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American Academy Alumni Seminars

Since the American Academy in Berlin’s fellowship program began, in fall 1998, over 450 scholars, writers, artists, and composers have come to the Hans Arnhold Center for a semester of independent research and creative work—from academic monographs and essays to new novels, paintings, and compositions. We remain grateful for the continued support of our alumni, who spread the word about our fellowship program, help in our selection process, serve as peer reviewers, and refer colleagues and friends as potential fellows. It is because of them that the American Academy’s transatlantic network of scholars, writers, and artists has grown into today’s success.

Alumni Seminar at The New School for Social Research, April 2018

In the spirit of keeping this intellectual network alive, we held the first in a series of Alumni Seminars on April 5, 2018, at The New School for Social Research, in New York City. Chaired by spring 2017 fellows Harry Liebersohn (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) and Virág Molnár (The New School), the seminar convened panelists drawn from Academy alumni and New School faculty—sociologists, historians, political scientists—to discuss “New Populisms and Nationalisms: Transatlantic Perspectives.” In two panels, this distinguished group spoke to recent challenges to democratic norms in the United States and Western Europe—in Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands—in Eastern European countries such as Hungary and Poland, as well as in India, Turkey, and Russia.

Alumni Seminar at Stanford University, November 2018

On November 15, 2018, the American Academy in Berlin held its second alumni seminar, at Stanford University, entitled “Politics – Culture – Identity,” in which Academy alumni and distinguished peers examined broader questions of identity politics. The first session—a discussion between Francis Fukuyama and Academy trustee Gerhard Casper—dealt the relationship between identity politics and democracy. The second session addressed the interplay of social resistance, the arts, and identity politics, with alumnus Josh Kun (USC Annenberg School of Communication), Distinguished Visitor Tricia Rose (Brown University), and Ana Raquel Minian (Stanford University).

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