Winner of a prestigious National Jewish Book Award (previous recipients include Philip Roth) for his translation of A Mortuary of Books. The Rescue of Jewish Culture after the Holocaust by Elisabeth Gallas, Alex has twenty years’ experience translating the work of German-speaking scholars. He has translated more than 40 books from German into English in the social sciences and humanities, his work attracting high praise from luminaries such as Hans Joas, Manuela Spindler, Wolfgang Reinhard, Kai Hafez and Hans Kippenberg. His translations are regularly lauded in academic journals:

· “Skinner’s translation is exemplary; the clear writing has none of the awkwardness found in less skilled translations” (Rafael Chaiken in Publishing Research Quarterly on A Mortuary of Books. The Rescue of Jewish Culture after the Holocaust by Elisabeth Gallas)

· “Alex Skinner has done a first-rate job of translating the papers into a flowing and coherent English” (Journal of Contemporary European Studies on Secularization and the World Religions by Hans Joas and Klaus Wiegandt)

· “Now we have an excellent English translation” (Philip Smith in International Sociology on The Cultural Values of Europe by Hans Joas and Klaus Wiegandt)

· “Translated into very readable English by Alex Skinner” (Global Media and Communication on The Myth of Media Globalization by Kai Hafez)

· “…finely translated…” (Kevin P. Spicer in Journal of Social History on Losing Heaven: Religion in Germany Since 1945 by Thomas Großbölting)

Rounding out this picture of excellence, Alex’s work is enriched by an MA in German (and Scandinavian Studies) from the world-renowned University of Edinburgh, for which he was awarded the first-ever “first” in his degree combination in the university’s history. Alex went on to gain an MSc in social anthropology from the London School of Economics and Political Science, one of the world’s leading social science institutions.

The English-speaking countries have a poor record of producing outstanding language graduates who go on to become translators, and Alex is one of the very few of these to specialize exclusively in the social sciences and humanities.

Most important of all, rather than merely translating texts from German into English, Alex writes an entirely new text in English. Far from the stumbling, inelegant translations often made of German social scientific and historical writings, Alex’s work benefits from his rare combination of relevant knowledge and superb writing skills. He is equally adept at producing translations in American and British English (his award-winning translation of A Mortuary of Books was composed entirely in U.S. English).