Karl Galinsky, the Floyd A. Cailloux Centennial Professor of Classics and Distinguished Teaching Professor at The University of Texas at Austin, has been awarded a 2009 Max Planck Research Award for International Cooperation for his study of history and memory.
The Max Planck Society, in collaboration with the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, awards the $965,000 (750,000 euro) prize in humanities to only two scholars every four years. The German recipient of the 2009 prize is Aleida Assmann, professor of English and cultural studies at Konstanz University.
The 2009 prize has a thematic focus on cultural memory, which Galinsky will apply to ancient Roman civilization, particularly the age of the emperor Augustus. Galinsky’s research also explores connections between antiquity and its perception in modern culture. The award committee credited him with building bridges “to current themes such as disenchantment with politics and multiculturalism.”
Galinsky will use the award to support an interdisciplinary group of doctoral candidates and researchers who will investigate the role of memory in Roman civilization. It also will support Galinsky’s research leave at Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany, where he will contribute to research projects on religion and the study of memory from a psychological and neuroscience perspective.
The scholar has earned numerous grants for his research, including Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships. He also has been a consultant to Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio. The distinguished teaching professor teaches a popular introductory course on Rome, and leads the first Plan II study abroad program in Rome, made possible by the Ligon-Lamsam International Study Fund.
Galinsky’s books include “The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Augustus,” “Augustan Culture: An Interpretive Introduction” and “Classical and Modern Interactions: Postmodern Architecture, Multiculturalism, Decline and Other Issues.”
