Honorary doctorates

The 2021 doctoris philosophiae honoris causa was awarded to Tina Turner Bullock at the University of Bern's annual dies academicus ceremony.

For Tina Turner,

• who has created a unique musical and artistic life's work;
• who has successfully established herself as a woman in a previously male-dominated field;
• who has touched many people with her authenticity and artistic charisma;
• who has exemplarily shown a way out of multiple discrimination through her art;
• who embodies a role model across generations, social classes and educational backgrounds;
• who has broken down established boundaries and stereotypes with her artistic work.

Career:

First singing experiences in a Baptist church in Nutbush, US.

1960–1976 Member of the duo Ike and Tina Turner, lasting influence on rock history.

From the early 1980s onwards, she enjoyed an internationally successful solo career as a singer and later also as an actress.

180 million records sold; various awards including numerous Grammy Awards, MTV Music Awards, 2005 Kennedy Prize (US), 2010 SwissAward (‘Show’)

1991 Induction of the duo Ike and Tina Turner into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

2021 Induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist.

Close cooperation with the Beyond Foundation.

The 2020 doctoris philosophiae honoris causa was awarded to Prof. em. Dr. Anne Fausto-Sterling at the University of Bern's annual dies academicus ceremony:

• for being a pioneering scholar whose internationally renowned work bridges the natural sciences and the humanities;
• for her groundbreaking contributions to Gender Studies, especially the biological and sociocultural constitution of gender;
• who has called for the critical interrogation of biologisms and other received ideas;
• for her cutting-edge research which is of relevance to numerous disciplines represented in our faculty;
• who fearlessly stands up as a public intellectual against prejudice, reductionism, and fake news.

Dr Anne Fausto-Sterling is Professor Emerita of Biology and Gender Studies at Brown University and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She has held visiting professorships at world-renowned institutions such as Stanford University, Harvard University, Mount Holyoke College, Radcliffe College and the University of Amsterdam. Her work has been recognised with numerous awards.

The Faculty of Philosophy and History awards an honorary doctorate to Georges Didi-Huberman, who provides groundbreaking insights into art history using productive approaches from philosophy, psychology and literary studies, who opens up new horizons for the contemporary understanding of the arts through his creative development of the work of cultural theorists such as Walter Benjamin, and who promotes the interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary dialogue of cultural studies in a unique way with his research

Georges Didi-Huberman (born 1953) is a French art historian with an interdisciplinary focus on the visual arts, art history, psychoanalysis, literary and cultural studies, and philosophy. After studying in Lyon (art history, philosophy), he received his doctorate in 1981 from the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) in Paris under Louis Marin. He has been teaching there since 1990, and in 2019 at the Centre de recherche sur les arts et le langage. Numerous guest lectureships and research stays have taken him to Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, the University of California, Berkeley, Princeton, Toronto and Basel (NFS Eikones), among others.

Georges Didi-Huberman critiques traditional art history. In his engagement with Sigmund Freud, Aby Warburg and others, he has established an alternative philosophy of the visual arts. He is dedicated to the history of aesthetics and poetics in art from the pre-modern era to the present day. In doing so, he pursues hermeneutic and phenomenological questions concerning the reception and production of visual art (e.g. Ninfa moderna. Essai sur le drapé tombé, Paris 2002) and creatively and influentially develops the approaches of theorists such as Walter Benjamin. He has played a significant role in Benjamin's reception in the French-speaking world. At the heart of Didi-Huberman's oeuvre, which comprises almost 50 volumes, are questions of artistic collecting, reproducibility, the “aura” and “cult value” of works of art, the interaction between visual art and literature, and artistic and literary montage.

Reto Müller, the profound expert on the works of Gioachino Rossini, the self-taught and internationally recognised researcher who works tirelessly and enthusiastically to promote and improve knowledge of 19th-century opera.

• Born in Basel in 1964
• Secondary school diploma, vocational training as a train dispatcher with Swiss Federal Railways, most recently station manager in Sissach, Basel-Landschaft
• Since 2010, self-employed providing services such as surtitling, translations, research and accompanying opera tour

• Since 1991, advisory and organisational work for the ROSSINI Festival in Bad Wildbad (Baden-Württemberg)
• 1993–1996 Secretary, since 1996 Executive Chairman of the German Rossini Society
• Since 2011 Member and Secretary of the Scientific Advisory Board (Comitato scientifico) of the Fondazione Rossini in Pesaro (Italy)
• Member of the patronage committee of the ‘Grand Opera Wilhelm Tell’ support association (Tell open-air performances on the Rütli)

• Eleven essays in scientific journals and conference reports
• More than a hundred programme contributions and essays in newsletters, as well as many book and CD reviews
• To date, 14 bilingual libretti of Rossini operas (as translator and editor) published by Leipzig University Press
• Editor of five anthologies (including conference proceedings) published by Leipzig University Press

Monica Heller, the internationally renowned sociolinguist, anthropologist and linguist whose interdisciplinary career is dedicated to understanding the economic and political role of language in the construction of ethnic identities, social inequalities and nationalist ideologies.

