The American Historical Association is pleased to announce the winners of its 2016 prizes, to be awarded at the 131st annual meeting in Denver, January 5–8, 2017. The ceremony will be held on Thursday, January 5, in Plaza Ballroom A of the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel at 7:00 pm, immediately following the meeting’s welcome reception.
The AHA offers annual prizes honoring exceptional books, distinguished teaching and mentoring in the classroom, public history, and other historical projects. Since 1896, the Association has conferred over a thousand awards. This year’s finalists were selected from a field of over 1,300 entries by nearly 100 dedicated prize committee members. The names, publications, and projects of those who received these awards are a catalog of the best work produced in the historical discipline. Please join us at the ceremony in January to honor this year’s recipients.
Awards for Publications
The Herbert Baxter Adams Prize in European history from ancient times to 1815
Vittoria Di Palma (Univ. of Southern California) for Wasteland: A History (Yale Univ. Press, 2014)
The George Louis Beer Prize in European international history since 1895
Vanessa Ogle (Univ. of Pennsylvania) for The Global Transformation of Time: 1870–1950 (Harvard Univ. Press, 2015)
The Jerry Bentley Prize in world history
Michael Goebel (Freie Univ. Berlin) for Anti-Imperial Metropolis: Interwar Paris and the Seeds of Third World Nationalism (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2015)
The Albert J. Beveridge Award on the history of the United States, Latin America, or Canada, from 1492 to the present
Ann Twinam (Univ. of Texas at Austin) for Purchasing Whiteness: Pardos, Mulattos, and the Quest for Social Mobility in the Spanish Indies (Stanford Univ. Press, 2015)
The Paul Birdsall Prize in European military and strategic history since 1870
Bruno Cabanes (Ohio State Univ.) for The Great War and the Origins of Humanitarianism, 1918–1924 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2015)
The James Henry Breasted Prize in any field of history prior to CE 1000
Hina Azam (Univ. of Texas at Austin) for Sexual Violation in Islamic Law: Substance, Evidence, and Procedure (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2015)
The Albert B. Corey Prize in the history of Canadian-American relations or the history of both countries (previously announced by the Canadian Historical Association)
Robert MacDougall (Univ. of Western Ontario) for The People’s Network: The Political Economy of the Telephone in the Gilded Age (Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 2014)
The Raymond J. Cunningham Prize for the best article published in a history department journal written by an undergraduate student
Griffin Bennett Creech (Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, BA 2016), faculty advisor: Donald Reid (Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), for “‘Our Revolutionary Cadres Are Always beside the Masses’: Reconsidering the Role of Khmer Rouge Cadres in Democratic Kampuchea,” Traces: The UNC Chapel Hill Journal of History (Spring 2015)
The John K. Fairbank Prize for East Asian history since 1800
Barak Kushner (Univ. of Cambridge) for Men to Devils, Devils to Men: Japanese War Crimes and Chinese Justice (Harvard Univ. Press, 2015)
The Morris D. Forkosch Prize in the field of British, British imperial, or British Commonwealth history since 1485
R. F. Foster (Univ. of Oxford) for Vivid Faces: The Revolutionary Generation in Ireland, 1890–1923 (W.W. Norton & Company, 2015)
The Leo Gershoy Award in the fields of 17th- and 18th-century western European history
Alexandra Shepard (Univ. of Glasgow) for Accounting for Oneself: Worth, Status, and the Social Order in Early Modern England (Oxford Univ. Press, 2015)
The Clarence H. Haring Prize for a Latin American who has published the most outstanding book in Latin American history during the preceding five years
Antonio García de León (Univ. Nacional Autónoma de México) forTierra Adentro, Mar en Fuera: El Puerto de Veracruz y su Litoral a Sotavento, 1519–1821 (Fondo de Cultura Economica USA, 2011)
The Friedrich Katz Prize in Latin American and Caribbean history
Edward Beatty (Univ. of Notre Dame) for Technology and the Search for Progress in Modern Mexico (Univ. of California Press, 2015)
The Joan Kelly Memorial Prize for women’s history and/or feminist theory
Keely Stauter-Halsted (Univ. of Illinois at Chicago) for The Devil’s Chain: Prostitution and Social Control in Partitioned Poland (Cornell Univ. Press, 2015)
The Martin A. Klein Prize in African history
Nancy Rose Hunt (Univ. of Florida and Univ. of Michigan) for A Nervous State: Violence, Remedies, and Reverie in Colonial Congo (Duke Univ. Press, 2015)
