2026

Andreas Mayer is a historian of science and research professor at the CNRS affiliated to the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. In 2025-2026 he serves as the Dornsife/EHESS visiting professor at the University of Southern California. He has received many awards and fellowships (Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, 2019-2020; Villa I Tatti, Florence, 2024-2025) and has published extensively on the history of the human sciences and of psychoanalysis, most notably, Dreaming by the Book: Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams and the History of the Psychoanalytic Movement (with Lydia Marinelli, New York, 2003), Sites of the Unconscious: Hypnosis and the Emergence of the Psychoanalytic Setting (Chicago, 2013), and The Science of Walking. Investigations Into Locomotion in the Long Nineteenth Century (Chicago, 2020). His most recent book is entitled Freud gegen den Strich (Berlin, 2026). Photo: Andreas Mayer.

Adrian Daub is a professor of comparative literature and German studies at Stanford University, and the director of Stanford’s Program in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. His research focuses on the intersection of literature, music, and philosophy in the nineteenth century, and he is the author of several books published by academic presses. His writing has appeared in The Guardian, The New Republic, n+1, Longreads, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. Among his most recent book are The Cancel Culture Panic: How an American Obsession Went Global (Stanford University Press, 2024) and What Tech Calls Thinking: An Inquiry into the Intellectual Bedrock of Silicon Valley (FSG Originals x Logic, 2020).

Zhanna Kadyrova (b.1981, Brovary, Ukraine) is an interdisciplinary artist and member of “R.E.P.” group (Revolution Experimental Space). After graduating from the Taras Shevchenko State Art School in 1999, she received the Kazimir Malevich Artist Award and the Grand Prix of the Kyiv Sculpture Project (both 2012). She was awarded the Special Prize (2011), Main Prize (2013), and Special Prize – Future Generation International (2014), all from PinchukArtCentre.

Kadyrova’s practice engages various disciplines including sculpture, photo, video, and performance. In her work, the issue of context unravels to reveal the rhythm of History on the move - that of a world whose multiple layers disappear behind their immediacy. Often diverting the aesthetic canons of the socialist ideal still present in the heritage of contemporary Ukraine, Kadyrova’s perspective is partially informed by the plastic and symbolic values of urban building materials. Thus ceramics, glass, stone, and concrete enter the spotlight of her work.

Asha Bukojemsky is an independent curator and public programmer based in Los Angeles. Since 2017 she has produced Marathon Screenings, and in 2022 she initiated Kyiv to LA in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. She has worked for a range of organisations including the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles; The Photographers’ Gallery, London, UK; PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art, Montreal (formerly DHC/ART), and currently holds the position of Senior Art Program Specialist at LA Metro.

Oliver Polak is a stand-up comedian and writer. Half-German, half-Russian and Jewish: he certainly has all the ingredients needed for a third world war.

Oliver Polak’s fellowship project at the Thomas Mann House is titled "Stand Up For Comedy Across Borders." He aims to develop a show for comedy clubs in Los Angeles. In this show, he intends to make himself the subject, share his story, and perform his narrative night after night. Through his stand-up, Oliver seeks to engage in meaningful dialogue with Americans and challenge prejudices—including his own. He aims to explore both the humorous similarities and differences between cultures. His observations, reflections, and dialogues, along with the ups and downs of his journey, will be recorded like a diary, forming an experiential account that can lead to deeper insights.

Lauren Goshinski is a curator, cultural producer, DJ, and the Executive Director of dublab, the Los Angeles–based nonprofit radio station and arts platform broadcasting independent music and culture worldwide for over 26 years. Her work spans festivals, public programs, and site-responsive projects that connect artists, DJs, technologists, and communities across nightlife, sound art, and experimental music scenes. With a background shaping international programs such as VIA Festival and New Forms Festival, Goshinski advocates for music and “musicking” as a form of civic infrastructure—an approach that positions sound cultures as vital connective systems linking people, places, and cultural networks across cities and borders.

Thomas Meinecke is a writer, musician, and DJ based between Munich and in Marseille. Since 1986 he has published numerous acclaimed novels with Suhrkamp Verlag, most recently Odenwald (2024). In parallel to his literary work, he co-founded the influential German post-punk experimental band F.S.K. in 1980, whose albums have appeared since 2008 on Daniel Richter’s label Buback, most recently Topsy Turvy (2023). Among many other creative endeavors, Meinecke has collaborated on electronic music projects with influential German electronic music producer Move D. and worked extensively as a radio host and club DJ, performing in iconic venues such as Berghain, Robert Johnson, and Pudel Club. His interdisciplinary practice extends into curatorial and academic contexts, including the long-running discussion series Plattenspieler in Berlin and teaching appointments and residencies at universities in Europe and the United States. He received the Berlin Literature Prize in 2020.

