The All European Academies Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values is awarded to eminent scholars and intellectuals whose work represents a significant contribution to the cultural values of Europe and to the idea of European integration, thereby promoting and strengthening an understanding of Europe as multifaceted, intellectual, open and vibrant. The prize also seeks to underline the importance and value of outstanding scientific and intellectual activities for the advancement of the European project and our common values.
Europe is remarkable in that its definition and geographic boundaries have varied over the centuries, yet there has always been a kind of constant understanding of European culture as rooted in an inherent openness supported by a dynamic and vigorous intellectualism. In a time when the cultural diversity of Europe seems to be increasingly threatened by scepticism, extremism and instability, this prize serves to remind us of this deep-rooted and revered characteristic of Europe.
Laureates
Cultural historian Joep Leerssen, 2020 Madame de Staël Prize Laureate
In 2020, the Jury of ALLEA’s Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values paid tribute to cultural historian Joep Leerssen (University of Amsterdam). Leerssen has devoted his career to analysing how Europe’s multinationality has been experienced in history, tracing Europe’s identity as an evolving multi-party discourse of perceptions and representations.
