Student Awards
Queen's Prize
The Queen's Prize is an annual award for the best B.A. thesis or M.A. thesis in the field of English Studies. The award was established by Queen Elizabeth II in 1965. The laureates are selected by a committee consisting of staff members and representatives of the British Embassy.
Winner 2025:
Lara Putensen
M.A. Thesis "Pop Goes Profanity: Vulgarity Trends in English Chart Hits from 2000 to 2024"
2024: Delphine Marie Wellié
2023: Lena Falk
2022: Carlotta Wolfram
2021: Kathrin Zander
2020: Sevin Mat
2019: Marvin Reimann
2018: Sophie Gnech
2017: Elisabeth Hampel
2016: Hannah Aengenvoort
2015: Inge Erhardt
2014: Mays, Inken
2013: Sell, Friederike
2012: Engel, Katharina
2011: Holakova, Lenka
2010: Meyer, Ariane
2009: Pätz, Alina
2008: Kurth, Vera Kristina
2007: Lieder, Bernadette
2006: Reeck, Doreen
2005: Langer, Caren Birgit
DAAD-Prize
The prize honours an international student at a German university who is doing well in her degree but is also engaged in social activities and local initiatives.Winner 2025:
2024: Hussein Morobeid
2023: Sepideh Tafazzoli
Ambassador's Award
Since 1992 the Embassy of the United States has awarded a highly prestigious prize every year to the student who wrote the best, most original and most convincing transdisciplinary MA or doctoral thesis in the field of North American studies and completed his or her degree with excellent results. Click here for further information.Winner 2024:
Luis Manuel Ontiveros Meza:
M.A. Thesis "Voices from the Mountains: Complicating Coal Country
Narratives through Local Journalism in Appalachia"
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Leonhard Flemisch, Thesis: „Drawing Testimony: Strategies of Documentary Representation in Joe Sacco’s Comic Paying the Land” (academic year 2023)
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Monique Mauel, Thesis: "‘Keep Calm and Keep Bleeding’: Twenty-First Century Representations of Menstruation on Screen“ (academic year 2023)
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Meropi Papagheorghe, Thesis: „A Play of Selfies: Cindy Sherman and Reluctant Autobiography on Instagram” (academic year 2023)
- Cara Krzesowik, "White Hat or Black Hat? Participatory Culture, Interactivity, and HBO's Westworld" (academic year 2017-18)
- Henrik Wolf, "Headcases: Neuronarratives in Contemporary American Literature" (academic year 2016-17)
- Luzia Katharina Ogureck, "#WeWantJustice – Black Advocacy in the Age of Twitter" (academic year 2015-16)
- Anne Katrin Elbert, "'Makin' a Way Outta No Way': Barack Obama, Race, and Performativity" (academic year 2014-15)
- Nico Völker, "The Wound that Will Never Heal: Professional Sports, Nostalgia, and the Battle for Brooklyn" (academic year 2013-14)
- Stefanie Esser, "The Galactic Right: Religion and Politics in U.S.-American Science Fiction Television" (academic year 2012-13)
- Stephanie Wagner, "'One Size Fits All' oder maßgeschneidert? Mikrofinanzierung in den USA und Bolivien" (academic year 2011-12)
- Philip Miessner, "Of Interest: Immigration Enforcement in the 'War on Terror'" (academic year 2010-2011)
- David Schumacher, "'You‘ve Got to Be the Song You Sing'? Music in Twentieth-Century African American Fiction" (academic year 2009-2010)
- Daniel Holder, "From 'Black' to 'Red'? W.E.B. DuBois and Paul Robeson's Responses to McCarthyism" (academic year 2008-2009)
- Lotta Maroscheck, “Remember to Draw the Color(ed) Line: Black History and Memory in Aaron McGruder`s Cartoon The Boondocks“ (academic year 2007-2008)
- Katharina Ricke, “/Blacks in a White Man's War/: Afroamerikanische Presse im Bürgerkrieg“ (academic year 2006-2007)
- Anne Lümers, “Welt-Erfahrungen: die Reiseberichte von Thomas Stevens und Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman (‚Nellie Bly’)“ (academic year 2005-2006)
- Christian Klöckner, „’3000 some poems disguised as people’ – 9/11 and Poetry: Significations“ (academic year 2004-2005)
- Stefan Werning: “’Translating narrative into code’ – Versuch einer Analyse interaktiver Medien und ihrer kulturellen Effekte (am Beispiel von Computer- und Videospielen)“ (academic year 2003-2004)
- Anne-Kathrin Glatz, “”A New Grand Strategy in U.S. Foreign Policy? The 2002 National Security Strategy in Comparative Perspective” (academic year 2002-2003)
- Christoph Heumann „The Concept of Freedom in US-American Utopian Fiction after 1945” (academic year 2001-2002)
- Julia Apitzsch, „Postmoderne Identitäten im kulturellen Kontext bei Thomas Pynchon und Don DeLillo“ (academic year 2000-2001)
- Nicole Weimer, „The Chicago Tribune: Untersuchungen zum Rollenverständnis der amerikanischen Presse im 20. Jahrhundert“ (academic year 1999-2000)
- Wibke Reger, „’High Yellow to Damn Black’ – ‚Colorism’ als Phänomen der amerikanischen Kultur und seine Auswirkungen auf die Literatur“ (academic year 1998-1999)
- Andrea Porschen, „Kulturhistorische Studien zum Bild des Vanishing Indian in indianischen Romanen der Gegenwart“ (academic year 1997-1998)
- Annelies Rokitte, „Studien zum Bild der Sowjetunion in der Rhetorik des amerikanischen Präsidenten Ronald Regan im Jahre 1983“ (academic year 1996-1997)
- Barbara Vieser (jetzt Neuhoff), „Modernität und regionales Bewusstsein in der Kurzprosa von Bobbie Ann Mason und Lee Smith“ (academic year 1995-1996)
- Susanne Krämer, „Die Zeitstruktur in den Romanen Toni Morrisons“ (academic year 1994-1995)
- Andrea Grugel, „Zuni – eine persistente Gesellschaft mit Perspektive?“ (academic year 1993-1994)
- Dr. Michael Stötzel, „Bodenerosion in der Landwirtschaft: ihre Kontrolle im amerikanischen Recht“ (academic year 1992-1993)
- Anne Freihoff, „Verlautbarungen der Präsidenten Wilson, F.D. Roosevelt und Bush zum Eintritt der USA in den Krieg: 1017, 1941 und 1991“ (academic year 1991-1992)