Submissions Are Closed

Award Type

Award for Scholarly and Professional Distinction

The Association has honored foreign scholars since 1885, when the AHA awarded Leopold von Ranke with its first testimonial of honorary membership.

According to the selection criteria, recipients of honorary memberships must be scholars working outside the United States who are distinguished for their work in the field of history.

The Committee on Honorary Foreign Members and Awards for Scholarly Distinction will serve as the jury and will recommend an individual for approval by the Council. The committee consists of the president, president-elect, and the immediate past president. The honoree will be announced at the Association’s annual meeting.

Current Recipient

Catherine Hall, University College London

Catherine Hall, emerita professor of modern British social and cultural history at University College London, is a preeminent historian of Britain and its empire. Hall’s most recent book, Lucky Valley: Edward Long and the History of Racial Capitalism (2024), joins an influential body of work that centers on the impact of empire on metropolitan and colonial life. Hall also has been a leading figure in the fields of public history and digital scholarship with work that brought unprecedented public attention to the part Britain played in maintaining the institution of slavery and how it profited.