Hans Halvorson, Stuart Professor of Philosophy, has received a 2024-2025 Humanities Council Magic Grant for Innovation in support of a joint project with Art & Archaeology Professor Bridget Alsdorf, entitled “The Modern Breakthrough in Scandinavia: Philosophy, Science, Art.”

Halvorson's project focuses on Scandinavia from 1870 to 1920, a period that saw breakthroughs in drama, visual art, and philosophy, as well as in natural science, medicine, and political organization. The Magic Grant will support the creation of a new scholarly network at Princeton and in Scandinavia, including four cross-disciplinary faculty and student workshops, and a week-long break trip to Copenhagen in Spring 2026 as part of a new team-taught undergraduate humanistic studies course.

The Magic Project provides innovation grants ranging from $5,000 to $50,000 to Princeton faculty members, thanks to the generosity of Lynn Shostack, in memory of her husband, David A. Gardner ’69. Magic grants are intended to be the initiating spark for a project and to be its primary support. The goal is to support ideas that break new ground intellectually and pedagogically and have the potential to change how the humanities are conceived and taught.

Read the full announcement on the Humanities Council website.