Category: Award Categories

2003 – Stuart Kaufman

A book analyzing causes of contemporary ethnic conflict and making recommendations for peace won the 2003 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order. Dr. Stuart Kaufman, associate professor of political science at the University of Kentucky, will receive a $200,000 prize for the ideas in his book, “Modern Hatreds: The Symbolic Politics […]

2003 – Kaija Saariaho

Kaija Saariaho of Finland won the $200,000 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition for 2003 for her first opera, “L`amour de loin,” (love from afar). It premiered in August 2000 at the Salzburg Festival, directed by Peter Sellars and conducted by Kent Nagano. “L`amour de loin” is based on the story of the […]

2002 – Miroslav Volf

Is there any hope of embracing our enemies? Of opening the door to reconciliation? Yale University theologian Miroslav Volf argues in his book “Exclusion & Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation” that exclusion of people who are alien or different is among the most intractable problems in the world today. Volf’s exploration […]

2002 – James McClelland and David Rumelhart

David Rumelhart Two pioneers in the field of cognitive neuroscience have won the 2002 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Psychology. The second awarding of the $200,000 prize for outstanding contributions to the field of psychology is to experimental psychologists James McClelland and David Rumelhart, who began collaborating two decades ago on a cognitive framework […]

2002 – Aaron Jay Kernis

One of America’s most honored young composers, Aaron Jay Kernis, has won the world’s top international music composition prize, the 2002 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition. Kernis won the $200,000 prize for “Colored Field,” a concerto written for cello and orchestra and premiered by the Minnesota Orchestra in 2000. An earlier version […]

2001 – James L. Kugel

It might come as a shock to learn how many things the Bible doesn’t actually say. Do we suppose that the serpent in the Garden of Eden was “Satan,” or that Adam and Eve’s sin marked humanity’s “fall?” Then why, when we search the pages of the Bible, can we not find a clear word […]

2001 – Michael Posner, Marcus Raichle and Steven Petersen

Three pioneers in the field of cognitive neuroscience won the 2001 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Psychology. The first awarding of the $200,000 prize for outstanding contributions to the field of psychology is to Michael Posner, Marcus Raichle and Steven Petersen, who began collaborating in the mid-1980s to advance the ability to isolate and […]

2001 – Janine Wedel

A book analyzing the dangers of ill-planned, poorly executed and misdirected foreign aid has won the 2001 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order. Janine Wedel, an anthropologist affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs who has studied the evolving economic and social order in Eastern […]

2001 – Pierre Boulez

French composer and champion of 20th Century music Pierre Boulez has won the 2001 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition. The $200,000 Grawemeyer Award is considered the top prize in international music composition. Boulez received the award for “Sur Incises,” a 40-minute chamber work written for three pianos, three harps and three percussionists. […]

2000 – Jürgen Moltmann

The eve of a new millennium brings with it concerns about “the end times,” judgment, death and the afterlife. German theologian Jürgen Moltmann, however, looks toward the last days with optimism rather than dread. That message of hope, delivered through his book “The Coming of God: Christian Eschatology,” has earned Moltmann the 2000 Louisville Grawemeyer […]