Berkeley, CA – The Foundation for Excellence in Higher Education (FEHE) is delighted to share that network scholar Prof. Josiah Ober, director of the Stanford Civics Initiative, has been awarded a prestigious 2025 Balzan Prize for his work connecting the characteristics of ancient Athenian democracy to the present day.
The Stanford Civics Initiative, a FEHE grantee, is an internal institute of Stanford University. It exists to prepare students for virtuous and effective citizenship through a series of superbly taught courses relevant to the ideas and practices of democratic citizenship. Prof. Ober is the Initiative’s founding director, and says, “FEHE support, both financial and advisory, was essential to the creation and development of the Stanford Civics Initiative, which is now a major program at Stanford University.”
The Balzan Foundation Prize Committee’s announcement honored Ober “for his groundbreaking research on the origins and functioning of Athenian democracy in classical times, which has had an influence far beyond the academic world.”
