GEWI Prize for Theses
The GEWI Prize for Theses, which has been awarded since 2020, is presented once a year to students who have produced outstanding theses (doctoral theses, Master’s theses). The aim of this prize is both to raise the profile of students’ achievements – both within and outside the university – and to support students who are pursuing an academic career.
In addition to the cash prize, the first-place graduates are given the opportunity to publish their work in the ‘GEWI Ausgezeichnet’ series (Graz University Library Publishing, a quality-assured publication).
About the Prize
Each year, the Faculty of Humanities awards the GEWI Prize for academic theses to recognise the best Master’s theses and doctoral dissertations. Particular consideration is given to theses whose subject matter is of great social relevance. The Faculty Management selects the six best theses from all submissions. The award-winning graduates receive cash prizes, and the theses of the main prize winners are published. The GEWI Prize award ceremony takes place annually at a formal event.
Prize money for the best Master’s theses:
- Prize: €1,000 (+ publication of the thesis*)
- Prize: €700
- Prize: €500
Prize money for the best doctoral theses:
- Prize: €1,500 (+ publication of the thesis*)
- Prize: €1,000
- Prize: €750
Quality-assured publication is provided by Library Publishing Graz, a member of the Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association.
(*Subsidies towards printing costs for publications with other publishers cannot be granted).
The deadline for applications for the GEWI Prize has passed.
The new deadlines for the 2027 GEWI Prize will be published here in autumn 2026.
Master’s theses
Application documents:
Documents for graduates of a Master’s degree programme or teacher training programme:
- A copy of the Master’s thesis certificate with a grade of ‘Very Good’
- An essay outlining the significance of the thesis for research and society (The essay must be written by the applicant in German and should be approximately 3 pages/1,200 words in length.)
- Recommendation from the supervisor
- A brief letter of recommendation from the supervisor (max. 1,500 characters including spaces; reasons why the thesis is suitable for an award; academic findings; (societal) relevance of the topic; reasons for publication)
- Report on the Master’s thesis by a person with expertise in the subject area and teaching authorisation (venia docendi) (professors and habilitated academics at the faculty); a list of possible candidates at the Faculty of Humanities can be found here. (max. 2,500 characters including spaces; (second) reference for the final thesis, including mark)
Applicants should be willing to have their final thesis published.
Target group: Graduates of the following Master’s programmes at the Faculty of Humanities:
- Ancient History & Classical Studies
- English and American Studies
- Archaeology
- Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian
- Digital Humanities
- European Ethnology
- German Studies
- History
- Greek
- Conference Interpreting
- Art History
- Latin
- Musicology
- Philosophy
- Political, Economic and Legal Philosophy (PELP)
- Romance Studies
- Russian
- Slovenian
- Linguistics
- Translation
- Translation & Consecutive Interpreting
Graduates of the following joint degree/double degree and inter-faculty Master’s programmes:
- European Joint Master’s Programme in English and American Studies
- Joint Master’s Programme in South-Eastern European Studies (for theses with a humanities focus)
- Joint Master’s Programme in Translation
- Joint Master’s Programme in Jewish Studies – History of Jewish Cultures
- Joint Master’s Programme in the History of South-Eastern Europe
- Joint Master’s Programme in Medieval and Early Modern German Philology
- Double Degree Programme in Political, Empirical and Legal Philosophy (PELP)
- Applied Ethics
- Global Studies (for work with a humanities focus)
- Interdisciplinary Gender Studies
Important! Only applications from graduates
- who were primarily enrolled at the University of Graz and
- who had a supervisor from the Faculty of Humanities.
Information on data protection can be found here. Only theses submitted for the first time will be considered for the awards. It is not possible to submit the same thesis in two or more award cycles. Only theses that have not received any other awards or prizes will be honoured. There is no legal entitlement to the GEWI Prize.
Doctoral theses
Application documents:
- An essay outlining the significance of the work for research and society (The essay must be written by the applicant in German and should be approximately 3 pages/1,200 words in length.)
- Reports from both supervisors (grade from both supervisors: ‘Very Good’)
- A letter of recommendation from one supervisor (max. 1,500 characters; reasons why the thesis is suitable for an award; academic findings; (societal) relevance of the topic; reasons for publication)
Applicants should be willing to have their theses published.
Target group: Graduates of the following doctoral programmes at the University of Graz
- Doctoral programme in Philosophy
- Doctoral programme in Antiquity and Modernity in a European Context
Important! Only applications from graduates
- who were primarily enrolled at the University of Graz and
- who had a supervisor from the Faculty of Humanities.
Information on data protection can be found here. Only theses submitted for the first time will be considered for the awards. It is not possible to submit the same thesis in two or more award cycles. Only theses that have not received any other awards or prizes will be considered for the award. There is no legal entitlement to the GEWI Prize.
2026
1st Prize for Dissertations: Dijana Simić (joint winner)
Intimacy and (Counter-)Public Sphere. A gender-oriented analysis of Bosnian-Herzegovinian prose of the ‘New Sensibility’ movement after 2000
Interview.
Essay.
1st Prize for Dissertations: Nikol Stopić (joint winner)
‘Once upon a crime… An analysis of the use of quoting frames to create the story of the trial through intertextuality and voice’
Interview.
