Brooklyn College proudly announces that Corey Robin, Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center, has been awarded a 2026–27 Berlin Prize Fellowship by the American Academy in Berlin.
During his fellowship year, Robin will advance his new book project, King Capital, which reinterprets major economists as political theorists. The project argues that influential accounts of capitalism are, at their core, disguised visions of politics. Robin contends that modern economic theories often translate ancient ideals of aristocratic, dynastic, and imperial rule into contemporary economic language. His research examines the work of canonical thinkers, including Adam Smith, Thomas Malthus, David Ricardo, Karl Marx, William Stanley Jevons, Alfred Marshall, Joseph Schumpeter, Friedrich Hayek, and Milton Friedman, alongside lesser-known Marxist, socialist, feminist, and Global South economists.
As a Berlin Prize Fellow, Robin will join an international cohort of scholars and artists in residence at the American Academy in Berlin. Fellows receive dedicated time and resources to pursue major scholarly and creative projects while engaging with German academic and cultural institutions. Through lectures, readings, and public programs, fellows contribute to vibrant transatlantic dialogue and intellectual exchange.
Awarded annually, the Berlin Prize recognizes U.S.-based scholars, writers, composers, and artists who demonstrate exceptional achievement in their fields. Recipients represent disciplines spanning the humanities and social sciences, journalism, public policy, fiction, visual arts, and music composition.
