The award, named in memory of Peter Townsend, a former University of Bristol academic and one of the most influential figures in social policy, recognises outstanding work in the humanities and social sciences.
Dr Series' book, ‘The Deprivation of Liberty in the Shadows of the Institutions’, contains powerful insights into the nature of community care after deinstitutionalisation.
It explores the legal question of whether some older and disabled people are deprived of their liberty by care arrangements in the community, and the wider impacts of regulating their care as detention.
Dr Series, who is an associate professor in social care law and policy, was presented with the award at a special Awards Ceremony at the British Academy in London on Thursday 16 October.
The Peter Townsend Prize Committee said: "The Panel unanimously recommended the award of the Townsend Prize to Lucy Series's book because of the very high quality of its scholarship; the meticulous research that underpins it ...; and the subject matter, which touches or will touch the lives of many people."
Dr Series said: "I am deeply honoured to have been awarded the British Academy Peter Townsend Prize. Peter Townsend is an academic hero of mine - particularly for his work on social care and disability. His book, The Last Refuge (1961), ... recognised that social care institutions can also result in depersonalisation, and often fail to live up to the aspirations of policy creators.
"I think Townsend would have recognised ... that social care services can also be places of detention, regardless of the policy aspirations and labels given to these settings. However, he would also have recognised that merely labelling and regulating deprivation of liberty does not achieve the urgent work of creating meaningful alternatives - genuine homes, where disabled and older people can live with the social connections, and everyday choices and freedoms that many people take for granted."