Press Releases



Press Release, 05/05/2015

The Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and Gerda Henkel Foundation continue cooperation

Extension of the fellowship programme agreed | Fellowship for historian Dr. Thomas Biskup

The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, New Jersey (USA), founded in 1930, is one of the world’s leading research establishments. The Gerda Henkel Foundation has been involved with the Institute for many years in the context of a fellowship programme for internationally renowned researchers. In this way it offers European scholars an opportunity to spend eight months conducting research at the IAS School of Historical Studies. The Institute for Advanced Study and Gerda Henkel Foundation are now to continue this cooperation: The first Gerda Henkel Fellow of the five-year programme extension is historian Dr. Thomas Biskup, University of Hull.

“We are honored to continue our relationship with the Gerda Henkel Foundation to provide scholars with an opportunity to pursue the most interesting and relevant questions in their fields,” stated Robbert Dijkgraaf, Director and Leon Levy Professor of the Institute for Advanced Study. Dr. Michael Hanssler, Chair of the Executive Board of the Gerda Henkel Foundation, adds: “We are delighted that scholars to be supported by the Foundation in future too will benefit from the unique working conditions and academic exchange, which goes back to Albert Einstein, at the Institute for Advanced Study.” Previous Gerda Henkel Fellows at the School of Historical Studies include lslamic studies scholar Prof. Sabine Schmidtke, who today is a professor at the Institute.

Dr. Thomas Biskup

Dr. Thomas Biskup, born in 1971, received his doctorate from the University of Cambridge in 2001 and has lectured in Early Modern History at the University of Hull’s Department of History since 2006. His research interests include the history of culture and scholarship in the Age of Enlightenment. In the 2015/16 academic year at the Institute for Advanced Study he will conduct research into Anglo-German scholarship networks in the 18th century, focussing on their knowledge of natural history outside Europe.

The Gerda Henkel Foundation was founded in 1976 by Lisa Maskell (1914–1998) in memory of her mother Gerda Henkel. The sole object of the Foundation is to promote science at universities and research institutes, primarily by supporting specific projects in the field of the humanities that have a specialist scope and are limited in time. The Gerda Henkel Foundation maintains partnerships with academic institutions worldwide as part of its international commitment. In addition to the Institute for Advanced Study, these include, among others, the Department of German Studies at Stanford University, the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme (Paris), the Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences at Stellenbosch University, the Maison méditerranéenne des sciences de l'homme (Aix-en-Provence), the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and Queen’s College (both Oxford University).

About the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS)
The Institute for Advanced Study, founded in 1930 as an independent institution in Princeton, New Jersey, is one of the world’s leading centers for basic research in the sciences and humanities, where the permanent faculty and visiting scholars have the freedom to pursue some of the deepest theoretical questions without pressure for immediate outcomes. Its reach has been multiplied many times over through the more than 7,000 scholars who have influenced entire fields of study as well as the work and minds of colleagues and students (www.ias.edu).

Contact
Gerda Henkel Foundation press office
Dr Sybille Wüstemann
Telephone: +49 (0)211 93 65 24 0
E-mail: wuestemann@gerda-henkel-stiftung.de