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Award of the Margherita von Brentano Prize 2019

Nov 15, 2019 | 06:00 PM
Invitation to the award ceremony "Margherita von Brentano Preis 2019"

Invitation to the award ceremony "Margherita von Brentano Preis 2019"
Image Credit: CeDiS

This year's Margherita von Brentano Prize of Freie Universität Berlin goes to the "Medical Students for Choice Berlin. The award is presented to a student initiative whose members have been involved for four years in the important and socially important topic of abortion and the right to sexual self-determination on a voluntary basis and with outstanding project activities. The Margherita von Brentano Prize, endowed with 15,000 euros, has been awarded since 1995. This year's award ceremony will take place on 15 November 2019.

The "Medical Students for Choice" group, consisting of a doctor and several female students since 2015, is committed to a comprehensive and holistic approach to abortion in the study of human medicine. The Presiding Committee's statement acknowledges the outstanding commitment "to the structured improvement of human medicine teaching in the field of gender medicine" and the advocacy for "better anchoring of the topic of abortion in medical training". In addition, the conception of innovative so-called Papaya workshops on abortion methods and information events for medical students at the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin is emphasized. Thanks to the activities of the "Medical Students for Choice", the topic has now been integrated into the curricula of medical studies.

The Margherita von Brentano Prize is awarded every two years by the university's Executive Board to outstanding individuals and innovative projects that have rendered outstanding services to the advancement of women and/or gender studies. Previous prizewinners include the Berlin lawyer Seyran Ateş and the initiative group for the foundation of a Centre for Gender Studies in Medicine (GiM).

The prize's eponym, Margherita von Brentano, received her doctorate from Martin Heidegger in 1948 and became a professor at the Institute for Philosophy at Freie Universität in 1971. In 1970, she was the first woman to be elected vice president of the university. Margherita von Brentano made it her concern to overcome professional discrimination against women at universities and research institutions as early as the early 1960s. She was also active in other social fields: Until her death in 1995, for example, she campaigned for the erection of a Berlin memorial to the victims of the Holocaust.

The program for the award ceremony follows.

Time & Location

Nov 15, 2019 | 06:00 PM

„Holzlaube“, Fabeckstraße 23-25, 14195 Berlin, Raum 2.2058/59

Further Information

Background information on the Margherita von Brentano Prize can be found here.