Berlin Prize

The Berlin Prize is a residential fellowship at the Hans Arnhold Center, awarded by the American Academy in Berlin to scholars and artists. Each year, about 20 fellows are selected.

The stated mission of the program is to improve the transatlantic dialogue in the arts, humanities, and public policy through the development and communication of projects of the highest scholarly merit.

The program is privately funded through donations, with the Kellen-Arnhold family as Academy's primary source of financial support.

History The creation of the Academy and the program was driven by Richard C. Holbrooke, an American diplomat who served as U.S. Ambassador to Germany towards the waning days of the Cold War. As the last of the American troops were leaving Berlin, Holbrooke proposed the academy as a way of maintaining U.S-German ties. The academy was created in 1994 and the first class of fellows were brought in September 1998.

Recipients come from a wide range of academic fields and have included anthropologists, art historians, historians, philosophers, musicologists, sociologists, legal scholars, and economists, among others.

Eligibility Fellows must based permanently in the United States, though are not required to be U.S. citizens. American expatriates are explicitly stated to not be eligible.

Academic candidates are expected to have completed a doctorate at the time of application, whereas applicants working in fields such as journalism, filmmaking, or public policy must have equivalent professional degrees or experience. Writers must have published at least one book.

Previous Berlin Prize Fellows YearWinnerWorkLocation Fall 2016-Spring 2017Tom FranklinNovelist, Assoc. Professor, Department of English, University of Mississippi, OxfordMississippi Fall 2016-Spring 2017Michael WattsProfessor Emeritus, Department of Geography, University of California, BerkeleyCaliforniaSpring 2015Mary Jo BangProfessor of English, Washington University in St. LouisMissouri Fall 2015Jason PineAssistant Professor of Anthropology and Media Studies, Purchase College, State University of New York Fall 2015Anthony MarraWriter and Jones Lecturer in Fiction, Stanford University Spring 2013Sinan AntoonAssistant Professor, Gallatin School of Individualized Study, New York UniversityNew York Spring 2013J.M. BernsteinUniversity Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, New School for Social ResearchNew York Spring 2013Gene ColemanComposer, musician and directorNew Jersey Spring 2013William CordovaInterdisciplinary cultural practitionerNew York Spring 2013Charles HirschkindAssociate professor, Department of Anthropology, University of California at BerkeleyCalifornia Spring 2013Donald L. HorowitzJames B. Duke Professor of Law and Political Science, Duke UniversityNorth Carolina Spring 2013Thomas DaCosta KaufmannFrederick Marquand Professor of Art and Archaeology, Princeton UniversityNew Jersey Spring 2013Susie LinfieldAssociate professor of journalism; director, Cultural Reporting and Criticism Program, New York UniversityNew York Spring 2013Béatrice LonguenesseSilver Professor of Philosophy, New York UniversityNew York Spring 2013Saba MahmoodAssociate professor, Department of Anthropology, University of California at BerkeleyCalifornia Spring 2013Lance OlsenProfessor of Literature and Creative Writing, University of UtahUtah Spring 2013Ronald SunyCharles Tilly Collegiate Professor of Social and Political History, University of MichiganMichigan Spring 2013Francesca TrivellatoFrederick W. Hilles Professor of History, Yale UniversityConnecticut Fall 2012Joan AcocellaStaff writer, The New Yorker Fall 2012Daniel AlbrightErnest Bernbaum Professor of Literature, Harvard UniversityMassachusetts Fall 2012David BollierAuthor, activist and co-founder Commons Strategies Group Fall 2012Peter ConstantineLiterary translator, New YorkNew York Fall 2012Richard HawkinsVisual Artist, Los AngelesCalifornia Fall 2012Jonathan LaurenceAssociate professor of political science, Boston CollegeMassachusetts Fall 2012Béatrice LonguenesseSilver Professor of Philosophy, New York UniversityNew York Fall 2012Heather McGowanWriter, BrooklynNew York Fall 2012Dean MoyarAssociate professor of philosophy, Johns Hopkins UniversityMaryland Fall 2012Celina SuAssociate professor of political science, City University of New YorkNew York Fall 2012Daniel N. TiffanyProfessor of English and Comparative Literature, University of Southern CaliforniaCalifornia Fall 2012Hans R. VagetHelen & Laura Shedd Professor Emeritus of German Studies, Smith CollegeMassachusetts Fall 2012Michael A. WachtelChair and Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Princeton UniversityNew Jersey Spring 2012Karen AlterProfessor of Political Science and Law, Northwestern University Spring 2012Jay Bernstein University Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, New School for Social Research Spring 2012Charles Bright Arthur J. Thurnau Professor of History, University of Michigan Spring 2012Leland de la Durantaye Gardner Cowles Associate Professor of English, Harvard University Spring 2012Martin Dimitrov Associate Professor of Political Science, Tulane University Spring 2012Michael Geyer Samuel N. Harper Professor of German and European History, and Faculty Director, Human Rights Program, University of Chicago Spring 2012Annie Gosfield Composer New York Spring 2012Avery Gordon Professor of Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara Spring 2012Leslie Hewitt Artist New York Spring 2012Peter Lindseth Olimpiad S. Ioffe Professor of International and Comparative Law, University of Connecticut School of Law Spring 2012Inga Markovits Friends of Jamail Regents Chair in Law, University of Texas School of Law Spring 2012Karen Russell Visiting Professor of Creative Writing, Bryn Mawr College Spring 2012M. Norton Wise Distinguished Professor of History, University of California, Los Angeles Fall 2011Jennifer CulbertAssociate professor of political science, Johns Hopkins University The Jurisprudence of Hannah ArendtMaryland Fall 2011Leland de la DurantayeGardner Cowles Associate Professor of English, Harvard University Wörterstürmerei im Namen der Schönheit, or World and Work in Samuel Beckett Massachusetts Fall 2011James Der DerianProfessor of International Studies (Research), Brown University Human Terrain: When War Becomes Academic Rhode Island Fall 2011Alice EaglyProfessor of Psychology, James Padilla Chair of Arts and Sciences, and Faculty Fellow, Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University The Evolutionary Origins of the Psychology of Women and Men Illinois Fall 2011Adam HaslettWriter Kindness: A NovelNew York Fall 2011Daniel HobbinsAssociate professor of History, Ohio State University Origins of Print: How Medieval Culture Ushered in the First Media Revolution Ohio Fall 2011Susan McCabeProfessor of English, University of Southern California Bryher: Female Husband of Modernism California Fall 2011Geoffrey O'BrienEditor-in-Chief, Library of America America Before the Code New York Fall 2011Paul PfeifferArtistNew York Fall 2011Elizabeth PovinelliProfessor of Anthropology and Gender Studies, Columbia University Geontologies: Indigenous Worlds in the New Media and Late Liberalism New York Fall 2011Tom SleighPoet and Distinguished Professor, Hunter College New Poems New York Fall 2011John Van EngenAndrew V. Tackes Professor of History, University of Notre Dame