Nana Osei Quarshie wins 2026 Cheiron Book Prize
Nana Osei Quarshie, Assistant Professor of History, has been named the winner of the 2026 Cheiron Book Prize for his book African Pharmakon: The Asylum as Shrine from Slavery to the Return.
Nana Osei Quarshie, Assistant Professor of History, has been named the winner of the 2026 Cheiron Book Prize for his book African Pharmakon: The Asylum as Shrine from Slavery to the Return (University of Chicago Press, 2025).
The prize, awarded by Cheiron, the International Society for the History of Behavioral and Social Sciences, is given annually to recognize outstanding books in the history of social, behavioral, and human sciences.
African Pharmakon explores the history of psychiatry in Ghana and its connections to migration, exile, and the politics of “who gets to stay and who must be cast out.” Quarshie provides a nuanced account of how psychiatric care in Ghana became a tool of empowerment as well as exclusion.
Regarding Quarshie’s book, the prize committee wrote: “We were blown away by the depth of Quarshie’s research, the profound and layered argument, and the rigorous methodological reflection. We greatly appreciated the intervention regarding the history of psychiatry, particularly in illuminating patient records from the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, and taking us beyond common questions of domination, resistance, and agency. But more broadly, we also admired Quarshie’s contributions to political and intellectual history writ large, in elucidating the notion of the ‘mind politic.’”
Quarshie’s book was also named one of the best scholarly books of 2025 by the Chronicle of Higher Education, which called it “far-reaching in its methods and unsanctimonious in its regard for the people behind its archives.”
Quarshie will discuss his work at the upcoming 2026 Cheiron annual meeting, which will be held virtually from Thursday, June 25 through Saturday, June 27, 2026.