Professor Monica Heller is one of the world's leading scholars at the intersection of sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology and multilingualism research. She teaches at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) in the Department of Humanities, Social Sciences & Social Justice Education at the University of Toronto. She also works in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Toronto and the Département d'études françaises at the Université de Moncton. From 2013 to 2015, Professor Heller was President of the American Anthropological Association; in January 2018, she will take on the role of Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Sociolinguistics.

Professor Heller gained international renown for her research on the role of language in the construction of social differences and inequalities, particularly in French-speaking Canada, and her comparative work in Western Europe. Drawing on approaches from political economy, she was able to highlight shifts in ideologies related to language, nation and the state. She also examined the effects of a globalised economy on the “commodification” of language, in interaction with the emergence of post-national ideologies of language and identity – issues that naturally also play a central role in Switzerland's language and cultural policy.

Professor Heller's publications extend far beyond the boundaries of her field. In addition to around 60 journal articles and 60 chapters in anthologies, she has authored thirteen books and monographs. These include Linguistic Minorities and Modernity: A Sociolinguistic Ethnography (1999), Voices of Authority: Education and Linguistic Difference (2001), Éléments d’une sociolinguistique critique (2002), Discourses of Endangerment: Ideology and Interest in the Defence of Languages (2007), Paths to Postnationalism: A Critical Ethnography of Language and Identity (2011), and Language in Late Capitalism: Pride and Profit (2012).

Although her main focus is on Francophonie, Professor Heller is also very well established in the German-speaking research landscape. She received the Konrad Adenauer Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation at the Institute for German Language in Mannheim (2001) and a scholarship at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (2013). She has also been a visiting professor at universities in Brazil, Belgium, France, Spain, and Finland and is a member of the Royal Society of Canada.

For Veena Das,

• the anthropologist whose research on ethics, violence and the state in India has opened up innovative theoretical perspectives  and given her field new significance,
• the ethnographer who has demonstrated the potential of closely linking qualitative empirical research and theory,
• the committed scholar who has enriched our understanding of the ethical dimensions of everyday actions and at the same time brought to light the traces of violence in our everyday lives,
• the cross-disciplinary researcher who, with her guiding question of how philosophical and literary traditions shape our theoretical and practical understanding of the world, has contributed significantly to interdisciplinary exchange between the humanities and social sciences,
• the cosmopolitan scholar who has built a bridge between Western and Indian philosophy.

Since 2000, Veena Das has been the Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Anthropology at Johns Hopkins University. Prior to that, she taught at the Delhi School of Economics in India for over thirty years. From 1997 to 2000, she also held a chair at the New School for Social Research. She studied and earned her doctorate in sociology at Delhi University. In 1970, she completed her doctorate under the supervision of renowned Indian sociologist M.N. Srinivas. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Academy of Scientists from Developing Countries. For her extraordinary achievements, Veena Das has been awarded the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship (2009) and the Anders Retzius Award from the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography (1995), among others. She has also received honorary doctorates from the University of Chicago (2000) and the University of Edinburgh (2014). She was also recently awarded the Nessim Habif Prize by the University of Geneva.

• Born in 1945
• Studied sociology and Sanskrit at the University of Delhi, India
• 1970 Doctorate in sociology
• 1970–2000 Worked in the Department of Sociology at the Delhi School of Economics, becoming a professor in 1982
• 1997–2000 Professor of anthropology at the New School for Social Research, New York
• Since 2000 Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Anthropology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and, since 2005, Professor of Humanities at the same institution
• Visiting professorships in Paris, Harvard, Amherst, Chicago and Heidelberg
• Numerous prizes and awards 

Marco Jorio, who as project manager and editor-in-chief carefully planned the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland project and led it competently, purposefully and successfully for 30 years until the book edition was completed in 2014, who was able to persuade the country's historians to collaborate on this comprehensive and contemporary reference work on the history of Switzerland, who contributed to Switzerland's cultural cohesion with the encyclopaedia's four languages and laid the foundations for a common historical discourse in all parts of the country, who affirmed the interpretative authority of historical science over political appropriation in the debate on national history, who promoted the international reputation of Switzerland and its historical research by networking the ‘Historical Dictionary of Switzerland’ has promoted the international reputation of Switzerland and its historical research.

