German students win Bithell Prizes
Award-Winning Students in the Department of German
The Department of German is delighted to announce the double success of students from the Department in the Bithell Prizes. Run by the Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies, the prizes are awarded for the best performance in German in the University of London’s BA and MA/MRes examinations. The Alice Emily Bithell Prize has been awarded to our undergraduate student Ghoncheh Dolatshahi for the best BA performance; while the Jethro Bithell Prize has been awarded to our Master’s student Steven Jefferson for the best MA performance.
Ghoncheh Dolatshahi wrote a dissertation as part of her BA on ‘Putting Kafka’s Das Schloß into Perspective: A Study of Narrative Form’. Since graduating, she has gone on to do an MA at the University of Oxford, and is expecting to embark on a PhD at the University of Cambridge in 2013-2014. Ghoncheh’s reaction on being told of the award was ‘That’s wonderful news! It’s a lovely surprise to see that my efforts are still bearing fruit.’
Steven Jefferson presented a dissertation for the MRes in German and Comparative Literature on ‘Imagining Memories: Accounts of War and Authoritative Authorship’. He is currently registered at the Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies as a doctoral student, working on the shifting representations of the expulsion of ethnic minorities from Eastern Europe in German and Polish literature and cultural production after 1945.
The awarding panel noted that it was exciting to see that students are still studying German in such depth and producing work of a standard that Jethro and Alice Emily Bithell would have appreciated. The Department added: “It’s been wonderful to see that our students are producing the best results in German in the University of London, at both BA and MA level – a real testament to the strength of the Department, and all the hard work our students put it to helping make our programmes such a success. As the profiles of both Ghoncheh and Steven show, studying German at King’s is clearly a springboard to a further career.”
For more information on the prizes, see the
official prize page at the Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies.