PhD candidate Sabine Zimmermann has been awarded a SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship for her dissertation research project, The Refugee in Contemporary German-language Literature.
Arguing that literature exposes how the mobility of those in need of refuge is impacted by powerful decision makers who are reluctant to grant refuge, the study draws on interdisciplinary views pertaining to the mobility paradigm, notions of personhood, and the concept of place. Zimmermann’s findings underscore how neither European locals, nor privileged migrants, nor refugees can be considered pure problems or assets for any place. At the same time, problematic notions of static places inhabited by supposedly homogenous groups of individuals are challenged.
