By Ivan Natividad

Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers, UC Berkeley’s chancellor’s professor of history, recently won the prestigious Dan David Prize for her research that focuses on women and slavery.

This global recognition for outstanding work in the study of the human past is given annually to up to nine recipients and recognizes emerging scholars whose work “illuminates the past in bold and creative ways.”

“Our winners represent a new generation of historians,” said Ariel David, a Dan David Prize board member. “They are changing our understanding of the past by asking new questions, targeting under-researched topics and using innovative methods … they have already challenged how we think about history.”

Recognized for her 2019 book, “They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South,” Jones-Rogers has researched the issues of gender and economics in American slavery for more than 15 years and also won the 2020 Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers’ book, “They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South” was published in 2019.

Each winner of the Dan David Prize receives $300,000 to support the scholar’s future endeavors. For Jones-Rogers, that funding will allow her to delve deeper into her new project, “Women of the Trade,” a book focused on European, West African and North American archives that depicts the British transatlantic slave trade through the eyes of women.

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“This prize also means a great deal to me, personally,” Jones-Rogers said in an interview with Rutgers University, her alma mater. “I’m the descendant of enslaved people, the granddaughter of North Carolina sharecroppers, and the daughter of a single New Jersey mother. I’ve been very poor for most of my life. So, I never dreamed of being honored in this way. This prize is something my ancestors could never dream of. It feels wonderful.”

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