Filipino Sociologist Randolf David Wins Grand Prize in 30th Fukuoka Award
Public Sociologist and Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of the Philippines Randolf David was recently awarded the grand prize in the 30th edition of the prestigious Fukuoka Prize 2019 Award Ceremony.
The Fukuoka Prize committee honored Prof. David’s dynamic part in promoting social justice in the country through university education and media platforms like TV and newspaper.
This made him the first-ever Filipino laureate to win the grand prize since Fukuoka Prize was established three decades ago.
Fukuoka Grand Prize 2019 winner Prof. Randolf David
“His determination and activity to transform currently existing society for the better, by opening universities to the public and by working together with citizens or overseas countries, have won him high praise as a leading Asian public intellectual, a man of action as well as ideas,” the citation noted.
Prof. Randolf David was born in 1946 in San Fernando, Pampanga. He studied sociology at the University of the Philippines Diliman (UPD) and earned a Rockefeller scholarship at the Graduate School of the University of Manchester in United Kingdom.
He became a full-time lecturer in UP during the Martial Law era and founded the Third World Studies Center in 1977. Since then, he has been actively engaged in society and has helped in shaping public opinion through media participation.
“For his great and enduring contribution to social development in his own country, to mutual understanding in Asian society and to grassroots-level exchange, Prof. Randolf David is truly worthy for the Grand Prize of the Fukuoka Prize,” the citation added.
Two other Fukuoka Prize laureates were also given recognition by the committee. This year’s Academic Prize 2019 recipient was Dutch Historian Prof. Leonard Blussé, while Japanese stage director and playwright Sato Makoto got the Arts and Culture Prize 2019.
Academic Prize 2019 awardee Dutch Historian Prof. Leonard Blussé (left) and Arts and Culture Prize 2019 recipient Sato Makoto (right)
The Fukuoka Prize, formerly known as Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize, was first inaugurated in 1990 in Fukuoka City, Japan. They give awards to outstanding individuals or groups and organizations that promote and preserve the diverse culture of Asia.
Source: Fukuoka Prize
Images grabbed from Fukuoka Prize
