NEWS from the LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Aug. 8, 2024
 

Media Contact: Brett Zongker, bzongker@loc.gov

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Website: John W. Kluge Center loc.gov/kluge
 

Library of Congress to Award Kluge Prize for Achievement in the Study of Humanity to Philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah
 

Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden announced today that philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah will receive the 2024 John W. Kluge Prize for Achievement in the Study of Humanity.
 

Appiah is the Silver Professor of Philosophy and Law at New York University. He is internationally recognized for his contributions to the study of philosophy as it relates to ethics, language, nationality and race. Appiah also writes “The Ethicist” in The New York Times Magazine, a column and newsletter that explores ethical approaches to solving interpersonal problems and moral dilemmas.

“Dr. Appiah’s philosophical work is elegant, groundbreaking and highly respected,” Hayden said. “His writing about race and identity transcends predictable categories and encourages dialogue across traditional divisions. He is an ideal recipient for the 2024 Kluge Prize, and we were thrilled to select him for this award.”
 

The Library of Congress is developing programming on the theme of “Thinking Together” that will showcase Appiah’s work for a public audience.
 

Appiah earned a Bachelor of Arts degree and a doctorate from Cambridge University. Over the years, he has taught at Yale (1981-1986), Cornell (1986-1989), Duke (1990-1991), Harvard (1991-2002), and Princeton (as the Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Philosophy and the University Center for Human Values, 2002-2014).
 

Appiah is the author of more than a dozen books. These include academic studies of the philosophy of language, a textbook introduction to contemporary philosophy, and “In My Father’s House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture,” considered a canonical work in contemporary Africana studies.

Debra Satz, who served on the Library’s Scholars Council, and is the Vernon R. and Lysbeth Warren Anderson Dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University, as well as the Marta Sutton Weeks Professor of Ethics in Society, called Appiah a “giant who influenced the academy and beyond.”
 

“His work is of unusually broad scope, ranging from technical work in the philosophy of language to core ethical issues about identity to questions of the value of work,” Satz said. “What unites his writings on all of these diverse topics is a consistent wide-ranging humanity, and a courageous refusal to fit his views into any narrow boxes.”
 

Scholars Council member Martha Jones, the Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor and Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University, said Appiah’s work is of “tremendous breadth of interest, expertise and engagement, from scholarly to serious popular writing.”
 

“Kwame Anthony Appiah moves effortlessly between academic and public discussions on difficult topics, such as race, identity, privilege, and power,” said Timothy Frye, the Marshall D. Shulman Professor of Post-Soviet Foreign Policy at Columbia University and also a member of the Library’s Scholars Council. “His academic work is rooted in philosophy, but the range of topics that he has addressed in his research and public writing is astonishing.”
 

Frye further noted that that “while many scholars are satisfied probing hard and important questions without taking the next step of offering guidance for how to solve them, Appiah is unafraid to offer solutions that recognize the complexity of the problems under study.”
 

Other books by Appiah include “Color Conscious: The Political Morality of Race” (with Amy Gutmann, Princeton University Press, 1996); “The Ethics of Identity” (Princeton University Press, 2004); “Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers” (W. W. Norton, 2006); “Experiments in Ethics” (Harvard University Press, 2008); “The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen” (W. W. Norton, 2010); “Lines of Descent: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Emergence of Identity” (Harvard University Press, 2014); “As If: Idealization and Ideals” (Harvard University Press, 2017); and “The Lies That Bind: Rethinking Identity” (Liveright, 2018). Appiah has also co-edited volumes with Henry Louis Gates Jr., including “Africana: The Encyclopedia of African and African-American Experience” (Oxford University Press, 1999).
 

Appiah is the current president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has served as President of the PEN America Center, a member of the Advisory Board of the National Museum for African Art, as chair of the board of the American Council of Learned Societies, and as president of the Modern Language Association and of the American Philosophical Association, Eastern Division.
 

About the Kluge Prize

The Kluge Prize recognizes individuals whose outstanding scholarship in the humanities and social sciences has shaped public affairs and civil society. Awarded to a scholar every two years, the international prize highlights the value of researchers who communicate beyond the scholarly community and have had a major impact on social and political issues. The prize comes with a $500,000 award. Additional funds from the Library’s Kluge endowment, which funds the award, are being invested in Kluge Center programming.
 

Kwame Anthony Appiah joins a prestigious group of past prize winners that includes philosopher Jürgen Habermas, former president of Brazil Fernando Henrique Cardoso, and scholar of African American history John Hope Franklin, among others.
 

George Chauncey, a historian of gender, sexuality, and the city, with a particular focus on American LGBTQ history, was the 2022 winner of the Kluge Prize. As prize recipient, he held a series of events with the Library of Congress titled “Through History to Equality,” which explored the history of LGBTQ advocacy in the United States. Danielle Allen, a renowned scholar of justice, citizenship, and democracy, was the 2020 winner of the Kluge Prize. As prize recipient, she held a series of events with the Library of Congress titled “Our Common Purpose,” which explored American civic life and how it might be strengthened. Historian and former Harvard president Drew Gilpin Faust won the 2018 prize and participated in a conversation with Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden on women in leadership.
 

Hayden selected Appiah from a short list of finalists following a request for nominations from scholars and leaders all over the world and a three-stage review process by experts inside and outside the Library.
 

The Kluge Prize is administered by the Kluge Center in the Library of Congress. The Kluge Center's mission, as established in 2000, is to "invigorate the connection between thought and action," bridging the gap between scholarship and policymaking.
 

To that end, the Kluge Center brings some of the world's great thinkers to the Library to make use of the Library collections and engage in conversations addressing the challenges facing democracies in the 21st century. For more information visit loc.gov/kluge.
 

The Library of Congress is the world’s largest library, offering access to the creative record of the United States — and extensive materials from around the world — both on-site and online. It is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office. Explore collections, reference services and other programs and plan a visit at loc.gov, access the official site for U.S. federal legislative information at congress.gov and register creative works of authorship at copyright.gov.
 

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PR 24-067
08/08/2024
ISSN 0731-3527