• Born in Goldau in 1951
• Studied modern history, Swiss history and French literature at the Universities of Fribourg and Poitiers, France
• 1976-1981 Assistant at the Chair of Modern History at the University of Fribourg
• 1981 Doctorate
• 1982-1986 Party secretary of the CVP (Christian Democratic People's Party) of the Canton of Zurich
• 1985 Appointed head of the project for a Historical Dictionary of Switzerland
• 1988-2014 Editor-in-chief of the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland

Christian Meier, the outstanding historian of his generation, who has had a lasting impact on research in ancient history and historiography through his influential works on the discovery of politics by the Greeks, the political art of Greek tragedy, the disintegration of the Roman Republic, and the impotence of the almighty dictator Caesar; the politically attentive intellectual who always sought public responsibility, intervened in current debates and worked across narrow disciplinary boundaries, and who was intensely concerned with German memory politics and the relationship between remembering, repressing and forgetting, the brilliant stylist who rendered lasting services to the German language and who always reached a broad public.

• Born in 1929 in Stolp, Pomerania, Germany
• 1956 Doctorate in Ancient History at the University of Heidelberg
• 1963 Habilitation at the University of Frankfurt am Main
• 1964 Private lecturer in Freiburg im Breisgau
• 1964-1980 Full professor of Ancient History at the Universities of Basel, Cologne and Bochum
• 1980-1988 Chairman of the Association of German Historians
• 1981 until his retirement in 1997 Full professor of ancient history at Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich
• 1996-2002 President of the German Academy for Language and Literature Numerous awards and prizes

Hans Christoph Buch,

• the exponent of committed world literature, who explores the connections between enlightenment and violence, literature and history like no other as a participating observer,
• the traveller who ventures into the trouble spots of the globalised world and lends his voice to those forgotten by history in his reports,
• the advanced literary theorist who has opened up postcolonial perspectives in his scholarly and essayistic writings and as a teacher of German literature worldwide,
• the guest of our university and author of the ‘Berner Poetikvorlesung’ on ‘Boat People’, which testifies equally to his understanding of literature with contemporary relevance and his original engagement with the literary heritage. 

• Born in Wetzlar, Germany, in 1944.
• From 1963, participated in the German-language writers' meetings known as ‘Gruppe 47’
• 1966–1970: Extended stays in Bern, where his father was ambassador; wrote his first book.
• 1964–1972: Studied German and Slavic languages and literature in Berlin.
• 1972: Doctorate.
• Visiting lecturer at various universities in Germany, the USA, South America and China.
• Writer in residence in Cornell, Iowa, La Rochelle, Nantes and Saint Nazaire
• 1984 Officier de l'Ordre de l'Art et des Lettres of the French Republic Crisis reporting from Rwanda, Burundi, Congo, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Haiti, Cuba, Venezuela, Kosovo, Chechnya, Pakistan and East Timor
• Author of numerous books: novels, novellas, reportages, essays and literary theory
• 2014 Bern Poetry Lecture ‘Boat People. Literature as a Ghost Ship’ 

Mania Hahnloser-Sarpakis,

in recognition of her tireless energy in promoting French and Francophone literature and culture in Bern, and in gratitude for the appeal she exerted over 35 years on numerous French-speaking intellectuals, poets, historians and writers in Bern and throughout Switzerland, and in recognition of her great commitment, which has made numerous exhibitions and literary and scholarly publications possible. 

• Born in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1948 Studied French literature, Arabic literature and art history at Alexandria University
• In 1977, together with the French ambassador, founded the Alliance française de Berne, serving as its president until 2011. In this role, she invited countless distinguished French-speaking intellectuals, writers, poets and historians to Bern for lectures and readings.
• 2003 Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Commandeur de l'Ordre national du Mérite and Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur of the French Republic for her services to contemporary French literature
• Since 1998 Corresponding member of the Académie des Sciences, Agriculture, Arts & Belles Lettres d'Aix-en-Provence 

Jeffrey F. Hamburger,

the art historian who studies the imagery of medieval manuscripts in terms of their historical significance and symbolic power, thereby bringing the lives and experiences of medieval people closer to a contemporary audience. To an outstanding researcher who, through interdisciplinary studies, has unlocked the unique characteristics of medieval religious writings, such as the prayer book of Ursula Begerin, and has preserved them for posterity in exemplary editions.

