At this year’s US$5 Million Singapore Prize event held at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Singapore, the top prize winner received $2.525 Million while runners-up received $2.75 Million. A live awards ceremony featuring all winners was streamed live to Facebook and YouTube to honour them.
NUS President Prof Kishore Mahbubani stated in his statement that, for national development to proceed successfully, our sense of history must deepen and broaden.
In its inaugural year, the NUS Singapore History Prize received over 300 submissions and was judged by an esteemed panel consisting of both local and international scholars.
Khir Johari, an educator and food historian known for his groundbreaking book The Food of Singapore Malays that transforms our understanding of Malay cuisine’s cultural history and heritage, was awarded this year’s NUS Singapore History Prize. He was noted for his multidisciplinary approach in studying cultural histories of Singapore’s archipelago.
Judges said the book showed an exceptional mastery of anthropological methodology in studying one region. Furthermore, its exploration of Malay culture history in Singapore and Malaysia “is both pioneering and cutting-edge”, while its scholarly approach used was “immaculate”.
Established by an anonymous donor in 2014, the NUS Singapore History Prize aims to encourage greater engagement with and discussion surrounding Singapore’s unique history as well as increase discussion on its place within global affairs. Now twice its original value thanks to an increase of its endowment from this donor, this prize has increased twofold.
The NUS Singapore History Prize recognizes works published in English that address Singaporean history. Self-published works will not be accepted into consideration for this award.
NUS will announce its shortlist of nominees for this Prize by late March, with a winner to be revealed at an awards ceremony on 27 April. The winning book will receive a cash prize of S$50,000.
Three violinists will perform concertos with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra as finalists of this award. Partnered with the award by Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music and its Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music to provide multiple concert engagements across Asia and beyond in addition to winning USD $110,000 prize money, Dmytro Udovychenko, Anna Agafia Egholm and Angela Sin Ying Chan will round off this year’s finalist group. For more information visit Singapore Prize website; follow @NESHprize for latest updates from NUS Singapore History Prize competition!