UMD's Gelfand Receives Prestigious Humboldt International Research Prize

Award recognizes her leading research on culture and conflict

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- University of Maryland Professor of Psychology Michele Gelfand is among the first awardees of the new Anneliese Maier Research Award from the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany. According to the Humboldt Foundation, Gelfand received the award, which includes a monetary prize of approximately $335,000 (EUR 250,000), because she is one of world's "most productive and innovative researchers in the area of comparative Cultural and Conflict Research."

Gelfand is one of seven winners selected from a total of 90 nominees in 20 countries for this new award, which is designed to promote the internationalization of the humanities and social sciences in Germany and is given to researchers around the world who are active in one of the relevant fields. Scholars are nominated for the award by their collaborating partners in German universities and research centers. The monetary award is to be used for conducting research with colleagues and specialists at German institutions.

"I'm thrilled and honored to be given this award, which will greatly facilitate further research connections between the University of Maryland and Jacobs University Bremen among other academic institutions in Germany," says Gelfand.

Listen to Gelfand discuss her work on culture and conflict here.

Working closely with Klaus Boehnke and colleagues at Jacobs University Bremen, Gelfand plans to continue developing her widely recognized work on a major source of cultural and national conflict: the difference between societies that are "tight" with strong norms and low tolerance for deviation from norms, and those that are "loose" with weak norms and high tolerance for deviation from those norms. In May of this year, Gelfand and colleagues published in the journal Science, a study of 33 nations that for the first time assessed the degree to which those countries are restrictive versus permissive and what factors have made them that way. This work drew wide attention from media and national and international leaders. Read more about this study here.

Cultural differences in tightness and looseness can also affect countries internal dynamics and conflict. Thus Gelfand -- who is also affiliated with the University of Maryland's National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) -- also will be working with colleagues to study issues such as how tight and loose cultural differences between immigrants and their adopted country may affect radicalization.

The other Maier awardees are: Katharina Boele-Woelki (Netherlands), a leading researcher on international and comparative family law; James Conant (USA) one of the most important representatives of American contemporary philosophy; Shaun Gallagher (USA) a leading academic at the frontier of philosophy, cognitive science and neuroscience; Patrick Geary (USA) an internationally acclaimed medieval historian; linguist Nicholas Evans (Australia) the worlds leading expert in un-researched and/or endangered languages; and Birgit Meyer (Netherlands) a leading international expert on the modern anthropology of religion with a focus on Africa.

The award is named for German-born philosopher and historian of science Anneliese Maier (1905  1971) who wrote on the emergence of modern scientific thought from the 14th to 18th centuries, particularly in the natural sciences. For more information on the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, or to read the foundation press release about this award, click here. A second press release, published by the nominating university, Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences, can be viewed here.

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