Two UCI professors win prestigious Berlin Prize

Two UCI professors are among the 23 scholars, writers and artists chosen as recipients of the 2016-17 Berlin Prize, a residential fellowship for independent study in the city. Selected by an independent committee of the American Academy in Berlin were Daniel J. Martinez,  Claire Trevor Professor of Art, and Jane O. Newman, professor of comparative literature and European languages & studies. “We look forward to welcoming another group of outstanding fellows,” said Gerhard Casper, academy president. “By working with their peers and partner institutions in Berlin and presenting their projects to the public, they will contribute to the exchange of ideas between the U.S. and Germany.” Martinez, part of the spring 2016 class, uses photography, painting, performance art and more to explore political questions. His project is on war, architecture and the disappearance of Western civilization in the age of intelligent machines. Newman, part of the spring 2017 class, will use the time to complete her book on German-Jewish scholar Erich Auerbach (1892-1957), whose work became the foundation of most humanistic disciplines in the U.S.