The winner of the 2006 Women in German Dissertation Award is Olga Trokhimenko (currently at UNC Wilmington, Ph.D. Duke), who will receive $500 for her dissertation on gender and humor in medieval culture, entitled " Women’s Laughter and the Performance of Virtue in Medieval German Discourse."
The prize committee reports, "The author reviews several theoretical orientations to the study of laughter/the performance of laughter as it is represented (in texts, in images), how texts attempt to elicit laughter, how laughter is interpreted or responded to—and how the response is gendered, i.e., control of women’s laughter corresponds to male control of female sexuality. She examines medieval religious, political, didactic, and literary discourses to uncover a tradition connecting laughter and “other activities of the female mouth” to sexual activity. She presents close readings of an impressive range of literary examples that reflect the contradictory messages to/about women (be virtuous and seductive at the same time). She concludes by examining the use of smiles on several sculptures depicting the wise and the foolish virgins to further support her arguments. The study focuses on intersections of gender with other categories of analysis, and it demonstrates solid and innovative interdisciplinary scholarship. It is an ambitious research project and we hope the author will continue to develop and refine the work she has done here."