Jean-Claude Trichet, former head of the ECB, speaks with Paul Volcker, the spring 2009 Richard von Weizsäcker Distinguished Visitor. Photo: Hans Glave.

Distinguished visitors are invited to the American Academy throughout the academic year and typically stay at the Hans Arnhold Center for one to four weeks. Drawn from the worlds of academia, politics, journalism, the arts, foreign policy, and the media, past distinguished visitors have included United States Supreme Court Justices Stephen Breyer and Antonin Scalia; artists Kiki Smith, Alex Katz, Maya Lin, and Chuck Close; Senator Thomas Daschle; writers William Styron and Jonathan Franzen; journalists Thomas Friedman, Malcolm Gladwell, and Frances FitzGerald; and foreign policy experts Richard Haass, Martin Indyk, Strobe Talbott, and Dennis Ross, among many others.