CfN: CAUTG PhD Dissertation Prize 2018-2020

The CAUTG is calling for nominations for the CAUTG Prize for the Best PhD Dissertation in German Studies (for the period 2018 to 2020).

Note the new deadline: 13 November 2020.

The CAUTG PhD Dissertation Prize is normally awarded every other year, with two awards being a possibility in the event that submissions are found to include two outstanding dissertations from fields considered too different to allow fair comparison. The next prize is to be awarded at the Annual Meeting of the Association in May/June 2021 in Edmonton, for dissertations defended between 16 October 2018 and 15 October 2020.

Nomination Criteria: A nominated PhD dissertation must have been defended, in the specified time period (16 Oct 2018 to 15 Oct 2020), in a Canadian German department or program in any area of German Studies (cultural studies, linguistics, literature, second language acquisition) or as partial completion of a PhD degree in, for example, comparative literature, philosophy, or history. It should demonstrate strong original scholarship, and it may be written in English, French, or German.

Nomination Process: Self-nomination is not possible. Members of each PhD-granting department or program are asked to select one eligible dissertation for nomination. That choice is to be communicated, by 13 November 2020, to the chair of the dissertation-prize committee (Raleigh Whitinger, as below), by the graduate chair/coordinator (or by the department chair or his/her designate). That communication is to be accompanied by (a) an electronic version of the nominated dissertation (as pdf-, word-, or rtf document) and (b) a letter, not to exceed two pages (letter-size, single-spaced, 12 font), briefly outlining the dissertation’s merits (quoting, perhaps, comments by the examining committee or external reviewer). That letter may be authored by the department chair, the graduate-program chair, or by the dissertation supervisor, as the nominators see fit.

Selection Committee: After the submission deadline, the chair of the graduate-prize committee, in consultation with the president of the CAUTG, will appoint two other colleagues who are currently active faculty members in German programs at Canadian universities to constitute the selection committee and consider the nominated dissertations. We hope to have a final decision by the third week of January. Currently active German-program colleagues should feel free at any time to contact the prize-committee chair to volunteer to act on the selection committee, provided conflicts of interest do not rule out such participation.

Objectivity: The committee will ensure the optimal objectivity and fairness of the selection process and base its decision solely on the quality of the submitted dissertations.

The Prize: The award winners will receive an official CAUTG certificate and a cash award of $500. Winners are also eligible for the defraying of travel costs to the annual CAUTG meeting at which the award is granted.

Current Chair of Dissertation Prize Committee:
Raleigh Whitinger, Professor emeritus of German
Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies
University of Alberta
rwhiting@ualberta.ca