Prize Honors Innovative Research on the Human Past
Clinton, N.Y. – Hamilton College Associate Professor of History Mackenzie Cooley is one of nine winners of the 2025 Dan David Prize. The Dan David Prize is the world’s largest history prize. Winners are awarded $300,000 each to recognize their contribution to the study of the human past and to support their future endeavors. https://dandavidprize.org/ https://dandavidprize.org/winners/mackenzie-cooley
According to the Dan David Prize announcement, “The Prize selection committee was impressed by the originality, reach and ambition of Cooley’s archival research across the former Spanish Empire and by her incorporation of indigenous languages and knowledge systems into a study of European science and experience.”
Cooley is a historian of science and medicine in the early modern Hispanic world and director of Latin American & Latine Studies at Hamilton. The Prize is awarded to early and midcareer researchers whose work illuminates the human past in bold and creative ways.
Following an open nomination process, winners are selected by a global committee of experts that changes annually. This year’s selection committee members are affiliated with leading academic institutions including the University of Toronto, the Cyprus Institute, and the University of Cambridge.
Quoting the Dan David Prize release, “Combining the history of science and environmental history, Cooley’s work explores how humans have shaped, classified and extracted knowledge from nature – and, in so doing, redefined their own bodies, societies and empires. Her first book, The Perfection of Nature (2022), reveals how Renaissance breeding practices shaped ideas of race, human potential and dominion over animals. Her current research explores ‘bioprospecting’ – the quest to harness nature for human health and medicine.”
The Dan David Prize was first established in 2001 by the late entrepreneur and philanthropist Dan David, to reward innovative and interdisciplinary work that contributed to humanity. It is endowed by the Dan David Foundation and headquartered at Tel Aviv University.
In 2021, the Prize was relaunched with a focus on historical research, honoring the founder’s passion for history and archaeology. It now rewards early and mid-career scholars to help them fulfill their potential at a time when historical knowledge and scholarship are under attack, many university departments are threatened with closure, and budgets for research, archives, libraries and museums are being slashed or eliminated.
The late Dan David lived through persecution in Nazi-occupied and then Communist Romania, becoming an accomplished photographer and later an entrepreneur and philanthropist. David was fascinated by automatic instant photography, and he built a company that introduced countries around the globe to the automatic photo booth. He had a keen interest in history and archaeology, which feature in many of the projects of the Dan David Foundation.
David believed that knowledge of the past enriches us and helps us grapple with the challenges of the present, and is crucial for reimagining our collective future. At a time of diminishing support for the humanities, the Prize celebrates the next generation of outstanding historians, archaeologists, curators and digital humanists. To learn more about Dan David, the Prize and the 2025 winners, visit www.dandavidprize.org.
Media Contact: DKCDanDavidPrize@dkcnews.com
Mackenzie Cooley: mcooley@hamilton.edu