The Waldo G. Leland Prize offered every five years for the most outstanding reference tool in the field of history
Father Peter J. Powell (Newberry Library), editor, for In Sun’s Likeness and Power: Cheyenne Accounts of Shield and Tipi Heraldry, 2 vols., by James Mooney (Univ. of Nebraska Press, 2013)
The Littleton-Griswold Prize in US law and society, broadly defined
Deborah A. Rosen (Lafayette Coll.) for Border Law: The First Seminole War and American Nationhood (Harvard Univ. Press, 2015)
The J. Russell Major Prize for French history
Ethan B. Katz (Univ. of Cincinnati) for The Burdens of Brotherhood: Jews and Muslims from North Africa to France (Harvard Univ. Press, 2015)
The Helen and Howard R. Marraro Prize in Italian history or Italian-American relations
Stefano Dall’Aglio (Univ. of Edinburgh) and the late Donald Weinstein (Univ. of Arizona), translator, for The Duke’s Assassin: Exile and Death of Lorenzino de’ Medici (Yale Univ. Press, 2015)
The George L. Mosse Prize in the intellectual and cultural history of Europe since 1500
Thomas W. Laqueur (Univ. of California, Berkeley) for The Work of the Dead: A Cultural History of Mortal Remains (Princeton Univ. Press, 2015)
The John E. O’Connor Film Award for outstanding interpretations of history through film
Documentary: No Más Bebés, Renee Tajima-Peña, director; Virginia Espino, producer (Moon Canyon Films, 2015)
Dramatic Feature: Son of Saul, László Nemes, director; Gábor Rajna and Gábor Sipos, producers (Laokoon Filmgroup, 2015)
The James A. Rawley Prize for the integration of Atlantic worlds before the 20th century
Tamar Herzog (Harvard Univ.) for Frontiers of Possession: Spain and Portugal in Europe and the Americas (Harvard Univ. Press, 2015)
The Premio del Rey in the field of early Spanish history
Núria Silleras-Fernández (Univ. of Colorado Boulder) for Chariots of Ladies: Francesc Eiximenis and the Court Culture of Medieval and Early Modern Iberia (Cornell Univ. Press, 2015)
The John F. Richards Prize for South Asian history
Nayanjot Lahiri (Ashoka Univ.) for Ashoka in Ancient India (Harvard Univ. Press, 2015)
The James Harvey Robinson Prize for the teaching aid that has made the most outstanding contribution to the teaching and learning of history in any field for public or educational purposes
Julie Golia and Robin M. Katz (Brooklyn Historical Society) for TeachArchives.org
The Dorothy Rosenberg Prize in the history of the Jewish diaspora
Paul Lerner (Univ. of Southern California) for The Consuming Temple: Jews, Department Stores, and the Consumer Revolution in Germany, 1880–1940 (Cornell Univ. Press, 2015)
The Roy Rosenzweig Prize for Innovation in Digital History to a freely available new media project
Charles Hardy III and Janneken Smucker (West Chester Univ.) and Doug Boyd (Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, Univ. of Kentucky Libraries) for Goin’ North: Stories from the First Great Migration to Philadelphia
The Wesley-Logan Prize in African diaspora history
Carina E. Ray (Brandeis Univ.) for Crossing the Color Line: Race, Sex, and the Contested Politics of Colonialism in Ghana (Ohio Univ. Press, 2015)
Awards for Scholarly and Professional Distinction
The Troyer Steele Anderson Prize for outstanding contribution to the advancement of the purposes of the Association
Daniel J. McInerney (Utah State Univ.)
The Eugene Asher Distinguished Teaching Award for outstanding postsecondary history teaching
Fritz Fischer (Univ. of Northern Colorado)
The Beveridge Family Teaching Prize for distinguished K–12 history teaching
Craig Blackman, on behalf of Indian River High School, Chesapeake, VA
Equity Awards for individuals and institutions that have achieved excellence in recruiting and retaining underrepresented racial and ethnic groups into the historic profession
Individual Award: Albert M. Camarillo (Stanford Univ.)
Institutional Award: The Department of History at the University of Texas at El Paso
The Herbert Feis Award for distinguished contributions to public history
Yolanda Chávez Leyva (Univ. of Texas at El Paso)
The Nancy Lyman Roelker Mentorship Award for teachers of history who taught, guided, and inspired their students in a way that changed their lives
Neal Shultz (The Campus School of the New Rochelle School District)
The Honorary Foreign Member for a foreign scholar who is distinguished in his or her field and who has “notably aided the work of American historians”
Boubakar Barry (Univ. Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar)
The Award for Scholarly Distinction to senior historians for lifetime achievement
Alice Kessler-Harris (Columbia Univ.)
Colin A. Palmer (Princeton Univ.)
This post first appeared on AHA Today.
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