• Born in London in 1957
• Studied art history at Yale University
• Received his PhD in 1987
• Worked at Oberlin College from 1986 to 1997, most recently as Professor in the Humanities
• Professor at the University of Toronto from 1997 to 2000
• At Harvard University since 2000, Kuno Francke Professor of German Art & Culture since 2008
• His research focuses on medieval sacred art, illuminated manuscripts, female spirituality, mysticism and visionary literature.

Nigel F. Palmer,

the literary historian who researches the written forms of medieval manuscripts in their material and semantic dimensions, thereby conveying the historicity of literature in an accessible way. To an outstanding researcher who, through interdisciplinary studies, unlocks the unique characteristics of medieval religious writings, such as the prayer book of Ursula Begerin, and preserves them for posterity in exemplary editions.

• Born in Lancashire in 1946.
• Studied German at Oxford University.
• Doctorate in 1975.
• Worked at Oxford University until his retirement, most recently for 19 years as Professor of Medieval German and Linguistic Studies.
• His research interests include German-language manuscripts and palaeography, German-language and Latin literature of the Middle Ages from its beginnings to the early 16th century, church history, religious prose texts of the Middle Ages, and mediality in the early modern period.

Eveline Hasler

• the writer who combines historical knowledge of Swiss history with literary imagination and psychological intuition, creating moving portraits of human lives in her historical novels;
• the literary advocate who, in her work, recalls the fate of stateless and homeless people in the past and sees the exploration of historical material and figures as a way of addressing contemporary social problems;
• the poetic visionary who seeks out the fantastical in reality and has demonstrated the creative power of artistic imagination over inhumanity,
• the committed educator who has promoted this creativity among her young and adult readers alike with her children's and young adult books, as well as her poems and novels.

• Born in Glarus in 1933
• Studied psychology and history at the University of Fribourg and in Paris
• Subsequently worked as a teacher in St. Gallen
• Eveline Hasler has been working as an author since the 1960s. She initially wrote children's and young adult literature, later turning to poetry and novels for adult readers. Her novels often deal with themes from Swiss history. Eveline Hasler's work has received numerous awards.
• Eveline Hasler is a member of the Swiss Authors' Association and the German-Swiss PEN Centre.

George Steinmann

• the artist, whose work reveals complex interrelationships in social, economic and cultural networks,
• the researcher, whose projects bring together architects, scientists, philosophers and art historians in a transdisciplinary manner and shape processes of knowledge,
• the critic, who demands responsibility, takes a stand and defines sustainability as a principle of action in the present,
• the mediator who constantly promotes dialogue about the phenomena of our living environments for the good of the community,
• the visionary who, in his artistic work, reinterprets the specificity of the place as a medium of transnational understanding.

• George Steinmann was born on 23 February 1950 in Bern.
• From 1966 to 1969, he trained as a graphic designer.
• From 1970 to 1975, Steinmann lived in Finland.
• From 1976 to 1978, he studied painting at the School of Design in Basel.
• From 1978 to 1980, he studied painting, sound and African-American studies at the Art Institute of San Francisco.
• 1980–1983 Member of the SILO artists' group in Bern.
• In 1980 and 1988, he was awarded the Aeschlimann-Corti Prize by the Canton of Bern.
• 1992–1995 Renovation of the Tallinn Art Hall in Estonia as part of a transdisciplinary project as a sustainable sculpture. Numerous long-term works in rural and urban areas
• 1997–2007 Project for environmentally friendly forestry in the Russian Republic of Komi
• 2009 Project for the Bern sewage treatment plant ARA in collaboration with architects and engineers
• Teaching assignments at the University of Lüneburg and the Bern University of the Arts

Mr Martin Fey, researcher of Neolithic settlements in the Olten area, who spent over 60 years recording Neolithic artefacts in hundreds of searches, and thus laid a unique foundation for research into the settlement history of the Olten area, which has brought new insights to Swiss Neolithic research through his publications and the excavations he initiated.