Sanyu A. Mojola is Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs and the Maurice P. During Professor of Demographic Studies at Princeton University. She has held numerous fellowships, including at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. In 2016, she received the Distinguished Scholarly Book Award (Best Book of the Year) of the American Sociological Association. Her most recent book is entitled “Death by Design: Producing Racial Health Inequality in the Shadow of the Capitol” (University of California Press, 2025).

Margaryta Surzhenko is a writer. She graduated from the Interregional Academy of Personnel Management (IAPM) in Kyiv in 2012 with a degree in political science and published her first book about the war in Luhansk in 2014. In 2015, she founded a website featuring innovative fairy tales, which brings together more than 300 texts. Margaryta Surzhenko has published five novels. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, she has been living in Germany and teaching creative writing. During her time in Los Angeles, Margaryta Surzhenko reflects on her experiences with the war in Ukraine and the peculiarities of life in multicultural Germany, adding a transatlantic perspective. She processes these thoughts in prose form, focusing on advocating democratic values and a culture of communication that connects people. Surzhenko is a 2026 Thomas Mann Fellow.

Uwe Jean Heuser studied economics in Bonn and Berkeley, earned a Master of Public Administration at Harvard as a McCloy Scholar, and completed his doctorate in Cologne. He joined the editorial team of DIE ZEIT at the end of 1991, where he founded the Reform Workshop and headed the business editorial team for 20 years before founding the newspaper’s new “Green” section in 2021. He is an award-winning non-fiction author and serves as an honorary professor at Leuphana University. At the Thomas Mann House, Uwe Jean Heuser will deal with the climate discourse, which is highly ideologized and often ends in conflict instead of uniting society. Both in Germany and the United States, he will look for new transatlantic approaches that can create the basis for a new narrative for climate change that reaches a larger number of people.

Grégoire Roos has been Director for Europe and Russia at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) since fall 2025. Previously, he was Head of Political Dialogue and Political Innovation at the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt. In this role, he has built up the BMW Foundation’s political dialogue and practice for political innovation and advanced the Foundation’s work on climate issues. Grégoire Roos is passionate about art and is a member of the Board of Trustees of the non-profit organization International Arts & Artists (USA). Grégoire Roos is also a (non-resident) fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. Grégoire Roos studies the transformative impact of coalitions of public, private and philanthropic actors. These public-private-philanthropic partnerships (PPPPs) are relatively advanced in the United States, especially in California. His focus is on the possibilities of creating a political discourse based on science and art.

Morgane Llanque is a journalist and writer. Her debut non-fiction book, Diversity: Another History of Humankind (Vielfalt- Eine andere Geschichte der Menschheit), was published in 2025 and received a nomination for the Best Science Book of the Year Award. She studied history, politics and cultural journalism, and was a fellow of both the Catholic School of Journalism and the Heinrich Böll Foundation's Transatlantic Media Fellowship programme. She was also a fellow of the IJP (International Journalists' Programmes) in London. She writes for the magazine of the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen) and, amongst others, for Die Zeit, taz and Good Impact magazine, in which her column 'Histourism' appears. Morane Llanque is a 2026 Thomas Mann House Fellow.

Kim A Snyder is an Academy Award nominated, Emmy and Peabody Award-winning Director/Producer. Her latest feature documentary, The Librarians, premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, and won a 2026 Primetime Emmy® for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking. The Librarians has won 30 festival awards, was released theatrically in over 200 cities internationally, and broadcast on PBS/Independent Lens.

Her most recent short documentary, Death By Numbers, was nominated for a 2025 Academy Award®. Snyder’s other acclaimed films include Us Kids (Sundance 2020), Lessons From A School Shooting (Best Short Doc Tribeca 2018, Netflix Original), Newtown (Sundance 2016, Peabody Award, PBS/Independent Lens), and Welcome To Shelbyville (2009 PBS/Independent Lens). She associate produced the Academy Award®-winning short Trevor, which inspired The Trevor Project, a leading national nonprofit focused on LGBTQ+ youth suicide prevention.

Kim earned a master's degree in International Affairs from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and resides in New York City.

