Ute Frevert

Managing Director, Max Planck Institute for Human Development

Ute Frevert holds a PhD in modern history and has taught at various universities in Germany and the US. Before becoming the managing director of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin in 2008, she was a full professor at Yale University. She has published numerous books in English and German, some of which have been translated into Japanese, Chinese and Arabic. She is a member of the British Academy as well as two national academies in Germany, and holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Tampere, Finland.

Written by Ute Frevert

Medieval manuscript illustration of a person in stocks with two figures nearby, one in red with a basket.

The history of humiliation points to the future of human dignity

Humiliation requires a complicit audience. To become truly ‘decent societies’, we need to educate people against joining in

by Ute Frevert