular Music at the University of Leeds in 2022 and in the same year received the Society for Ethnomusicology’s Bruno Nettl Prize for his book, The Folk: Music, Modernity, and the Political Imagination (University of California Press, 2021). He plans to use the Prize funds to further his work on internet subculture, culminating in a book provisionally entitled Vaporwave; or, A Requiem for the Future.