Honorary Foreign Member
AHA members are invited to nominate distinguished foreign historians for this award. 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 foreign scholars who are distinguished for their work in the field of history and who have markedly assisted the work of American historians in the scholar’s country. The AHA Council encourages nominations that address the need for broader geographic coverage; in recent years most nominations and honorees have been from western Europe. 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.
Nominations may be submitted at any time, but materials must be submitted by November 1, 2017, to be considered for the 2018 award, which will be presented at the January 2019 AHA annual meeting in Chicago. It will be necessary to resubmit recommendations made earlier if they are to be considered again; files will not be reactivated. A complete nomination should include a letter of nomination that contains specific details addressing the criteria listed above, a two-page CV of the nominee with a summary of major publications, and a minimum of two supporting letters of recommendation. The package should not exceed 20 pages. Please email all submission materials to awards@historians.org and be sure to include “Honorary Foreign Member: [Nominee’s Name]” in the subject line.
For questions, please contact the Prize Administrator.
2016 Honorary Foreign Member
Boubakar Barry, Univ. Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar, Senegal
Boubakar Barry, professor emeritus of history at Université Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar, Senegal, has been a leader in the rise of African historical studies for over four decades. Under his vision and influence, the history department of UCAD has compiled a long record as one of the most prestigious in Africa, and his two best-known works are both now regarded as classics in West African history. The Kingdom of Waalo: Senegal before the Conquest (Paris, 1972; English translation, 2012) set the tone for subsequent works documenting African resistance to the slave trade by drawing on both written archives and oral traditions. Senegambia and the Atlantic Slave Trade (Paris, 1988; English translation, 1998) employed large-scale area analysis, linking territories now included in seven modern nations in a cross-regional history of political, religious, and commercial change. Barry has authored an additional 25 articles, edited eight works, and with support from UNESCO, directed a set of 13 volumes on regional integration in West Africa. He continues to champion the African educational system and allow use of his personal collection of research material. Because of his exceptional global reputation, and his dedication to advancing African democracy and unity, Barry can rightfully be regarded as both a historian and a humanitarian.