University of Illinois Chicago historian Barbara Ransby has been named a recipient of the Caribbean Philosophical Association’s Frantz Fanon Lifetime Achievement Award. Dr. Ransby is a professor of Black studies, history, and gender and women’s studies, as well as a College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor. She also holds the John D. MacArthur Chair at the university.
Ransby was selected for the award “because of the historical and political importance of her writings, her tireless work as an institution-builder and activist, and the integrity she brings to every project in which she is involved,” according to the awards committee.
“Professor Barbara Ransby is one of our leading womanist thinkers and leaders. One who allies thought with action. She is a powerfully stimulating inspiration. Congratulations to Professor Ransby, and we thank her for showing us the way,” said HaneÌtha VeÌteÌ-Congolo, president of the Caribbean Philosophical Association and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures at Bowdoin College.
The award will be formally conferred during a special ceremony at the Caribbean Philosophical Association’s annual conference in October.
Professor Ransby has been on the faculty at the University of Illinois at Chicago since 1996. She also serves as the director of the Social Justice Institute at the university. Dr. Ransby is the former president of the National Women’s Studies Association.
Dr. Ransby is the author of Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision (University of North Carolina Press, 2005), Making All Black Lives Matter: Reimagining Freedom in the 21st Century (University of California Press, 2018), and Eslanda: The Large and Unconventional Life of Mrs. Paul Robeson (Yale University Press, 2013).
Dr. Ransby is a graduate of Columbia University in New York City. She holds master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Michigan.