John F. Szabo is the City Librarian of the Los Angeles Public Library, which serves more than four million people—the largest population of any public library in the United States. He oversees the Central Library and 72 branches. Under his leadership, the Library’s major initiatives include those related to immigrant integration and citizenship, civic engagement, digital equity, and lifelong learning. He has expanded the library’s reach into the city’s diverse communities through partnerships with several community-based organizations. He has more than 30 years of leadership experience in public libraries, previously serving as the director of four libraries including the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System. Recognizing his “genuine love of community” and how he has aligned library services with the city’s priorities, John was named Library Journal’s 2025 Librarian of the Year. 

Taylor Dwyer is Curator of Feuchtwanger Memorial Library at the University of Southern California, where she manages the rare book and archival collection of Lion and Marta Feuchtwanger, German exile collections, and Holocaust and genocide materials. She provides a range of library services including reference, instruction, exhibitions, and academic programming. She completed her undergraduate degree in History at Chapman University, and her Master of Library and Information Science at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Nikki High is the founder and owner of Octavia’s Bookshelf in Pasadena, California. As an early reader, Nikki has always found safety in books, and her passion for books and storytelling continued to grow throughout her life. It is with this passion in mind and Nikki’s desire to create a literary and creative space she longed for as a child, Nikki opened the doors to Octavia’s Bookshelf on February 18, 2023. Octavia’s Bookshelf offers a highly curated selection of books across all genres written by BIPOC authors. When Nikki isn’t at the bookstore, you can find her somewhere reading (anywhere, really), working on a craft project, or hanging out with her husband and dogs, Freddie and Dayveon. 

Dr. Léa Steinacker is a social scientist and entrepreneur, who researches, teaches, and speaks about the intersection of technology with people, organizations, and the planet. She is the CEO of GaiaLogic AG, serves on the Board of Directors of Weleda AG and is a lecturer at the University of St. Gallen. Léa previously co-founded ada Learning, an upskilling and transformation company for the age of AI, and co-wrote the bestseller "Everything Everywhere All At Once: How AI Impacts Our World". She holds degrees from Princeton University, the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and the University of St. Gallen.    

Jodie Hopperton is a British American media executive based in Los Angeles, specializing in the intersection of product, technology, and news media. As the lead of the INMA Product & Tech Initiative, she explores how media organizations can leverage product thinking to drive growth, enhance customer experiences, and navigate the rapidly evolving AI ecosystem. Across her 20 years of international experience she has also lived in Paris, Madrid, and London and held leadership roles spanning technology startups and major media brands, including Director, EMEA Syndication & Licensing at The New York Times and Consultant COO at Global Editors Network. A sought-after speaker and moderator, Jodie is known for her engaging, insightful, and dynamic stage presence. With infectious enthusiasm, she brings energy and expertise to global conferences, leading discussions on AI, product strategy, and the future of news media, while inspiring audiences with her deep industry knowledge and global perspective.

Joan Weinstein is director of the Getty Foundation and Vice President, Institutional Program Planning. Since joining Getty, she has directed grant initiatives internationally related to art history, conservation, and museum practice. In 2010, she co-created PST ART, Getty’s region-wide art experience involving dozens of cultural organizations throughout Southern California and directed the project through its first three iterations. She led the $40 million LA Arts Recovery Fund during the pandemic and the LA Fire Relief Fund for artists and arts workers following the 2025 fires. Weinstein began her career as a professor of art history at the University of Pittsburgh and is the author of several books and numerous articles on the history of modern art in Weimar Germany. She holds a PhD in the history of art from the University of California, Los Angeles, and studied at the Phillips-Universität Marburg.

Kia Vahland has been an editor at the Süddeutsche Zeitung since 2008, where she was head of the art section until 2017 and co-founded the SZ opinion section in 2018. She studied art history and political science in Rome, Hamburg, and Dijon and worked as an editor for the magazine Art and the ZDF program “Willemsens Woche.” Vahland writes for Geo Epoche and is a columnist for Radio Bremen and the Swiss magazine Republik. She teaches at the Deutsche Journalistenschule and at LMU Munich. She is a 2026 Thomas Mann Fellow.

Erin Harkey is CEO of Americans for the Arts, where she drives the organization’s mission to advance the people, organizations, and systems supporting arts and culture across America through advocacy, research, and national convening. With more than 20 years of experience at the intersection of arts, public policy, and community development, she has built a career focused on strengthening the role of arts and culture in civic life. Prior to joining Americans for the Arts, Harkey served as Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, following leadership roles as First Deputy Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner for Programming. She also served as Senior Policy Advisor for Arts and Culture in the Mayor’s Office, advising on cultural policy and strategy across government in Chicago.