Awardee Database

Awardees

Chris Miner

In recognition of her career-long achievements in cultural diplomacy, including her efforts in support of the high-profile US-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission.

Tobias Bradford

In recognition of his work as a Public Affairs Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Mozambique and, in particular, of his unusually innovative programming targeting youth, including a “student achievers program” that created local student networks engaging with topics such as entrepreneurship, civic participation and political party development.

Dick Davis

For his translation of Vis and Ramin, an ancient Persian epic composed by the poet Fakhraddin Gorgani. The Prize was announced by AIIS President Franklin Lewis in August 2012 at a conference of the International Society of Iranian Studies in Istanbul. No winner has been announced yet for 2013. Davis is Chair of of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at Ohio State University

Gordon M. Sayre

For his translation of The Memoir of Lieutenant Dumont 1715-1747: A Sojourner in the French Atlantic, by Jean-Francois-Benjamin Dumont de Montigny (Univ. of North Carolina Press, for the Omohundro Inst. of Early American History and Culture, 2012). Sayre is at the University of Oregon.

Maggie Taft

Project on the production, reception and distribution of design in Scandinavia and abroad from 1945 to 1960. In her University of Chicago doctoral project on Making Danish Modern: Imaging Design, Imagining a Nation, Taft explores how Danish furniture produced during these years both generated and accumulated cultural and social meanings that were mobilized in the context of the Cold War. After completing her research in Denmark, Taft was awarded the Chester Dale pre-doctoral fellowship by the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery in Washington, DC.

Lauren Holmes

Project on the government infrastructure that has supported the export of Finnish music since World War II. While in Finland, Holmes conducted interviews with leading Finnish composers and musical organizations for her doctoral work on Music and the Nation- State: Finnish Music from Nationalism to Post-nationalism at Yale University.

Christian Benefiel

Project on sustainable practices for artists at foundries. With an MFA in sculpture from the University of Maryland at College Park, where a large-scale foundry enabled him to develop expertise in metal-casting processes, Benefiel developed the world’s first foundry powered by methane gas from a landfill in North Carolina. He notes that “toxic and dangerous processes remain common for artists.” While teaching at the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts, Benefiel also built a small sustainable foundry there.

Divya Dhar

Studies towards a Master’s degree in Public Policy at Harvrd University’s Kennedy School of Government. Dhar, a young Indian-New Zealander, is the creator of the P3 (Peace, Prosperity and Progress) Foundation, an NGO that mobilizes young people across the Asia Pacific region to break out of poverty.

Kristine Ericson

Project on the influence of Japanese design on Sverre Fehn, Norway’s most influential late-20th-century architect. While in Norway, Ericson was the lead designer for a studio project to create a “green path” linking the Norwegian University of Science and Technology campus. Her Roth Foundation award allowed the recent Williams College graduate to travel to two Fehn building sites in northern Norway.

Andrew Bearnot

Project on glass art and manufacture in early 20th-century Sweden, conducted first at Linnaeus University and then at the Swedish Glass Research Institute in in Växjö. Bearnot holds a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and and BS from Brown University in materials engineering. His Roth Foundation award allowed him to visit glassworks in Germany and the Ambiente-Frankfurt trade show, attended by glass producers from around the world.

Anna Christina Hersey

Project on the Swedish art song repertoire and Swedish diction, conducted at the Swedish Royal College of Music. Her Roth Foundation award allowed Hersey to travel from Sweden to Chicago to present her findings at the annual conference of the American Choral Directors’ Association. Since her return, she has developed a conductor’s guide to promote knowledge about Swedish song and diction. See www.annahersey.com/scandinavian-song/

Anne‐Marie Slaughter

Dr. Slaughter spoke at Pembroke College Oxford on “The Turn: American Foreign Policy 2009- 2011.” At the time, she was the Kerstetter Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University and the former Director of Policy Planning and the U.S. State Department—the first woman ever to hold that position.

Bulgarian-English Writing Programs, 2011

Fellows: Molly Antopol, Rayko Baychev, Petja Heinrich, Michal Hinken, Lee Romer Kaplan, Ivan Landzhev, Jane Martin, Paulina Petrova, Yana Punkina, John Struloeff

Matthew Perez

Studies with Richard Whiteley, an internationally renowned artist and expert in glass casting, at the Australian National University. His Roth Foundation award allowed Perez to travel from Canberra to Melbourne and Sydney as a visiting artist to engage university audiences on his research project, entitled “To Anneal,” on new techniques of glass fabrication. See www.matthewdayperez.com.

Caryn Danz

In recognition of her 26-year cultural affairs career and of her work as the Branch Chief for Educational Information Resources at the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

*The Prix Coindreau Prize, The Jeanne Varnay Pleasants Prize for Language Teaching, and the CASVA-Henry & Judith Millon Award are currently inactive.