Each year, the American Academy awards two dozen semester-long Berlin Prize fellowships to outstanding scholars, writers, and artists from the United States, Kira Thurman, Assistant Professor of History and German, was awarded this prestigious prize for Fall 2017.

Fellows, who come from the humanities, social sciences, public policy, and the arts, pursue independent projects in a residential community at the Hans Arnhold Center, a historic villa on Lake Wannsee. They share their work with German colleagues and audiences at lectures, readings, discussions, concerts, and film screenings, which form the core of the Academy's rich program of public events.

The German magazine Der Spiegel calls the American Academy "the most important center for American intellectual life outside of the United States."