Carolin Emcke (born 18 August 1967) is a German author and journalist who worked for from 1998 to 2006, often writing from areas of conflicts. From 2007 to 2014, she worked as an international reporter for . Her book Echoes of Violence – Letters from a War Reporter was published in 2007 at Princeton University Press. In 2008, she published Stumme Gewalt ("Mute force"), in 2013 How We Desire (German: Wie wir begehren), in 2016 Against Hate (German: Gegen den Hass), and in 2019 Yes means yes and... (Ja heißt ja und...). Carolin Emcke was honoured with several awards such as the Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels in 2016, and a Verdienstorden der Bundesrepublik Deutschland ("Federal Cross of Merit") in 2017.

Early life and education Carolin Emcke was born in Mülheim an der Ruhr, North Rhine-Westphalia, the daughter of an Argentinian mother and a German father. She received her Abitur in 1986. She studied philosophy, political science, and history in Frankfurt am Main, at the London School of Economics, and at Harvard University.

Career Emcke received her Ph.D. at Frankfurt under the supervision of Axel Honneth with a thesis on collective identities. From 1998 to 2006 she worked for , often reporting from conflict areas such as Afghanistan, Colombia, Gaza, Iraq, Lebanon, and Pakistan. In 2003/04 she was a lecturer in Political Theory at Yale University. From 2007 to 2014 she was a writer and international reporter for (incl. in Israel, West Bank, Pakistan, Egypt, Iraq, Haiti, US).

Since 2004 Emcke has moderated a monthly discussion series titled Streitraum at the Schaubühne theatre in Berlin. In 2006 and 2007 she worked as an advisor to the Hamburg Media School. Since 2014, she has been working as a freelance-writer and columnist for Süddeutsche Zeitung and El País. She has served on the jury of the .

Emcke has held seminars and lectures on topics such as globalisation, theories of violence, and cultural identity. In 2008 she published Stumme Gewalt: Nachdenken über die RAF ("Mute force: reflections on the Red Army Faction"), a memorial to her godfather, Alfred Herrhausen, who was murdered by the Red Army Faction on 30 November 1989. The work is aimed at encouraging dialogue between groups in societies, without violence, revenge, and disrespect. Emcke received the Theodor Wolff Prize for the book.

In her 2013 book, How We Desire, Emcke writes about a homosexual coming of age in the 1980s. In January 2014, she conducted an interview with German football player Thomas Hitzlsperger about his coming out for .

In her essay Against Hate (2016), Carolin Emcke speaks out on racism, fanaticism, and anti-Democratic forces. The book was published in various languages. In her book Yes means yes, and... (2019) she explores, in the wake of #MeToo, how we should think and talk about desire and power, exploitation and racism.

Emcke gave the opening speech at the 2016 Ruhrtriennale, on the topic of translation. She was awarded the Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels on 23 October 2016 at the Paulskirche, with a laudation by Seyla Benhabib.

After International Women's Day in 2019, The Guardian featured her together with three other feminists.The Guardian (March 10, 2019). .

Other activities Member of the Board of Trustees, Ernst Reuter Foundation for Advanced Study.Board of Trustees Ernst Reuter Foundation for Advanced Study. Member of the Senate, Leibniz Association.Senate, as on 7 February 2019 Leibniz Association. Member of the Board of Trustees, Gerda Henkel Foundation (since 2018)Dr. Carolin Emcke wird Mitglied im Kuratorium der Stiftung Gerda Henkel Foundation, press release of 18 April 2018. Member of the General Assembly, Heinrich Böll FoundationGeneral Assembly Heinrich Böll Foundation.

Awards

2005: Political Book Prize of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation 2006: Advancement award of the 2008: Theodor Wolff Prize 2010: Otto Brenner Prize for critical journalism 2010: "Journalist of the Year" 2010, Medium Magazin 2014: Johann Heinrich Merck Prize 2015: Lessing Prize of the Free State of Saxony 2016: Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels

Selected works Kollektive Identitäten: Sozialphilosophische Grundlagen. Campus, Frankfurt am Main / New York, NY 2000, (Dissertation Universität Frankfurt 1998, 360 Seiten); 2nd ed. 2010, . (The original letters were translated from English by Sebastian Vogel and revised for printing by the author.)

Stumme Gewalt: Nachdenken über die RAF. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2008, (with contributions by Winfried Hassemer and Wolfgang Kraushaar). How We Desire. Trans. Imogen Taylor. Text, Melbourne 2018. (Original: Wie wir begehren. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2012, .) Weil es sagbar ist: Über Zeugenschaft und Gerechtigkeit. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2013, . Against Hate. Trans. Tony Crawford. Polity, Cambridge 2019. (Original: Gegen den Hass. Essay. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2016, .)

References

External links

Carolin Emcke: Liberaler Rassismus (in German) 26 February 2010 Carolin Emcke: Ich bin es leid (in German) 24 August 2012 Carolin Emcke: Carolin Emcke über Homophobie (in German) Interview TAZ 28. Januar 2014 Carolin Emcke: Flüchtlinge: Willkommen in Deutschland, (in German) two articles in: Zeit-Magazin und Die Zeit 27 February 2014 and 7 March 2014 Carolin Emcke: "Vom Übersetzen" – Festspielrede von Carolin Emcke (in German) Speech at the Ruhrtriennale 13 August 2016] Carolin Emcke: Sacha Batthyany, Und was hat das mit mir zu tun? (in German) Carolin Emcke in a discussion with Melitta Breznik and Hanspeter Flury, lesungen.net 13 September 2016 Carolin Emcke: Anfangen (in German) Speech at the Paulskirche 23 October 2016