2024 International Humanities Prize Call for Nominations

The Washington University International Humanities Prize is awarded biennially to a person who has contributed significantly to the humanities through a body of work that has dramatically impacted how we understand the human condition. Past recipients are Alison Bechdel (2022), Sir David Adjaye (2018), Bill T. Jones (2016), Marjorie Perloff (2014), Ken Burns (2012), Francine Prose (2010), Michael Pollan (2008) and Orhan Pamuk (2006).

The prize amount was doubled to $50,000 in 2023. The recipient delivers a public lecture on the Washington University campus, and engages with students, faculty, administration, and community members throughout their visit.

Recent past recipients

Alison Bechdel, 2022

Alison Bechdel’s comic strip “Dykes To Watch Out For” became a countercultural institution among lesbians and discerning non-lesbians all over the planet. And her more recent, darkly humorous graphic memoirs about her family have forged an unlikely intimacy with an even wider range of readers. Bechdel self-syndicated the comic strip for 25 years, from 1983 to 2008. The award-winning generational chronicle has been called “one of the pre-eminent oeuvres in the comics genre, period” (Ms. magazine). In 2006 she published “Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic.” Time magazine named it the Best Book of 2006. It was adapted into a musical by the playwright Lisa Kron and the composer Jeanine Tesori. It opened on Broadway at the Circle in the Square Theater on April 19, 2015, and won five Tony Awards, including “Best Musical.” Nominated by the Department of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies.

Sir David Adjaye, 2018

Since opening in 2016, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture, designed by British architect Sir David Adjaye, has become arguably the nation’s most prestigious, acclaimed and beloved new structure. It’s one of many major public spaces Adjaye has designed in Europe, Africa and elsewhere in North America. Adjaye’s humanistic approach to design — embodying the human experience in all its trauma, beauty and wonder — sets him apart from his contemporaries.

Bill T. Jones, 2016

Few have shaped contemporary American dance as profoundly as choreographer Bill T. Jones, artistic director of New York Live Arts Beginning in the 1970s, Jones and his late partner, Arnie Zane, tackled issues of racism, sexism and sexual identity while also experimenting with video, spoken narrative and other multimedia elements. Works such as “Still/Here” and “Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin/The Promised Land” — which Jones created in the wake of Zane’s death, in 1988 — captured both the emotional toll of the AIDS crisis and a stubborn refusal to succumb. Jones’ many honors include a MacArthur “Genius” Award, the Dorothy and Lillian Gish prize, a pair of Tony Awards and numerous New York Dance and Performance (a.k.a. “Bessie”) Awards. His memoir, “Last Night on Earth,” was published in 1995. “Body Against Body: The Dance and Other Collaborations of Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane,” which the two men wrote together, was released in 1989.

Marjorie Perloff, 2014

One of the foremost critics of 20th- and 21st-century poetry and poetics, Marjorie Perloff is the author of 16 books and hundreds of articles and book chapters focused on the writing of experimental and avant-garde poets. Her outstanding body of work has made an impact on both the discipline of literary criticism and the landscape of contemporary poetry. Among Perloff’s most influential works are “Wittgenstein’s Ladder: The Strangeness of the Ordinary” (University of Chicago Press, 1996), in which she examined poetry and philosophy, and “The Poetics of Indeterminacy: Rimbaud to Cage” (Princeton University Press, 1981). Her memoir, “The Vienna Paradox” (New Directions, 2004), in which she recounts her escape with her family from Nazi terror in pre-World War II Vienna and their arrival in the United States, has been translated into German and Portuguese, as has her “Unoriginal Genius: Poetry by Other Means in the 21st Century.”

Nomination process

The Center for the Humanities invites nominations for the International Humanities Prize from humanities departments and programs, including in the humanistic social sciences (see list below). Departments and programs are encouraged to collaborate on a single nomination, though that is not a requirement. The center’s interdisciplinary executive committee of nine faculty members will review the nominations and make the final selection. The selection will be finalized approximately one year before the award ceremony in order to allow ample time for planning.  While the center will be responsible for all logistics, it will work closely with the nominating departments and programs in coordinating the visit. Our primary goal is to prioritize student, faculty and community engagement with the recipient and their work over a two-  to three-day period.

Eligible Units

African and African-American Studies; American Culture Studies; Anthropology; Art History and Archaeology; Classics; Comparative Literature; East Asian Languages and Cultures; Education; English; Film and Media Studies; Germanic Languages and Literatures; Global Studies; History; Interdisciplinary Project in the Humanities; Jewish, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies; John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics; Latin American Studies; Music; Performing Arts; Philosophy; Religious Studies; Romance Languages and Literatures; Sociology; and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Criteria by which nominations will be judged

  1. The breadth and depth of nominee’s contribution to the humanities
  2. Potential engagement with faculty and students across multiple fields and disciplines
  3. Programmatic engagement with community organizations and individuals
  4. Ability to draw attention, on campus and off, to the significance of the humanities

Timetable for 2024 International Humanities Prize

  • Call for Nominations announced: December 5, 2022
  • Nominations due: March 31, 2023 (extended)
  • Selection announced: May 15, 2023
  • Award ceremony: Spring or (preferred) Fall 2024

Nomination form