2023 Winners of the Cecilia and Late George Piller Graduate Research Award

The Waterloo Centre for German Studies is happy to announce the winners of the 2023 Piller Award.

The winners are:
 

• Myrto Provida, PhD candidate with the Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies - Feminist Discourses in Contemporary German Films by Women. With women gaining ground in the German film industry as writers, directors, and producers (and often all of the above), and with more stories of women's experiences being told on the big screen, this dissertation project examines the interplay between public discourses on feminism in Germany and contemporary cinema by women filmmakers. Through a close analysis of three films from the past decade, this research will provide insight into how films made by German women engage with public discourses on feminism and gender: do these films reproduce, modify, or critique the female images constructed in the public discourse?
• Erica Swyers, PhD candidate with the Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies - Investigating Task-based Learning in Asynchronous Online German Instruction. Taking a task-based approach, this project explores the design and implementation of online learning modules in undergraduate German language courses. Participants complete online tasks in German during which they engage in meaningful communication with others, and they evaluate their experiences through interviews and surveys. The results of this study will inform future research and teaching practices in foreign language learning as well as online learning more generally.

The Cecilia and Late George Piller Graduate Research Awards were established to support excellent graduate students in the Faculty of Arts doing research into any aspect of German Studies.

The winners, chosen from a set of very strong applications, demonstrate the high calibre of the research into German studies being conducted by graduate students in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Waterloo.

Each winner will receive a $4,000 prize to help fund their research.

For further information, please visit the Cecilia and Late George Piller Graduate Research Award website.

For inquiries, please contact the Waterloo Centre for German Studies (wcgs@uwaterloo.ca).