Patrick Stevenson has been awarded the DAAD Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm Prize

The prize includes €10,000 and a four-week research visit to a German university. The DAAD's president, Professor Stefan Hormuth, will hand over the prize in Bonn on 3 November 2009, in the presence of the rector of the university of Bonn, Professor Jürgen Fohrmann, and distinguished honorary guests.

Patrick Stevenson is the Professor of German and Linguistic Studies at the University of Southampton and is its Head of Research in Modern Languages. He is one of the most prominent and versatile German linguists throughout the non-German-speaking regions of Europe.

He gained international recognition through the standard-setting publication “Variation in German: A Critical Approach to German Sociolinguistics” (1990, German Edition 1998) which he co-authored with Stephen Barbour. His book “Language and German Disunity: A Sociolinguistic History of East and West in Germany, 1945-2000” (2002) contains an extensive and critical treatise of the linguistic aspects of the division and unity of Germany. The main focus of his research is on the politics of language in Germany and issues relating to the role of the German language in preserving and promoting national and ethnic identities in 'post-national' Europe. Patrick Stevenson has acquired a high standing in the British professional community and beyond. He has made valuable contributions to profiling and networking German linguistic research in the fields of international sociolinguistics and general linguistics.

The annual Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm Prize of the DAAD is awarded to non-German scientists, academics and researchers for their outstanding contributions to German literature and language studies, German as a foreign language, and German cultural studies. This year marks the 15th anniversary of the prize, which is awarded to honour those who have made particular contributions to international academic cooperation and cultural understanding through their teaching and research activities outside Germany.

Journalists are welcome to attend the prize ceremony on 3 November at 5:00 p.m. at the Bonn Universitätsclub; the prizewinner will be available for interviews.

Contact: Friederike Schomaker, DAAD, Fachliche Lektorenbetreuung,
tel.: +49 228 / 882 650, e mail: schomaker@daad.de
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