Martin A. Klein

{{short description|Africanist and history professor specialising in the Atlantic slave trade}}

Martin A. Klein (born 1934 in suburban New York City) is an Africanist and an emeritus professor in the History Department at the University of Toronto specialising in the Atlantic slave trade, and francophone West Africa: Senegal, Guinea, and Mali.{{cite web |url=https://www.history.utoronto.ca/people/directories/all-faculty/martin-klein |title=Martin Klein. Professor Emeritus |last= |first= |date= 7 November 2019|website=history.utoronto.ca |publisher=University of Toronto. Faculty of Arts & Science. Department of History |access-date=16 November 2022 |quote=}}{{cite journal |last1=Miller |first1=Joseph C. |title=Breaking the Historiographical Chains: Martin Klein and Slavery |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/486210 |journal= Canadian Journal of African Studies |year=2000 |volume=34 |issue=3 |pages=512–531 |doi=10.2307/486210 |jstor=486210 |access-date=16 November 2022}} With a bibliography of Klein's works. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism at Northwestern University (1951-1955) and a Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy in history at the University of Chicago (1957-1964). Klein worked as an assistant professor at the University of California Berkeley from 1965 till 1970, later teaching African history at the University of Toronto as an associate professor and later full professor from 1970 until his retirement in 1999.{{cite web |url=https://utoronto.academia.edu/MartinKlein |title=Martin Klein University of Toronto, History, Emeritus |last= |first= |date= |website=utoronto.academia.edu |publisher=Academia.edu |access-date=16 November 2022 |quote=}}{{cite web |url=https://www.linkedin.com/in/martin-klein-97349015/ |title=Martin Klein Professor emeritus at University of Toronto |last=Klein |first=Martin A. |date= |website=linkedin.com |publisher=Linkedin |access-date=16 November 2022 |quote=}}{{better source needed|date=November 2022|Linkedin is a user controlled social media site and not a reliable source. If it is not needed, it's better to remove it. If it is needed, it is better to find a reliable source or delete the info that comes from Linkedin}} As a Fulbright Fellow, Klein taught for a year at Lovanium University in Kinshasa.

He was a president of the African Studies Association (US, 1991-1997) and of the Canadian Association of African Studies. In 2001, Klein received a Distinguished Africanist Award from the African Studies Association.{{cite web |url=https://africanstudies.org/awards-prizes-asa/distinguished-africanist-award-winners/ |title=Distinguished Africanist Award Winners |last= |first= |date=2022 |website=africanstudies.org |publisher=African Studies Association |access-date=16 November 2022 |quote=}} In 2010, the American Historical Association awarded the first annual Martin A. Klein Prize instituted in his name for the most distinguished work of scholarship on African history published in English during the previous calendar year.{{cite web |url=https://www.historians.org/awards-and-grants/awards-and-prizes/martin-a-klein-prize |title=Martin A. Klein Prize |last= |first= |date=2022 |website=historians.org |publisher=American Historical Association |access-date=16 November 2022 |quote=}}{{cite web |url=https://www.historians.org/awards-and-grants/past-recipients/martin-a-klein-prize-recipients |title=Martin A. Klein Prize Recipients |last= |first= |date=2022 |website=historians.org |publisher=American Historical Association |access-date=16 November 2022 |quote=}}