A committee that has been formed to raise funds for establishing a new annual AHA prize in African history invites historians to support the project through generous donations. This prize will be the first in the United States to acknowledge scholarly production in the field of African history and will also reflect the AHA's wider goal of increasing the representation of African historians and the broad range of nonwestern historians to facilitate dialogue across areas and fields.
The African History Prize is intended to recognize the most distinguished work of scholarship on African history published in English during the previous year. The primary focus will be on continental Africa (including those islands usually treated as countries of Africa). Eligibility will otherwise be defined quite broadly, to include books on any period of African history and from any disciplinary field that incorporates a historical perspective.
Historians—both in the field of African history and in other fields—are invited to contribute to the prize fund. At least $50,000 needs to be collected for the endowment of the prize, which has been accepted in principle by the AHA's council.
Donation checks intended for this prize fund should be made payable to the American Historical Association, with "African History Book Prize” on the memorandum line. They should be sent to AHA, 400 A Street, S.E., Washington, D. C. 20003-3889.
The members of the fundraising committee are: Jean Allman (Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign); Ralph Austen (Univ. of Chicago); Judith Byfield (Dartmouth College); Lee Cassanelli (Univ. of Pennsylvania); Mamadou Diouf (Univ. of Michigan); Steve Feierman (Univ. of Pennsylvania); Sandra Greene (Cornell Univ.); Allen Isaacman (Univ. of Minnesota); Pat Manning (Univ. of Pittsburgh); Richard Roberts (Stanford Univ.); Ahmad Sikainga (Ohio State Univ.); and Barbara Y. Welke (Univ. of Minnesota); Carolyn A. Brown (Rutgers Univ.) is the committee's chair, and inquiries about the prize as well as expressions of support may be directed to her at cbrown@panix.com (with “African History Book Prize” in the subject line).
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