The American Historical Association is pleased to announce the winners of its 2022 prizes, to be awarded at the AHA’s 136th annual meeting, which will take place in Philadelphia from January 5–8, 2023.

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 1,000 awards. This year’s finalists were selected from a field of over 1,300 entries by nearly 150 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.

Awards for Publications

The Herbert Baxter Adams Prize for an author’s first book in European history from ancient times through 1815

Dan-el Padilla Peralta (Princeton Univ.) for Divine Institutions: Religions and Community in the Middle Roman Republic (Princeton Univ. Press, 2020)

The George Louis Beer Prize in European international history since 1895

Emily Greble (Vanderbilt Univ.) for Muslims and the Making of Modern Europe (Oxford Univ. Press, 2021)

The Jerry Bentley Prize in world history

Jonathan E. Robins (Michigan Technological Univ.) for Oil Palm: A Global History (Univ. of North Carolina Press, 2021)

The Albert J. Beveridge Award in the history of the United States, Latin America, or Canada, from 1492 to the present

Roberto Saba (Wesleyan Univ.) for American Mirror: The United States and Brazil in the Age of Emancipation (Princeton Univ. Press, 2021)

The Paul Birdsall Prize for European military and strategic history since 1870

Bastiaan Willems (Lancaster Univ.) for Violence in Defeat: The Wehrmacht on German Soil, 1944–1945 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2021)

The James Henry Breasted Prize in any field of history prior to CE 1000

Brian Lander (Brown Univ.) for The King’s Harvest: A Political Ecology of China from the First Farmers to the First Empire (Yale Univ. Press, 2021)

The Albert B. Corey Prize in the history of Canadian–American relations or the history of both countries

Benjamin Hoy (Univ. of Saskatchewan) for A Line of Blood and Dirt: Creating the Canada–United States Border across Indigenous Lands (Oxford Univ. Press, 2021)

The Raymond J. Cunningham Prize for the best article published in a journal written by an undergraduate student

Tara Madhav (Univ. of California, Berkeley) for “‘We Had to Do the Educating Ourselves’: Community Control and Desegregation at Ravenswood High School in East Palo Alto, California, 1958–1976,” Clio’s Scroll: The Berkeley Undergraduate History Journal 23, no. 1 (Fall 2021)

Faculty adviser: Bernadette Jeanne Pérez

The Patricia Buckley Ebrey Prize in East Asian history prior to 1800

Maya K. H. Stiller (Univ. of Kansas) for Carving Status at Kŭmgangsan: Elite Graffiti in Premodern Korea (Univ. of Washington Press, 2021)

The John K. Fairbank Prize in East Asian history since 1800

Hwasook Nam (Univ. of Washington, Seattle) for Women in the Sky: Gender and Labor in the Making of Modern Korea (Cornell Univ. Press, 2021)

The Morris D. Forkosch Prize in British, British imperial, or British Commonwealth history since 1485

Paul R. Deslandes (Univ. of Vermont) for The Culture of Male Beauty in Britain: From the First Photographs to David Beckham (Univ. of Chicago Press, 2021)

The Leo Gershoy Award in 17th- and 18th-century western European history

Emma Rothschild (Harvard Univ.) for An Infinite History: The Story of a Family in France over Three Centuries (Princeton Univ. Press, 2021)

The William and Edwyna Gilbert Award for the best article in a journal, magazine, or other serial on teaching history

Brigid E. Vance (Lawrence Univ.) for “Finding Their Voice: Student Podcasts on the East Asian Collection at Lawrence University’s Wriston Galleries,” The History Teacher 54, no. 4 (August 2021)

The Friedrich Katz Prize in Latin American and Caribbean history

Heather F. Roller (Colgate Univ.) for Contact Strategies: Histories of Native Autonomy in Brazil (Stanford Univ. Press, 2021)

The Joan Kelly Memorial Prize in women’s history and/or feminist theory

Tiya Miles (Harvard Univ.) for All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake (Random House, 2021)

The Martin A. Klein Prize in African history

Judith A. Byfield (Cornell Univ.) for The Great Upheaval: Women and Nation in Postwar Nigeria (Ohio Univ. Press, 2021)

The Littleton-Griswold Prize in US law and society, broadly defined

Kate Masur (Northwestern Univ.) for Until Justice Be Done: America’s First Civil Rights Movement, from the Revolution to Reconstruction (W. W. Norton, 2021)

