Yale professor Sunil Amrith awarded Fukuoka Prize

Fukuoka prize recognizes Sunil Amrith / Image - Max Plank Institute

His career is marked by numerous accolades, including the 2022 Dr. A.H. Heineken Prize for History, a 2017 MacArthur Fellowship, and the 2016 Infosys Prize in Humanities.

The Secretariat of the Fukuoka Prize Committee awarded the 2024 education prize to Sunil Amrith, an Indian American historian renowned for his work in global history, focusing on environmental and migration perspectives.

The award, named after a Japanese city Fukuoka, was established in 1990 through the collaboration of the city government, academia and private businesses in order to further understanding of the extraordinary cultures of the Asian region. Every year, three prizes- Grand, Education and Arts and culture prize are bestowed upon three laureates.

As part of the prize, Amrith, the Renu and Anand Dhawan Professorship of History at Yale University, will receive a medal, certificate and a prize money of US$ 19,0000 (3000000 Japanese yen) during an awards ceremony held in Fukuoka in September.

Amrith who also serves as professor at the Yale School of the Environment chairs the Council on South Asian Studies at the Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies. His research spans the movements of people and ecological processes linking South and Southeast Asia, extending into global environmental history.

Amrith's academic journey began at the University of Cambridge, where he earned his B.A. and Ph.D. He has held notable positions, including inaugural Mehra Family Professor of South Asian Studies at Harvard University and a teaching role at Birkbeck College, University of London.

Amrith's scholarly contributions include several influential books. His upcoming publication, "The Burning Earth," set to release in 2024, explores environmental history from the perspective of the Global South. Previous works such as "Unruly Waters" and "Crossing the Bay of Bengal" have garnered critical acclaim, with the latter winning the American Historical Association’s John F. Richards Prize and being recognized as an Editor’s Choice by the New York Times Book Review.

In addition to his writing, Amrith is actively involved in editorial and advisory roles for prominent academic journals and series. His ongoing research continues to examine the intersections of migration and environmental justice, with new projects focusing on the comparative history of environmentalism in India and Indonesia, and the relationship between rice cultivation and planetary health.

The award ceremony for the Fukuoka Prize 2024 will take place on September 26, with public lectures by the laureates scheduled for the following days. Sunil Amrith's lecture is set for September 28.