James W.C. Pennington Award
In 2011, the Heidelberg Center for American Studies (HCA) and the Faculty of Theology of Heidelberg University established the James W.C. Pennington Award. It pays tribute to the churchman and former slave James W.C. Pennington, who in 1849 was the first African American to receive an honorary doctorate from Heidelberg University. The James W.C. Pennington Award is given to scholars who have done distinguished work on topics important to Pennington: slavery, emancipation, peace, education, reform, civil rights, religion, and intercultural understanding. The James W.C. Pennington Award is generously endowed by the Manfred Lautenschläger Foundation.
Recipients
Table
2025
Lerone A. Martin
Martin Luther King, Jr., Centennial Professor in Religious Studies and Director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford University
2024
Christopher Cameron
Professor of History, UNC Charlotte
2023
Melvin L. Rogers
Professor of Political Science and Executive Director at the Centre for Philosophy, Politics and Economy at Brown University
2022
Manisha Sinha
Holder of the James L. and Shirley A. Draper Chair in American History at the University of Connecticut
2021
Carol Anderson
Charles Howard Candler Professor and Chair Holder for African-American Studies at Emory University
2019
Paul Harvey
Professor and Presidential Teaching Scholar, Department of History, University of Colorado Colorado Springs
2018
Eddie S. Glaude, Jr.
James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor, Department of Religion and African American Studies, Princeton University
2017
Harry S. Stout
Jonathan Edwards Professor of American Christianity, Yale Divinity School
2016
John Witte, Jr.
Robert W. Woodruff Professor of Law; McDonald Distinguished Professor; and Director, Center for the Study of Law and Religion, Emory University
2015
William L. Andrews
E. Maynard Adams Professor of English, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
2014
Laurie Maffly-Kipp
Distinguished Professor, John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics, Washington University in St. Louis
2013
Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham
Victor S. Thomas Professor of History and of African and African American Studies, Harvard University
2012
Albert J. Raboteau
Henry Putnam Professor of Religion, Princeton University