Projects and Cooperation

The Heidelberg Center for American Studies is home to a number of interdisciplinary and international research projects. They include a multi-volume edition of the first American Bible commentary, a research project on the economic and geopolitical effects of migration on the American continent, and a project that ties in with ongoing research on Jewish emigration from the region to the United States in the 1930s. The HCA supports young scholars with several initiatives: Since 2003, the HCA Spring Academy for American History, Culture, and Politics invites twenty outstanding doctoral students to Heidelberg to present their dissertation projects in American Studies and expand their international networks. Since 2010, the HCA annually awards the Rolf Kentner Prize, which honors outstanding doctoral theses in the field of American Studies. In addition, the HCA established the James W.C. Pennington Award together with the Faculty of Theology in 2011; the award commemorates the American pastor and former slave who received an honorary doctorate from heidelberg University in 1849. The HCA also supports the Jonathan Edwards Center, a cooperation with Yale Divinity School, dedicated to the work of the important 18th century theologian. In addition, the HCA regularly welcomes visiting scholars from the USA.