Professor Sabine von Mering (GER & WMGS)—Director of the Center for German and European Studies—has been awarded the Volkmar and Margret Sander Prize by Deutsches Haus at New York University (NYU). It’s given annually to individuals who help build relationships between German and American culture, politics and academics, according to the prize page.
von Mering received the prize as a result of her “outstanding contributions to the cultural, political, and academic relationship between the German-speaking world and the United States,” according to the prize website.
Professor von Mering’s research focuses include “German as a foreign language, Jewish-German dialogue, German women writers and German cinema.” Her most recent publications include explorations of U.S. and Europe politics, global environmental politics, and Jewish emigration.
She is not teaching any classes in the Spring Semester. Currently, she is writing the “Handbook of Global Climate Activism,” which will be published in 2023. von Mering will be officially honored with the Volkmar and Margret Sander Prize later this month in New York, according to the prize page. The laudator is Sultan Doughan—the Dr. Thomas Zand Visiting professor in Holocaust Pedagogy and Antisemitism Studies at Clark University—according to the prize page.
Along with her work in German language and culture, von Mering’s “main research interests are global climate activism as well as antisemitism on social media and right-wing extremism in Europe,” according to her profile. Another upcoming project of von Mering’s is “A History of our Future” which will be coming out with the Brandeis University Press in 2023, according to the page. The order in which the two publications, “A History of our Future” and “Handbook of Global Climate Activism,” will be released is not specified.
Von Mering has received other awards and honors including the Theodore and Jane Norman Fund for faculty research from 2018-2020. As well as the provost’s research grant from 2017-2018, according to von Mering’s faculty page.
The prize was first awarded in 2013 and honorees receive a $5000 grant. The Volkar and Margret Sander Prize was started by Margret Sander—a professor at NYU. Sander established the prize in honor of her late husband, according to the prize page. Her husband—Volkmar Sander—was the former head of the German Department at NYU and was the first director of the Deutsches Haus—a department that celebrates and fosters the culture, music, heritage, language and history of Germany—at NYU. The prize is given through the cultural program Deutsches Haus at NYU.
Past recipients include Heinz Ickstadt—a professor emeritus at the Kennedy Institute of North American Studies at the Free University in Berlin—in 2021. There is no listed recipient for 2020, and the 2019 recipient was Susan Neiman—Director of the Einstein Forum in Berlin.