The J. Russell Major Prize in French history

Sarah C. Dunstan (Univ. of Glasgow) for Race, Rights and Reform: Black Activism in the French Empire and the United States from World War I to the Cold War (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2021)

The Helen and Howard R. Marraro Prize in Italian history or Italian-American relations

Federica Francesconi (Univ. at Albany, State Univ. of New York) for Invisible Enlighteners: The Jewish Merchants of Modena from the Renaissance to the Emancipation (Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 2021)

The George L. Mosse Prize in the intellectual and cultural history of Europe since 1500

Kira Thurman (Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor) for Singing like Germans: Black Musicians in the Land of Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms (Cornell Univ. Press, 2021)

The John E. O’Connor Film Award for outstanding interpretations of history through film

Documentary: How the Monuments Came Down, Hannah Ayers and Lance Warren, producers and directors (Field Studio, in association with Virginia Public Media, 2021)

The Eugenia M. Palmegiano Prize in the history of journalism

Kathy Roberts Forde (Univ. of Massachusetts Amherst) and Sid Bedingfield (Univ. of Minnesota) for Journalism and Jim Crow: White Supremacy and the Black Struggle for a New America (Univ. of Illinois Press, 2021)

The James A. Rawley Prize in the integration of Atlantic worlds before the 20th century

Tessa Murphy (Syracuse Univ.) for The Creole Archipelago: Race and Borders in the Colonial Caribbean (Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 2021)

The Premio del Rey for a distinguished book in English in the field of early Spanish history

Dwight Fletcher Reynolds (Univ. of California, Santa Barbara) for The Musical Heritage of Al-Andalus (Routledge, 2020)

The John F. Richards Prize in South Asian history

Shahla Hussain (St. John’s Univ.) for Kashmir in the Aftermath of Partition (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2021)

The James Harvey Robinson Prize for a teaching aid for the teaching and learning of history in any field for public or educational purposes

Zachary Schrag (George Mason Univ.) for The Princeton Guide to Historical Research (Princeton Univ. Press, 2021)

The Dorothy Rosenberg Prize in the history of the Jewish diaspora

Michah Gottlieb (New York Univ.) for The Jewish Reformation: Bible Translation and Middle-Class German Judaism as Spiritual Enterprise (Oxford Univ. Press, 2021)

The Roy Rosenzweig Prize for Creativity in Digital History to a freely available new media project

Tara Nummedal (Brown Univ.) and Donna Bilak (New York Univ.) for Furnace and Fugue: A Digital Edition of Michael Maier’s Atalanta fugiens (1618) with Scholarly Commentary (Univ. of Virginia Press)

The Wesley-Logan Prize in African diaspora history

Yesenia Barragan (Rutgers Univ.) for Freedom’s Captives: Slavery and Gradual Emancipation on the Colombian Black Pacific (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2021)

Awards for Scholarly and Professional Distinction

The Eugene Asher Distinguished Teaching Award for outstanding postsecondary history teaching

Katie Stringer Clary (Coastal Carolina Univ.)

The Beveridge Family Teaching Prize for distinguished K–12 history teaching

Mary Institute and Saint Louis Country Day School, History of St. Louis Teaching Team

Equity Awards for individuals and institutions that have achieved excellence in recruiting and retaining underrepresented racial and ethnic groups into the historical discipline

Individual: Tiya Miles (Harvard Univ.)

Institutional: California State University, Los Angeles, Department of History

The Herbert Feis Award for distinguished contributions to public history 

Nicholas Breyfogle (Ohio State Univ., Columbus)

The John Lewis Award for History and Social Justice to recognize a historian for leadership and sustained engagement at the intersection of historical work and social justice

Trinidad Gonzales (South Texas Coll.)

The John Lewis Award for Public Service to the Discipline of History to recognize individuals outside the ranks of professional historians who have made a significant contribution to the study, teaching, and public understanding of history, in the interest of social justice

Bryan Stevenson (Equal Justice Initiative)

The Nancy Lyman Roelker Mentorship Award for teachers of history who taught, guided, and inspired their students in a way that changed their lives

Orli Kleiner (Brooklyn Technical High School)

The Honorary Foreign Member for a foreign scholar who is distinguished in their field and who has notably aided the work of American historians

Sir Hilary Beckles (Univ. of the West Indies, Jamaica)

The Award for Scholarly Distinction to senior historians for lifetime achievement

Gwendolyn Midlo Hall (Rutgers Univ.)

Joe William Trotter (Carnegie Mellon Univ.)

Judith Tucker (Georgetown Univ.)