The Fellows of the academic year 2025/2026 have arrived in Berlin and begun to work on their individual research projects. This year, they represent around 30 different disciplines and come from 23 countries of origin. 

The Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin offers internationally recognized scholars, promising young scientists, as well as a number of artists, the opportunity to concentrate on a project of their own choosing for one academic year, free from other obligations. The approximately 45 Fellows form a “learning community” for ten months, in which different disciplinary perspectives, languages, and scientific cultures lead to new constellations. The institution is characterized by a climate of freedom and curiosity, optimal working conditions, and the stimulating potential of an outstanding community of thought.

On October 8, Rector Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger will introduce the Fellows to guests from the academic, cultural, and political spheres during the annual opening event, the Berlin Reception. Marion Ackermann, President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, will give a welcoming address. 

Here are a few examples from the Fellows’ diverse range of projects: Deference and Disruption in Political Interaction (John Levi Martin, Chicago), The Tax Politics of the Super-Rich (Marlies Glasius, Amsterdam), Hungary under Orbán: The EU’s Only Electoral Autocracy in Comparative Perspective (Zoltán Ádám, Budapest), Sensory Practices and Sensory Regimes: Material Culture and the Senses in Medieval and Modern Archaeology (Matthias Friedrich, Vienna), Mechanisms of Speciation in the 21st Century (Leonie C. Moyle, Bloomington), The Idea of Occidentalism and Post-World War Ukrainian Cultural Imagination (1945–1949) (Tamara Hundorova, Kyiv), Bluster: Bourgeois Anxiety and Expository Style in Mid- to Late Nineteenth-Century Germany (Erica Weitzman, Evanston), The Media System of Empire (Brian Larkin, New York), Dealing with Ethnic and Religious Diversity in Early Modern Germany: Baptismal Sermons for Muslim, Jewish, and “Heathen” Converts (Renate Dürr, Tübingen), and Medical Aid in Dying, Autonomy, and Somatic Oppression (Jonas-Sébastien Beaudry, Montreal).

This year, the arts are represented by photographer Tarrah Krajnak, Los Angeles (RePose), composer Dmitri Kourliandski, Paris (Composition of a String Quartet, an Ensemble Piece, and a Chamber Opera), and writers Tsitsi Dangarembga, Harare (Ubuntu 2.0: Insights for a More Sustainable Future from Ancient Bantu-Speaking Culture), as well as Teresa Präauer, Vienna (Nie mehr weinen (working title)). Theater director Frieda Lange, Berlin, is this year’s recipient of the Mortier Next Generation Award and will spend four months at the Wissenschaftskolleg (Stahlgipfel). 

All Fellows are appointed on the basis of their research projects and their excellence in their respective fields. The Rector makes the selection with the support of the Permanent Fellows and an international academic advisory board. In the field of literature, she is advised by a jury, and in music and photography by senior advisors.

Contact: Katharina Wiedemann, Press and Public Relations
030 / 89001-117, wiedemann(at)wiko-berlin.de

Berlin, October 2025