Professor Martin Revermann Awarded Prestigious Humboldt Research Prize
Award-winning Classicist looks toward a novel mode of international collaboration in the Humanities—and will root the project at the University of Toronto Mississauga.
Dr. Martin Revermann has received the 2022 Humboldt Research Prize ('Humboldt-Forschungspreis'), an award worth 60 000 euros in prize money which recognizes outstanding senior researchers in their field who are producing cutting-edge research and have had a significant impact on their disciplines.
The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation — named for the famed nature researcher, explorer, and scientist — annually awards this prize to up to 100 senior researchers from all over the world. As a prize recipient, Revermann will be invited to cooperate on a project with fellow experts at a German university.
A professor in the Department of Historical Studies at UTM, Revermann has a long list of impressive fellowships, awards, and publications, and was the recipient of the 2021 Desmond Morton Research Excellence Award. His research interests cover the cultural history of theatre, and integrate Classics, Theatre Studies, Comparative Literature, German Studies, and History. A major focus of his research has been ancient Greek theatre (especially comedy) and the work of the 20th-century German playwright Bertolt Brecht; Revermann explores Brecht’s position as a playwright, director, and theorist within the history of theatre in his most recent book, Brecht and Tragedy: Radicalism, Traditionalism, Eristics.
“This Prize provides me with wonderful opportunities,” says Revermann. Among other things, he plans to use the prize money for an international tri-university research group which examines the histories and practices of how Latin and Greek texts are being translated into modern languages like English, Italian, German, or French. The project brings together Classicists from U of T; the University of Giessen (Germany), where the colleague who nominated Revermann for the prize is located; and the Suola Normale Superiore in Pisa (Italy) during three workshops in Germany, Italy, and at U of T, here on the UTM campus.
“Because Classicists constantly use and produce translations of Latin and Greek texts, the topic goes to the core of the discipline, its histories, challenges, and methodological underpinnings,” Revermann explains. “That said, in the past Classicists have reflected on translation only rarely and often superficially, something which this group will set out to change.”
As the project gets off the ground, Revermann will be sponsoring U of T graduate students to participate in the workshops. He looks forward to bringing international collaborative activities to UTM’s state-of-the-art facilities — and to involving fellow Classicists across the University.
“I am particularly excited that this prize enables me to create an international forum for many early-career academics who, I hope, will be positively influenced by the experience for their own future work as researchers and pedagogues.”
