University of Chicago’s Alice Goff Wins the 2020 Berlin Prize

Alice M. Goff, an assistant professor of history at the University of Chicago, has been named a recipient of the 2020 Berlin Prize from the American Academy in Berlin. The Berlin Prize is awarded to scholars, writers, composers, and artists from the United States who represent the highest standards of excellence in their fields.

Dr. Goff will begin a semester-long fellowship this fall at the Academy, which fosters intellectual, cultural, and political ties between Germany and the United States. A scholar of modern Germany, Goff will be working on her book manuscript, The God Behind the Marble, a history of the idea that a work of art can create a modern liberal society.

“In addition to providing the space and time to focus on my manuscript,” Dr. Goff said, “the American Academy is giving me an invaluable opportunity to think in conversation about the implications of my historical work to contemporary cultural politics in Germany.”

Dr. Goff is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. She holds a master’s degree from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.