Essay.
1st Prize for Master’s Theses: Kathrin Hirsch (joint winner)
Reading Atmosphere. A methodological framework for analysing literary atmospheres using the example of Elfriede Jelinek
Interview.
Essay.
1st Prize for Master’s Theses: Paloma Ana Pulijć (joint winner)
Behavioural Influence in Climate Policy: Ethical Dimensions and Practical Challenges of Using Nudges for Climate Change Mitigation
Interview.
Essay.
2nd Prize for Master’s Theses: Finn Markart
Levelling Up Language Skills: Effects of Communicative Video Games on L2 English Oral Fluency, Motivation, and Learner Perceptions
Interview.
Essay.
3rd prize for Master’s theses: Saskia Terbrüggen
Women, Power, Media Discourse: Constructions of Female Agency in Right-wing Terrorism in Germany, using the example of Beate Zschäpe
Interview.
Essay.
2025
1st Prize for Doctoral Theses: Hanna Stein
‘Idiosyncratic and Useful Amateur Film(s)’. Creative and Pragmatic Practices and Representations of Everyday Life in Yugoslav Ciné Club Productions of the 1960s and 1970s
Essay.
Interview.
1st Prize for Master’s Theses: Hanna Gottlieb-Zimmermann
‘(Wo)Men Matter – A Comparison of Personal Texts by Women and Medical Texts by Men in 17th-Century England on the Topics of Pregnancy and Birth’
Essay.
Interview.
2nd Prize for Master’s Theses: Viktoria Andrea Zehentner (joint winner)
Growing Up in Noricum: Childhood in the Provinces from an Interdisciplinary Perspective
Essay.
Interview.
2nd Prize for Master’s Theses: Anja Fuchs (joint winner)
Art and Artificial Intelligence – On the Algorithmisation of a Vocation and the Anthropomorphisation of a Technology
Essay.
Interview.
3rd Prize for Master’s Theses: Melanie Loitzl
Directional Expressions in German. On the directional adverbs ‘auffi’, ‘obi’, ‘ummi’ and ‘aussi’ in Bavarian
Essay.
Interview.
2024
1st Prize for Doctoral Theses: Rutger Guillaume Lazou
, ‘What is Owed to the Losers of the Energy Transition? The Case of Fossil Fuel Reserve Owners’
1st Prize for Master’s Theses (joint winners): Julia Maria Aigner
“Loving, Talking, Being Music: Fan Discourse and Its Role in Identity Construction in Different Music Genres”
1st Prize for Master’s Theses (joint winners): Hannah Stein and Angèle Van Reeth
, “On Dynamics, Dichotomies and Reality: Historical-Epistemological Studies on Jörn Rüsen’s ‘Grundzüge einer Historik’ (1983–1989)”
2nd Prize for Master’s Theses (joint winners): Antonia Gösweiner
“Facial Expressions and Gestures in Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition”
2nd prize for Master’s theses (joint winners): Eva Present
, “August Klingemann’s *Nachtwachen. Von Bonaventura*. An investigation into the novel’s satirical style and its interweaving of themes and motifs”
3rd prize for Master’s theses: Hanna Wäger
, “Wiped Away? A cultural-anthropological approach to the invisibility of women* in the cleaning industry”
2023
1st Prize for Doctoral Theses: Markus Seethaler
, “Ethical Intuitionism and Moral Dissent” (Graz University Library Publishing, 2023)
2nd Prize for Doctoral Theses: Sally Baumann
, “quantae miracula pompae vidimus – On the Form and Function of Ekphrastic Descriptions in Claudian’s Political and Contemporary Historical Poetry”
1st Prize for Master’s Theses: Gerlinde Gangl
, “German Legal Vocabulary Treasures (Leykam Universitätsverlag Bücher, 2025)
: An onomasiological, project-oriented analysis of a formative source of imagery in contemporary German”
2nd Prize for Master’s Theses: Julia Kaidisch
“Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten, a Pioneer of Artistic Research? A Comparative Study of the *Aesthetica* and Contemporary Discourse on Insight through the Arts”
3rd Prize for Master’s Theses: Natalija Milovanović
“‘Auf Unsrisch’. Goran Vojnović in translation.
An analysis of the German translation of *Vaters Land*.”
2022
1st Prize for Doctoral Theses: Susanne Katharina Christ
, “Fictions of Dementia: Narrative Modes for Presenting Dementia in Anglophone Novels” (de Gruyter, 2022)
Essay
Podcast
1st Prize for Doctoral Theses: Dimitri Smirnov
, “Auditory Violence. Literary Sounds in Postcolonial Prose Fiction” (Graz University Library Publishing, 2022)
Essay
Podcast
1st Prize for Master’s Theses: Christina Sophie Bäck
, “Cultures of Memory within Italophone Migration Literature: An Analysis of Memories in the Literary Works of Shirin Ramzanali Fazel and Igiaba Scego” (Graz University Library Publishing, 2022)
Essay
Podcast
1st Prize for Master’s Theses: Marco Patrick Jandl
, “University Culture of Remembrance in Austria after 1945: The Case of the University of Graz” (Clio Verlag Graz, in press)
Essay
Podcast