Peckard Prize Winner 2026

The College is pleased to announce the winner of the Peter Peckard Prize 2026.

Congratulations to Anna Viehhauser of Clare College, University of Cambridge, for winning the Peter Peckard Memorial Prize 2026.

Her essay Roma and Sinti Activism and Holocaust Memory Politics in the Federal Republic of Germany, 1985-1995 is an expansive analysis of national narratives of belonging, archival practice, and activism. 

The Peter Peckard Memorial Prize was established in honour of one of Magdalene's most distinguished eighteenth-century Masters, Dr Peter Peckard, a leading campaigner for the abolition of the slave trade, and was endowed thanks to the generosity of two Magdalene Members. The prize is awarded annually for an essay or similar composition discussing egregious forms of human exploitation in the world today and the actions needed to eliminate it.

This essay is a persuasive, and scholarly treatment of the Roma and Sinti protests about their exclusion from Germany in the 1980s and 90s and the failure to recognise their suffering during the Nazi era. It was commended for its ability to grapple with multiple facets of the years-long debate surrounding the treatment of non-Jewish victims of Nazism.

The College would like to extend its warmest congratulations to Anna. 

Read the full essay here.