Kathryn Olivarius receives 2024 Dan David Prize
Stanford historian Kathryn Olivarius is one of nine scholars to receive this award.
Kathryn Olivarius, an assistant professor of history in the Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences, recently received the Dan David Prize in recognition of her work on disease, citizenship, and economics in the 19th-century United States. Olivarius and eight other scholars received the prize at a recent gathering in Italy.
The Dan David Prize, the largest history prize in the world, recognizes breakthrough research on the past, the award citation states. Awarded by the Dan David Foundation, the prize recognizes early- and mid-career historians, art historians, archaeologists, digital humanists, and others who deepen the public’s knowledge and understanding of the past in creative ways. First awarded in 2001, the prize narrowed its focus to historical research in 2021. Each recipient is awarded $300,000 to support their work.
Olivarius’ research explores how disease intersects with broader themes in economic and social history. Her 2022 book, Necropolis: Disease, Power, and Capitalism in the Cotton Kingdom (Harvard University Press), addressed how yellow fever exacerbated inequality in 19th-century New Orleans. It won multiple awards, including the Frederick Jackson Turner Award from the Organization of American Historians, the Prize in American History from the American Historical Association, the Simkins Prize from the Southern Historical Association, and the Broussard Prize from the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic.
Olivarius’ next project explores themes related to shame and syphilis during and after the U.S. Civil War.
“I am truly honored to be a recipient of the 2024 Dan David Prize in recognition of my work on disease and capitalism,” Olivarius said. “I am deeply thankful to my family, colleagues, and students, who remind me every day why I love being a historian and push me to think bigger and more creatively about the past. I can't wait to take this energy into my next project.”
In addition to Olivarius, three other Stanford faculty members have received the Dan David Prize: William T. Newsome, the Harman Family Provostial Professor and professor of neurobiology (2004); Marcus Feldman, the Burnet C. and Mildred Finley Wohlford Professor and professor of biology (2011); and Michel Serres, professor emeritus of French (2013). Other notable laureates of the prize include immunologist Anthony Fauci (2021); author Margaret Atwood (2010); former U.S. Vice President Al Gore (2008); and cellist Yo-Yo Ma (2006).
