Nancy Fraser, a distinguished feminist, Professor of Philosophy and Politics at the New School for Social Research in New York, was invited by the Institute on 11 October to give a public lecture entitled “Democracy’s Crisis: On the Political Contradictions of Financialised Capitalism”. The following day, she was presented with the Nessim Habif World Prize at the University of Geneva. This Prize is awarded every year to an academic who has displayed original and profound thinking and work in the fields of natural, medical or human sciences on a rotating basis by the Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Science or Faculty of Medicine at the University of Geneva, and the Graduate Institute.
Keith Krause, Head of the Department of International Relations and Political Science at the Institute, which nominated Nancy Fraser for the Prize, praised the impact of her work during the introduction to her lecture. “It would take me far too long to go through her honorary doctorates, awards, visiting professorships, fellowships and high profile invited lectures–suffice it to say they all testify to the global reach and extraordinary international profile of her scholarship […]. More important than her honorifics, however, have been Professor Fraser’s intellectual contributions, as a feminist theorist and critical scholar in the Continental tradition, to our understanding of contemporary democracy and the welfare state.”
During the University of Geneva’s Dies Academicus ceremony, Philippe Burrin, Director of the Graduate Institute, lauded Nancy Fraser’s impressive work, which won her the prestigious Prize. “This award is a tribute to strong thinking, fed by the interlaced Anglo-Saxon and European political philosophies and centered on issues posed by our society concerning democracy, gender equality and social justice […]. [Professor Fraser’s] work is inseparable from political engagement, which manifests itself in public debate in various ways and where we see the happy meeting, when successful, of intellectual quality and depth of the perspective of the human and social conditions.”
As part of the International Gender Champions Network, the Institute is engaged in efforts, notably through its Gender Centre, that champion the important role of women in international relations.