Hans Kilian Prize
The Hans Kilian Prize for research into and promotion of metacultural humanization was awarded every two years between 2011 and 2019, a total of five times. He recognized excellent scientific achievements that provide new insights into the historical and cultural existence of man and his changeable psyche. With prize money of 80,000 euros, the Hans Kilian Prize was one of the most highly endowed social science awards in Germany.
The prize, suggested by Lotte Köhler and established by the Köhler Foundation, bears the name of the late social psychologist and psychoanalyst Hans Kilian (1921–2008) and is committed to his interdisciplinary thinking. The concept of metacultural humanization played a key role in Kilian's thinking, reflecting the interactions between the individual life story and broad socio-historical developments and bringing together social and cultural psychological, psychoanalytic, anthropological, historical and sociological perspectives in particular. In the spirit of the eponym, the award recognized international scientific achievements that creatively cross the boundaries between disciplines and cultures and create productive syntheses between previously isolated areas of knowledge. Accordingly, the prize honored outstanding contributions that combine interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary perspectives, theories, methods and findings from the diverse spectrum of the humanities, social and cultural sciences, but also psychiatry and other areas of medicine.
The work of the award committee and the jury, the award ceremony and the associated scientific "award winners' colloquium" have been coordinated by the Hans Kilian and Lotte Köhler Center (KKC) since 2014 . The center was initiated by the Köhler Foundation and is institutionalized at the Chair for Social Psychology and Social Theory at the Ruhr University Bochum .
Award winners
- 2011: Hartmut Böhme
- 2013: Hans Joas
- 2015: Jessica R. Benjamin
- 2017: Jaan Valsiner
- 2019: Ashis Nandy
2011: Hartmut Böhme, Lotte Köhler, CEO Ambros Schindler (right)
2013: Lotte Köhler, Hans Joas, Ambros Schindler
2015: Jessica R. Benjamin, CEO Wolfgang Mertens
2017: Chairman of the Board of Trustees Heinz-Rudi Spiegel, Jaan Valsiner, CEO Wolfgang Mertens (right)
2019: Heinz-Rudi Spiegel, Ashis Nandy, Andrea Locker
