The UC Santa Barbara professor and Center for Taiwan Studies director is the first winner from East Asia to receive the world’s largest history prize
Howard Chiang, professor in the Department of East Asian Languages & Cultural Studies, has received the 2026 Dan David Prize for his scholarship on modern East Asian medicine, gender and sexuality. The Dan David Prize announced its 2026 winners on June 16.
Chiang holds the Lai Ho & Wu Cho-liu Endowed Chair in Taiwan Studies and directs UC Santa Barbara’s Center for Taiwan Studies. He is also affiliated with the Department of History and the Department of Feminist Studies. Across his research, writing and institution-building, Chiang has helped advance Sinophone studies and queer Asian Pacific history. The prize selection committee also lauded Chiang for building new conceptual and institutional frameworks, most notably “transtopia,” to capture the diverse cultural complexities of the Sinophone world.
Chiang is the first winner from East Asia to receive the prize. Each of the nine 2026 winners will receive $300,000 to support future work. “This recognition confirms my commitment to promoting the study of history as a creative, imaginative and ethical undertaking for a brighter, more socially just future,” Chiang said. Read the full story on The Current.
Photo credit: Matt Perko.