The Westinska Prize to Constanze Ackermann-Boström

2020-10-21

Constanze Ackermann-Boström is awarded the Westinska prize of 30,000 SEK by the Kungl. Humanistiska Vetenskaps-Samfundet i Uppsala. She is awarded the prize for her doctoral thesis, which she wrote and defended at the Department of Modern Languages.

The thesis focuses on the lived multilingualism of a group of young Russian-German adults, who as children migrated together with their families from post-Soviet states to the newly reunited Germany. Ackermann-Boström uses lingusitic ethnography to give a voice to people from this linguistic minority.

Their stories problematise the ambivalent attitude towards their own multilingualism, which is not viewed as an asset outside the household and the family. At the same time as there is a pride over the Russian language and the Russo-German identity, they are confronted with the lingustic ideologies of the majority society, which only allows one type of Germanness. The thesis also shows how these young adults are being marginalised, how the authorities' handling of integration falls short and how the school - as the first interface with the new country - fails.

Ackermann-Boström continues her research at the Hugo Valentin Centre, where she studies the group young Tornedalians, Kvens and Lantalaiset living in Stockholm, their linguistic practices, attitudes towards Meänkieli and identity constructions.

The Westinska prize is administered by the Kungl. Humanistiska Vetenskaps-Samfundet i Uppsala and is awarded to notably deserved doctoral theses at Uppsala University in two areas, the philosophical-historical and the philologic. This year the award sum is 30,000 SEK.

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Last modified: 2021-09-14