Nigerian-American wins ‘largest history prize in the world’

A Professor of History and African Diaspora Studies at Florida International UniversitySaheed Aderinto, has won the Dan David Prize, described as “the greatest historical prize in the world”.

The Dan David Prize is a major international award that recognizes and supports outstanding contributions to the study of history and other disciplines that study the human past.

The Dan David Prize awards up to nine $300,000 prizes annually to outstanding early- and mid-career scholars and practitioners in the discipline of history.

The 2023 Dan David Prize winners are selected from hundreds of nominations submitted by colleagues, institutions and the general public in an open nomination process. The finalists are selected by a global committee of experts that changes every year.

Nine emerging history scholars from around the world are the winners of the 2023 prize.

Announcing the winners on Tuesday, the Dan David Foundation said Mr. Aderinto was among nine winners who will receive $300,000, each, in recognition of outstanding scholarship in the discipline of history.

With a total prize money of $2.7 million, the Dan David Prize “recognizes outstanding scholarship that illuminates the past and seeks to engage public discourse with a deeper understanding of history,”.

Recipients must engage in “exceptional and original work related to the study of the human past, using a chronological, geographic, and methodological focus.” They “must demonstrate a strong potential for excellence, innovation, and future leadership that will help them learn from the past for years to come.”

While the Prize winner “must have completed at least one major project, the prize is not awarded for that project, but in recognition of the winner’s overall achievement as well as potential for future excellence,”.

The Washington Post describes the Dan David Prize as a new MacArthur-style “genius prize” for history. Selection by nomination.

The award ceremony will be held in Israel in May.

The selection committee praised Mr. Aderinto’s work “for putting African history on the edge of various literatures in the history of sexuality, nonhumans, and violence, noting that it is extraordinary to see one person who excels in scholarship in all these fields,”.

Profile

Mr. Aderinto has published 8 books, 37 journal articles and book chapters, 41 encyclopedia articles, and 21 book reviews. His latest book Animality and Colonial Subjecthood in Africa examines the role of animals in Nigerian history.

He is currently writing a book and making a documentary about Fuji’s music. In addition, Mr. Aderinto is the founding president of the Lagos Studies Association and a Senior Research Fellow of the French Research Institute in Africa.

Born in Ibadan in 1979, Mr. Aderinto obtained his Bachelor’s degree in History from University of Ibadan in 2004 and a PhD in 2010 from the University of Texas at Austin. He began his teaching career at Western Carolina University in 2010 and became a full Professor of History in 2021. He moved to Florida International University in 2022.

Other 2023 winners include Ana Antic of the University of Copenhagen, Karma Ben Johanan of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Elise Burton of the University of Toronto, Krista Goff of the University of Miami, Stephanie Jones‑Rogers of the University of California Berkeley, Anita Radini of University College, Dublin, Mirjam Brusius of German Historical Institute in London, Bartow Elmore from Ohio State University and Tyrone Freeman from Indiana University and Purdue University.