The German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst – DAAD) is awarding the prestigious Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm Prize for 2022 to the Togolese academic Dr Kokou Azamede. This year, the DAAD is also using the eponymous Early Career Talent Prize to honour Hungarian Germanist Dr Gabriella Perge. In addition to the prize money respectively amounting to 10,000 and 3,000 euros, the prize winners are being awarded a research stay in Germany. 

‘The excellent teaching and research provided by this year’s prize winner and the new talent prize winner demonstrate the wide range and innovative capacity of German Studies at higher education institutions across the world. It’s a special pleasure for me that, for the first time, the prize is being awarded to an outstanding Germanist from Togo, and is thus going to Sub-Saharan Africa. Dr Kokou Azamede and Dr Gabriella Perge are involved in quite different specialisms, which corroborate the diverse academic contribution that international German Studies makes to dissemination of the German language and culture’, said DAAD President Professor Joybrato Mukherjee. 

‘A common language creates the basis for mutual understanding. These Germanists who impart the German language and culture on a global basis are therefore important bridge builders. Dr Kokou Azamede and Dr Gabriella Perge have made an enormous contribution to the global networking of German Studies. Their work in coming to terms with colonialism and the significance of multilingualism has provided momentous substantive impetus. We at the Federal Foreign Office are delighted to acknowledge their outstanding research and teaching activities by awarding them the Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm Prize’, said Katja Keul, Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office (Auswärtiges Amt – AA). 

The prize winners

The prize money of 10,000 euros for the Grimm Prize goes to Kokou Azamede, who teaches and conducts research at the German Department of the University of Lomé in Togo. His work is focused on the association of literary and cultural studies with colonial and missionary history, and transcultural contact situations. As an expert and interdisciplinary consultant, Azamede is also in demand regarding the discussion surrounding the return of cultural artefacts from the colonial era; both among African Germanists and historians, and among European institutions. The prize winner is extensively networked in Germany and is involved in a German Studies institutional partnership with the University of Bayreuth. This attribution of the Grimm Prize to Dr Kokou Azamede makes it the first time that the award goes to Sub-Saharan Africa.

Gabriella Perge receives the prize money of 3,000 euros for the Grimm new talent award. She completed her doctorate with a thesis on receptive multilingualism. Since 2017, she has worked as a research associate at the German Studies Institute at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest (ELTE), the largest and most prestigious university in Hungary. Numerous research stays have enabled her to retain close professional interchange with German Studies in the German language. She is also actively involved in professional associations, both in Hungary and internationally.

The Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm Prize and Talent Prize

The DAAD awards the Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm Prizes to recognise international academics and researchers who, in addition to their academic performance, are particularly committed to international cooperation in the fields of German Studies and German as a foreign language. The award jury is the Advisory Council on German Studies at the DAAD, which advises the DAAD on all aspects of funding German Studies and German at higher education institutions. The prizes are financed by funds from the Federal Foreign Office (Auswärtiges Amt – AA).

The Grimm Prizes for 2022 will be presented in Paderborn on Tuesday 27 September as part of the German Conference of Germanists. Journalists are very welcome to attend, and the prize winners will be available in advance for press interviews.