Nigerian author, cultural critic and feminist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is the recipient of the Everett M. Rogers Award 2019.
The Everett M. Rogers Award is given annually to honours the late USC Annenberg professor Everett M. Rogers, whose Diffusion of Innovations is the second-most cited book in the social sciences. The award has been given since 2007 on behalf of the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism by the school’s Norman Lear Center. Previous winners of the award, unfamiliar to followers of the African literary scene, include Kathleen Hall Jamieson (2018), Sherry Turkle (2016), and Rosabeth Moss Kanter (2016).
The 2019 recipient of the award is no stranger to African literature in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Adichie has won numerous awards since her debut novel, Purple Hibiscus (2003), Half of A Yellow Sun (2007), and Americanah (2013) as well as other publications. They include the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, the (US) National Book Critics Circle Award, The Orange Prize, and many more. Her work has been translated into over 30 languages.
“Her singular voice and her power to inspire made Chimamanda Adichie the unanimous choice for the 2019 Rogers Award,” said USC Annenberg Dean Willow Bay. “Her visit to our school will continue the global conversation about race, gender and identity to which she’s contributed so eloquently.”
Added USC Annenberg professor and Norman Lear Center director Martin Kaplan, “Ev Rogers showed how storytelling could be a catalyst for empowerment and development in Africa and South Asia. Chimamanda Adichie’s work carries that insight worldwide.”
Adichie will receive the award and speak at USC Annenberg on Feb. 7, 2019.
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