Dan David Prize Verena Meier's research has been honored with the world's most prestigious history award
June 16, 2026
The Dan David Foundation is honoring the historical research of our colleague Verena Meier. The Dan David Prize is the world’s most highly endowed history award, which recognizes outstanding scholarship that illuminates the past and seeks to anchor public discourse in a deeper understanding of history. Each year, up to nine laureates receive $300,000 in recognition of their contributions to the study of the past and to support their future work. The Prize selection committee described Verena Meier as a rigorous scholar whose work gives voice to those who have been silenced, while also tackling the challenge of understanding how a social system can enable extermination, and highlighted her novel exploration of the long history of Roma and Sinti persecution in Europe. The award ceremony took place in Rome in early June.
Verena Meier is a historian whose research focuses on the Nazi genocide against the Sinti and Roma, as well as on antigypsyism in the 19th and 20th centuries. Her work examines how institutions of power – from the police and the church to transnational networks of intellectuals – put ideas of social order into practice, and how these processes shape inclusion, exclusion, and the boundaries of belonging in modern societies. In 2018, she began her research on the Nazi persecution of the Sinti and Roma of Magdeburg and its aftermath with a doctoral fellowship at the Research Centre on Antigypsyism. After completing her dissertation, which was awarded summa cum laude, she took up a postdoctoral position in the DFG-funded research group “Antigypsyism and Ambivalence in Europe (1850–1950).” Her subproject focuses on the “Transformations of the police’s antigypsyist discourse: from the ‘racial’ paradigm to genocidal practice (1850–1950).” In addition to her research, Verena Meier is active in academic teaching and international science communication. She develops courses on antigypsyism, Holocaust studies, oral history, and the culture of remembrance; participates in international research collaborations; and organizes academic conferences on issues related to the history of persecution, recognition, and compensation of Nazi injustice. Her work is characterized by a combination of archival-based fundamental research, international networking, and public history outreach.
In late 2025, Verena Meier’s dissertation, “Criminal Police and Genocide: The Nazi Persecution of Sinti and Roma in Magdeburg and the Allied and GDR Responses” (German title translated) was awarded the Dr. Karl A. Lamers Peace Foundation Prize. As co-editor, Verena Meier is also publishing an English-language collective volume on new approaches to the compensation of Nazi injustice. Both books are expected to be published in the second half of 2026 in open-access format as well as in print as volumes 8 and 9 of our series “Interdisciplinary Studies in Antigypsyism” by Heidelberg University Publishing (HeiUp).
The prize, established by the Dan David Foundation, is based at Tel Aviv University. The award honors outstanding (early-career) scholars and professionals in the middle of their careers to help them realize their potential – at a time when historical knowledge and the discipline of history are under attack, many university departments face closure, and budgets for research, archives, libraries, and museums are being cut or eliminated.
The Dan David Prize was established in 2001 by the late entrepreneur and philanthropist Dan David to recognize innovative and interdisciplinary work that contributes to the betterment of humanity. Following an open nomination process, the laureates are selected by an international panel of experts.
The late founder and namesake, Dan David, experienced persecution in Nazi-occupied and later communist-ruled Romania and went on to become a successful photographer. He later worked as an entrepreneur and philanthropist. Fascinated by instant photography, he built a company that introduced photo booths around the world. He had a keen interest in history and archaeology—areas of focus that also characterize his foundation.