• 27 May 1931, born in Aarau as a citizen of Oberbuchsiten SO, grew up in Olten
• Since 1942, independently collecting artefacts in the Olten area
• 1950 Matura Type B
• 1950-1958 Studied medicine at the University of Basel
• 1958 State examination
• 1961 Doctor of Medicine dissertation: Course and pathogenesis of post-pubertal anorexia nervosa according to neurovegetative, endocrinological and psychopathological findings in comparison to exogenous malnutrition (Huber Bern, 1970)
• 1968 Specialist in internal medicine
• 1971-1992 Chief physician for internal medicine at Sumiswald District Hospital
• 1992-1997 Practice in Lützelflüh
• 2001 Transfer of more than 200,000 artefacts to the Cantonal Archaeology Department in Solothurn
• Since 2002 Surveying of finds using GPS
• 2002-2005 Studied prehistory and early history, archaeology of the Roman provinces, scientific theory and history of science at the University of Bern (without degree)

Doris and Peter Walser-Wilhelm,

• the persistent and resourceful collectors of Karl Victor von Bonstetten's life's work, a resolutely forward-looking European,
• the rediscoverers of a cosmopolitan writer in two cultures, whose works allow a new perception of Bern as the cradle of modern Europe,
• the imaginative planners and commentators of the historical-critical edition of an oeuvre whose diversity and depth of thought were previously known only to a few specialists,
• the tireless organisers and coordinators who used their own resources to build up a huge archive as the basis for an edition of his works,
• the enthusiasts for the work of a lateral thinker and utopian, which has since become part of classical world literature. 

Doris Walser-Wilhelm, born on 18 April 1934 in Zofingen AG.

• Studied classical philology in Zurich and Tübingen.
• In addition to raising four children, she taught Latin and Greek at Urdorf Grammar School. A few years ago, she learned Russian in order to research the resonance of Bonstetten in Russia.

Peter Walser-Wilhelm, born on 7 April 1934 in Dietikon, Canton of Zurich.

• Studied German language and literature and history in Zurich.
• High school teacher of German at the Zurich Mathematics and Science High School.
• Literary translations from French (Béguin, Senancour).
• Took early retirement to devote himself to the Bonstettiana.

Since 1980, the couple have been building up an archive in Dietikon with letters and manuscripts from their travels to France, Italy, Denmark and East Germany. Their editorial and commentary team includes Antje Kolde, Heinz Graber, Christine Holliger and the editor of Wallstein Verlag, Natascha Wellmann-Rizo. The edition is partly funded by the SNF and, since 1987, primarily by the Sturzenegger Foundation. 

Richard Ernst,

• a committed promoter of dialogue between traditional Tibetan scholarship and modern science, who is a pioneer of open and constructive dialogue in times of global tensions between cultures,
• the passionate collector of Tibetan and Mongolian art treasures and writings, who has made it his mission to preserve and promote the cultural heritage of Tibet and Mongolia,
• the internationally respected scientist who, through his responsible actions marked by deep respect and understanding for Tibetan culture, has helped to initiate a process of reform in the Buddhist monastic universities. 

Richard Ernst was born on 14 August 1933 in Winterthur. He studied chemistry at ETH Zurich and graduated in 1962 with a dissertation on nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy in physical chemistry. From 1962 to 1968, he worked for Varian Associates in Palo Alto, California, where he developed NMR Fourier spectroscopy, noise decoupling and other methods. In 1968, he returned to ETH Zurich, where he became a private lecturer in the same year, an assistant professor in 1970 and an associate professor in 1972. In 1976, he was appointed full professor of physical chemistry. He headed a research group on magnetic resonance spectroscopy, was temporarily director of the Laboratory of Physical Chemistry at ETH Zurich, and retired in 1998.

Peter Jezler,

• the exhibition curator for his fascinating presentation of European cultural history,
• the museum educator whose presentations address the need for cultural orientation and open up new ways for the public to engage with the museum,
• the communicator who, in times of technological and media change, is redefining the importance of historical museums as repositories of cultural memory and places for communicating cultural traditions,
• the cultural creator who has made the Bern Historical Museum a focal point of Bernese cultural life and earned it an outstanding reputation in the national and international museum landscape.

Peter Jezler was born on 26 November 1954 in Zurich. He studied art history, church history and early German literature at the University of Zurich, graduating with a licentiate degree in 1982. In 1986, he worked as an assistant at the Seminar for Art History at the University of Zurich. From 1987 to 1997, Peter Jezler was a member and later president of the editorial board of the magazine Kunst + Architektur. From 1989, he also worked for Kunstdenkmäler der Schweiz (Art Monuments of Switzerland). He held this position until 1997. Between 1991 and 1993, he developed a computer programme for cultural history research, inventorying and museum design. During these years, he curated various exhibitions, including ‘Heaven, Hell, Purgatory – The Afterlife in the Middle Ages’ at the Swiss National Museum in Zurich and the Kunsthalle Cologne (1994). From 1997 to 2009, Peter Jezler was director of the Bern Historical Museum.