The Waterloo Centre for German Studies (WCGS) is pleased to announce the shortlist for its annual Book Prize.
The WCGS Book Prize was established in 2017 to recognize first-time authors whose scholarly work contributes substantially to our understanding of any aspect of German-speaking society. The prize foregrounds good writing, scholarly relevance, originality, and the ability to reach audiences beyond the academic sphere.
This year’s shortlist, drawn from books published in 2019, demonstrates once again the vitality and broad scope of the research being done in German studies today. The finalists for the prize are:
- Matthew Birkhold (The Ohio State University). Characters Before Copyright: The Rise and Regulation of Fan Fiction in Eighteenth-Century Germany (Oxford University Press).
- Kata Gellen (Duke University). Kafka and Noise: The Discovery of Cinematic Sound in Literary Modernism (Northwestern University Press).
- Seth Howes (University of Missouri). Moving Images on the Margins: Experimental Film in Late Socialist East Germany (Camden House).
- Richard N. Lutjens, Jr. (Texas Tech University). Submerged on the Surface: The Not-So-Hidden Jews of Nazi Berlin, 1941–1945 (Berghahn).
- Philipp Nielsen (Sarah Lawrence College). Between Heimat and Hatred: Jews and the Right in Germany, 1871-1935 (Oxford University Press).
- Zef M. Segal (Open University of Israel). The Political Fragmentation of Germany: Formation of German States by Infrastructures, Maps, and Movement, 1815–1866 (Palgrave).
- Tyler Whitney (University of Michigan). Eardrums: Literary Modernism as Sonic Warfare (Northwestern University Press).
The winner, who receives a CAD $2,000 prize, will be announced the week of January 25, 2021. For inquiries, please contact the Waterloo Centre for German Studies. For further information, please go to the WCGS Book Prize page.