Gleditsch becomes the first Norwegian to receive the Anne-Lise Meier Forschungspreis from the Alexander Humboldt Foundation.


Kristian Skrede Gleditsch (left) with his Konstanz sponsor, Gerald Schneider.

On 15 September, Kristian Skrede Gleditsch of the University of Essex and PRIO was honored in Leipzig as one of the 11 recipients in 2015 of the Anneliese Maier Research Award from the Alexander Humboldt Foundation. The award is for excellent researchers in the humanities and social sciences. The award winners independently choose their collaborators in Germany. The aim is to internationalise the fields of humanities and social sciences in Germany. Kristian was the only social scientist on the list this year, and he is the first Norwegian to win this price. He was nominated by Gerald Schneider of Konstanz University. For the next few years he will make regular visits to Konstanz to work with several colleagues and PhD students.

Kristian’s presentation in Leipzig was titled ‘Conflict, Strategies, and Violence: Non-violent Protest in Comparative Perspective’. Leipzig was, of course, a key location for nonviolent protests during the period up the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Many of them took place at Augustusplatz, right next to the Gewandhaus Leipzig, where the award ceremony was held.