A Nigerian professor, Saheed Aderinto, of History and African Diaspora Studies, has won the 2023 Dan David Prize.
The award recognizes and supports outstanding contributions to the study of history and other disciplines that shed light on the human past.
Winners, nine altogether, were announced on February 28. They will each receive $300,000 in recognition of their achievements and support of their future work.
The selection committee praised Aderinto’s work “for situating African history at the cutting edge of diverse works of literature in the history of sexuality, nonhumans, and violence, noting that it is exceptional to see a single person leading scholarship in all of these fields.”
Aderinto was born in Ibadan in 1979. In 2004, he received his bachelor’s in history from the University of Ibadan and his PhD from the University of Texas, Austin in 2010.
In the same year, he started his teaching career at Western Carolina University where he became a full professor of history in 2021. He later moved to Florida International University in 2022.
The professor has published eight books, 37 journal articles and book chapters, 41 encyclopedia articles, and 21 book reviews.
His recent book ‘Animality and Colonial Subjecthood in Africa’ examines the role of animals in Nigerian history. He is also presently writing a book and making a documentary on Fuji music.
Aderinto is also the founding president of the Lagos Studies Association and a senior research fellow of the French Institute for Research in Africa.
